Chapter 6 - THE FLOWERS WERE A MAP
Ruby repaired the uprooted plant with Alessio that afternoon.
He had men guarding every hedge.
Ruby did not notice.
Children accepted protection easily when adults did not teach them to fear the reason.
She patted soil around the roots.
“Mommy said flowers remember.”
Alessio looked at her.
“What do they remember?”
Ruby shrugged.
“Where they sleep.”
He almost smiled.
Then she moved three feet to the right.
“This one is Daddy.”
A white rose.
She pointed to another.
“Mommy.”
A pink peony.
Another.
“Ruby.”
Lavender.
Alessio frowned.
“Did Mommy tell you that?”
“Yes.”
Ruby moved along the flower bed.
“Uncle.”
Alessio froze.
There was a black dahlia.
He had never noticed it.
“Which uncle?”
Ruby shrugged.
“Garden uncle.”
Alessio crouched.
“Did you meet him?”
“No.”
“Mommy talked about him?”
Ruby nodded.
“Bad flowers.”
Alessio stopped asking.
Ruby was three.
He would not turn her memories into interrogation.
But the phrase stayed.
Garden uncle.
That evening, Alessio brought Damian to the garden.
He did not mention Ruby.
“Look.”
Damian studied the flower beds.
“What am I looking for?”
“A pattern.”
They stood on the greenhouse steps.
From above, the eastern garden changed.
The flower groups were not decorative.
They formed positions.
White roses at the north wall.
Lavender near the fountain.
Black dahlias beside the eastern hedge.
Peonies in a curved line toward the old carriage house.
Damian narrowed his eyes.
“This is the old estate.”
Alessio looked at him.
Damian pointed.
“Before your father rebuilt it.”
He remembered old plans from security renovations.
“The roses are the main house.”
“Lavender?”
“The fountain courtyard.”
“The black flowers?”
Damian’s face changed.
“The old guesthouse.”
Alessio stared.
The guesthouse had burned thirty years earlier.
The foundation still existed beneath part of the eastern lawn.
Serena had planted black dahlias exactly where it once stood.
“Get shovels.”
They dug after midnight.
Not servants.
Not gardeners.
Alessio, Damian, and two men Alessio trusted enough to watch but not enough to explain.
Beneath the dahlias they hit stone.
An old staircase.
The entrance had been covered long before Serena built her garden.
They cleared it.
At the bottom stood a rusted iron door.
No lock.
Inside was a narrow cellar.
Empty wine racks lined one wall.
At the back was another room.
Someone had used it recently.
A chair.
A lantern.
Cigarette ash.
A bottle of whiskey less than a year old.
Damian picked it up.
“Serena came here.”
Alessio saw her scarf hanging from a nail.
He recognized it.
Dark green silk.
Missing since before her death.
On the table sat a carved wooden box.
No lock.
Inside were three things.
Gabriel’s old thorn ring.
A photograph.
And a dried black rose.
Alessio picked up the photograph.
Serena stood beside a man near the river.
The man’s face was partly turned.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
But unmistakable.
Gabriel.
Alive.
Serena had not lied.
On the back was no writing.
Only a date burned into the edge.
Nine months before Serena died.
Damian stared at the image.
“Jesus.”
Alessio looked at him.
“You never saw him?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
Damian met his eyes.
“Yes.”
The cellar creaked above them.
One guard called down.
“Boss.”
Alessio looked up.
“What?”
“We found another entrance.”
“Where?”
“Outside the wall.”
That meant someone could enter beneath the garden without crossing the estate.
Serena had discovered a hidden road into Alessio’s home.
No wonder she was afraid.
Then Damian found scratches beneath the table.
Five vertical lines.
A sixth crossed through them.
A tally.
Beside them was the thorn symbol.
And beneath it:
RUBY.
Not written on paper.
Carved into wood.
Alessio’s face changed.
Damian stepped closer.
“Alessio.”
He touched the carving.
“Fresh?”
One of the guards examined it.
“Not new. Months at least.”
Serena had died eleven months earlier.
The carving could have been made before.
Or after.
Alessio looked toward the tunnel leading beyond the estate wall.
Someone had been beneath his daughter’s garden.
Someone had carved her name into the dark.
And Alessio finally understood what Serena had been trying to tell him.
May you like
The danger had never needed to enter the estate.
It had already been underneath it.
