Chapter 9
Victoria stared at her son.
“What did you say?”
Marcus leaned back.
“For six years you kept me on a leash.”
His eyes moved toward the ledger box.
“Every mistake. Every payment. Every favor.”
Victoria’s hands slowly clenched.
“I protected you.”
“You protected your control.”
The phrase belonged to Lorenzo.
Now Marcus used it on her.
Power shifted.
Marcus explained.
Phase Two had originally been Victoria’s contingency.
If Lorenzo became genuinely unstable after Amelia’s death, she wanted a legal and medical mechanism to remove him temporarily without bloodshed.
Marcus volunteered to arrange evaluators.
He chose men who could be pressured.
One owed him money.
One relied on Bellandi referrals.
One had a private vice Marcus knew about.
Victoria’s face drained.
“You were going to falsify it.”
Marcus smiled.
“If I needed to.”
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“To remove me?”
“To remove whoever stood in the way.”
For the first time, Marcus stopped pretending his motive was loyalty.
He wanted command.
Not eventually.
Not after Victoria.
Now.
Victoria had given him access.
Lorenzo had given him status.
He had spent years waiting for both to weaken.
Isabella’s discovery behind the portrait accelerated everything.
“She found the duplicate ring,” Marcus said.
“So you put a collar on her.”
His smile disappeared.
“I panicked.”
Lorenzo’s voice dropped.
“You humiliated my daughter because you panicked.”
Marcus looked away.
The silence stretched.
Victoria’s breathing became audible.
She finally understood something Lorenzo had not.
Marcus had not simply used her system.
He had been preparing to take it.
Then Claire received a call from the estate IT team.
A data export had occurred forty-eight hours earlier.
Entire voice-authentication archive.
Security credentials.
Financial contacts.
Medical contingency files.
Copied to an external drive.
Lorenzo looked at Marcus.
“Where is it?”
Marcus said nothing.
Victoria turned toward her son.
Her voice came softer now.
“Marcus.”
He did not look at her.
She took one step.
“Where is it?”
His jaw tightened.
Then Isabella’s caregiver appeared at the doorway.
Her face was pale.
“Mr. Bellandi.”
Lorenzo turned immediately.
“Isabella?”
“She’s fine.”
He exhaled.
The caregiver held something in her palm.
A small brass key.
“She had this inside her shoe.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“She says Uncle Marcus told her never to lose it.”
Marcus’s face went white.
Victoria looked at him.
Isabella had not merely witnessed the secret room.
May you like
Before locking her away—
Marcus had hidden something on the child.
