Chapter 6
Vittorio did not ask Bianca for the missing page.
He asked Emma.
“Do you remember it?”
Emma nodded slowly.
“Not word for word.”
“Enough.”
Emma took a breath.
Elena had wanted to leave the estate temporarily.
Not because she stopped loving Vittorio.
Because Lucy had nearly been caught in a security incident involving Marcus.
Vittorio’s eyes narrowed.
“What incident?”
A vehicle assigned to Lucy’s nanny had been redirected without authorization.
The driver was told Vittorio changed the route.
He had not.
The mistake was corrected before Lucy entered the vehicle.
Elena investigated privately.
The false instruction came through Marcus’s office.
Marcus scoffed.
“That's ridiculous.”
Emma looked at him.
“You came to Mrs. Romano’s room that night.”
His face tightened.
Emma continued.
“Elena said someone was using Vittorio’s name to move people without his knowledge.”
Bianca interrupted.
“She was paranoid.”
Emma’s voice became stronger.
“She was right.”
The room went still.
Vittorio remembered the event vaguely.
Elena had insisted on changing Lucy’s driver.
Marcus said the original man made a scheduling mistake.
Vittorio accepted it.
Another concern buried under convenience.
Emma continued.
Elena planned to take Lucy to a hotel for several days while she decided whether to confront Vittorio publicly in front of senior capos.
She feared if she confronted Marcus privately, evidence would disappear.
Bianca had known.
Because Elena asked her for help.
That part of Bianca’s story was true.
Bianca folded her arms.
“She trusted me.”
Emma looked at her.
“At first.”
The missing second page apparently contained one sentence:
If Bianca tells Marcus where I’m going, I’ll know I was wrong about her too.
Vittorio looked toward Bianca.
Her breathing became shallow.
“What happened?”
Emma whispered:
“Elena never reached the hotel.”
Elena died in a highway crash that evening.
Officially, the weather caused it.
Heavy rain.
Loss of control.
Vittorio had never questioned the finding.
Until now.
Marcus stepped forward.
“Careful.”
His voice had lost the mocking edge.
“This is grief turning into fantasy.”
Vittorio stared at him.
Marcus continued.
“Elena died in an accident. Don't turn us into murderers because your marriage wasn't what you thought.”
The cruelty was deliberate.
Vittorio felt it.
His hand tightened.
Then relaxed.
Marcus frowned.
He had expected the punch.
Instead Vittorio said:
“Why did Elena’s route change twenty-three minutes before the crash?”
Every face turned.
The forensic security team had just delivered the old vehicle log.
Elena’s navigation destination had been altered remotely.
May you like
From the Romano estate.
Using Marcus’s credentials.
