Chapter 9
They returned to the Bellacorte estate before dawn.
Emma was safe.
Sarah checked herself.
Then checked again.
The girl slept curled around a stuffed rabbit.
One red sock remained inside Sarah’s overnight bag.
The other was missing.
Sarah remembered removing both after breakfast two days earlier.
One disappeared before David’s attack.
Not after.
That meant someone entered the Bennett house or had access through family.
Margaret.
David.
Staff.
Daniel’s people.
Or someone none of them knew.
Arthur placed Vittorio’s ring on the library table.
Daniel stood across from him.
The brothers looked almost identical in silhouette.
Sarah sat between them.
No throne.
No head of table.
Deliberate.
“Who has Father’s ring?” Arthur asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“I thought you did.”
“It was buried.”
“With which crest half?”
“Yours, according to Margaret.”
Daniel stared.
“So someone opened the coffin.”
“Or switched things before burial.”
Daniel looked toward the ring.
“Our father planned everything.”
Sarah interrupted.
“Stop.”
Both men turned.
“You are blaming a dead man again.”
Arthur frowned.
“Sarah—”
“Someone took Emma’s sock this week.”
Silence.
“Vittorio has been dead eighteen years.”
Daniel understood.
“The old network survived.”
Arthur nodded.
“Someone inherited it.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“The Custodian.”
Sarah looked at him.
“What?”
Daniel explained the name Samuel had used.
Not one person.
A role.
Vittorio maintained a hidden operator who kept his private network connected.
No formal position.
No public authority.
A person who knew weaknesses inside families.
After Vittorio died, Daniel assumed the network died.
He was wrong.
“My son was investigating it,” Daniel said.
Arthur stared.
“Your son’s name.”
Daniel hesitated.
Sarah said:
“Enough.”
He looked at her.
“If you want help, give us a person.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Elias.”
Arthur’s face changed.
“Elias Bennett?”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You know him?”
Arthur did.
Elias Bennett, thirty-two, had appeared twice at Bellacorte charity events.
Introduced as Margaret’s nephew.
Sarah stared.
“Margaret told us he was her sister’s son.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“My son.”
Sarah felt another betrayal.
“David knew?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“Elias?”
“Yes.”
Arthur leaned back.
“So Margaret raised your son under her family name.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep him away from Bellacorte.”
Sarah almost laughed.
“And then you sent him into Bellacorte events.”
“He chose that.”
“Why?”
“He wanted to know why his grandfather died.”
Arthur’s expression softened.
Another generation.
Another child inheriting a question.
“What did Elias find?”
“Three names.”
“Who?”
“He never told me.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“He stopped trusting me.”
Sarah studied him.
“Because?”
“Because he found out I had used David and you.”
There.
Consequences.
Daniel’s own son had judged his revenge and walked away.
“He disappeared three weeks ago,” Daniel continued.
“Last message?”
“He said, ‘The man keeping Vittorio alive is already inside Arthur’s house.’”
Arthur’s expression turned dark.
“Inside my house.”
“Yes.”
“Staff?”
“Family?”
“Could mean either.”
Sarah looked around.
Her childhood home.
Guards.
Housekeepers.
Kitchen staff.
Men who had watched her grow up.
The enemy did not need to break a gate.
It had an invitation.
Arthur looked toward his chief bodyguard, Marcus Kane.
Marcus had served Bellacorte for twenty-two years.
He heard everything.
Arthur studied him.
Marcus did not react.
Sarah saw where suspicion was going.
“No.”
Arthur looked at her.
“We investigate.”
“Yes.”
“Not accuse.”
Arthur understood.
He nodded.
They began with access.
Who could reach Emma?
Who had been at the Bennett house recently?
One name repeated.
Margaret’s driver.
Paul Mercer.
He had worked for the Bennetts for twelve years.
Delivered groceries.
Picked up Emma once from preschool.
Entered the kitchen regularly.
Arthur sent men to find him.
Paul was gone.
His apartment empty.
No body.
No note.
Only a photograph left on the kitchen table.
Elias Bennett.
Alive.
Bound to a chair.
Holding that day’s newspaper.
Beside him stood a figure outside the frame.
Only one hand visible.
On the finger—
Arthur’s family signet.
Sarah looked at her father’s hand.
His ring was there.
Daniel whispered:
“There were two.”
Arthur went still.
“What?”
“Father made two identical signets.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked toward him.
“One for the boss.”
May you like
A pause.
“One for the man who could remove him.”
