Chapter 3
Marcus moved first.
Not toward Vittorio.
Toward Emma.
Three bodyguards stepped between them before he reached the staircase.
Marcus stopped.
His nostrils flared.
For the first time, the confident mask cracked.
“She's lying.”
Emma flinched.
Vittorio noticed.
He walked toward her slowly.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Her fingers tightened around the railing.
“I tried.”
Vittorio’s eyes narrowed.
Emma continued.
“I asked Bianca if you knew anyone had been in Mrs. Romano’s study.”
Bianca laughed once.
Too sharply.
Vittorio looked at her.
Emma's voice dropped.
“She told me if I accused her family again, she'd report me for stealing your wife’s jewelry.”
Vittorio became very still.
“Again?”
Emma closed her eyes.
That word had escaped.
Vittorio waited.
He had learned that silence often frightened people more effectively than shouting.
Emma finally whispered:
“This wasn't the first thing I saw.”
Bianca stepped forward.
“Be careful.”
Vittorio’s head turned.
Bianca immediately stopped.
No one needed him to raise his voice.
Emma continued.
Months earlier, she had found Marcus inside Elena’s study.
He claimed Vittorio ordered him to retrieve old business papers.
Emma believed him.
Then she noticed the green case under his coat.
A week later, Bianca asked whether Emma had told anyone.
That was when Emma understood the visit was not authorized.
“Why didn't you come directly to me?”
Emma looked at Vittorio.
Her eyes were wet.
“Because everybody in this house knows what happens when someone accuses family without proof.”
That landed harder than he expected.
Marcus smiled faintly.
“There.”
He looked at Vittorio.
“You built this house, not us.”
Vittorio's gaze remained on Emma.
Marcus was using truth as a weapon.
That made it no less true.
Emma reached into her apron.
“I did one thing.”
She removed a small memory card.
“When Marcus left the study, the recorder was still on.”
Bianca’s face drained.
Emma looked at Vittorio.
“I copied one file before he came back.”
Marcus lunged again.
This time Vittorio did not move.
The bodyguards forced Marcus against the wall.
Emma inserted the memory card into her phone.
Static.
Then Elena’s voice.
Weak.
Tired.
Alive.
“If Vittorio ever hears this, it means Marcus lied to me.”
Vittorio’s breathing stopped.
Elena continued:
“He says Bianca will protect Lucy if something happens to me.”
Bianca closed her eyes.
May you like
Then Elena said the sentence that changed the room.
“But Bianca is the person I’m most afraid of.”
