Chapter 10
Bianca stared at the photograph for a long time.
Then sat down.
Her knees had stopped holding her.
Vittorio remained standing.
Marcus did not move at all.
The room had reached the moment where lies stopped helping.
Vittorio looked at Bianca.
“You were there.”
Her lips parted.
No sound came.
“You saw Marcus with him.”
A tear moved down her cheek.
“Yes.”
Marcus whispered:
“Bianca.”
She looked at her brother.
Something in her face changed.
Years of loyalty cracking under the weight of one photograph.
“You told me it was a negotiation.”
Marcus’s eyes hardened.
“It was.”
“You told me no one would get hurt.”
“I didn't know the route would change.”
Bianca stood.
“You said the convoy was empty.”
Marcus’s voice rose.
“It was supposed to be!”
Vittorio did not react.
That frightened both of them.
Bianca turned toward him.
“I took the picture because Elena asked me to.”
Vittorio stared.
That was the major twist.
Bianca had originally been helping Elena.
Not Marcus.
Months before Elena died, Bianca had become suspicious of her brother’s debts.
Elena asked her to watch him.
Bianca photographed the meeting.
She gave the image to Elena.
She planned to help expose Marcus.
Then Marcus found out.
He begged Bianca not to destroy him.
He told her he had sold one harmless route to settle a debt.
He promised there would be no second leak.
Bianca chose her brother.
She stole Elena’s copies.
Lied.
Delayed.
Protected him.
Then the second convoy was attacked.
A guard was critically wounded.
Elena realized Bianca had betrayed her.
That was why the friendship collapsed.
That was why Elena stopped trusting Bianca.
But the worst part came next.
Vittorio’s voice remained almost inaudible.
“What happened the night Elena died?”
Bianca's hands began shaking.
Marcus took one step toward her.
“Don't.”
Vittorio looked at him.
One bodyguard moved between them.
Bianca finally spoke.
“Elena called me from the road.”
Her breath hitched.
“She knew Marcus changed her route.”
Vittorio did not blink.
“She said she was going to you.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
Bianca continued.
“Marcus told me if she reached you, he was finished.”
“What did you do?”
Bianca closed her eyes.
“I called Elena.”
A long silence.
“I told her you already knew.”
Vittorio's chest stopped moving.
Bianca’s voice broke.
“I told her you believed Marcus.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Vittorio whispered:
“You made her think I chose him.”
Bianca cried now.
“Yes.”
Elena did not turn toward the estate.
She kept driving.
Into the storm.
The crash happened twenty minutes later.
Marcus had not killed Elena.
Bianca had not touched her car.
But Bianca had delivered the lie that made Elena believe going home was useless.
The secret capable of destroying every relationship in the room was not murder.
It was worse in a different way.
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Elena died believing Vittorio had betrayed her.
And Vittorio had spent eighteen months believing she died knowing he loved her.
