Chapter 7
Marcus stopped pretending the route change did not exist.
He changed the explanation.
“Elena called me.”
Vittorio watched him.
“She was upset. She asked for another route because she thought someone was following her.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“She told me not to.”
Bianca quickly added:
“She didn't trust you then.”
There it was again.
Every dangerous fact came wrapped inside something emotionally painful.
Vittorio could see the strategy.
Break his certainty.
Make him question Elena.
Make him question himself.
Then every piece of evidence became debatable.
Vittorio walked toward the window.
Marcus spoke behind him.
“You want the truth? Elena was planning to embarrass you in front of the whole organization.”
Vittorio turned.
Marcus’s eyes held his.
“She was going to accuse me, accuse Bianca, accuse you of creating a house where everybody lied.”
“And?”
“And I wanted to stop her.”
At last.
An admission.
Marcus spread his hands.
“I changed the route to send her back toward the estate.”
“Instead she died.”
“I didn't control the weather.”
His voice rose.
For the first time, anger replaced arrogance.
“I did not kill Elena.”
Vittorio studied him.
Marcus believed that sentence.
That mattered.
Bianca’s fingers were twisting the engagement ring she no longer wore.
Vittorio noticed.
“What did you do?”
Bianca looked up.
“Nothing.”
“That wasn't a question about Marcus.”
Her breath caught.
Vittorio moved closer.
“What did you do that night?”
She looked toward Emma.
Then Marcus.
Then back at Vittorio.
“I called Elena.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Come home.”
“Only that?”
Bianca’s eyes flickered.
A lie arriving.
Vittorio saw it before the words came.
“Yes.”
His phone rang.
The forensic lab.
The burned recorder had yielded partial files.
Three intact.
One damaged.
The technician sent the first recovered audio.
Vittorio played it on speaker.
Elena’s voice.
“I told Bianca I’m taking Lucy away for two nights.”
A pause.
“She keeps asking where.”
Another pause.
“I lied.”
Bianca closed her eyes.
Elena continued:
“I told her the Hudson hotel.”
Vittorio looked at Bianca.
The real hotel had been in Westchester.
Elena had fed Bianca false information to test her.
Then Elena’s voice became colder.
“Marcus just called the Hudson hotel asking for me.”
Nobody breathed.
Elena had proven Bianca passed her location directly to Marcus.
Bianca’s betrayal had been confirmed eighteen months after Elena died.
May you like
But the file contained one final sentence.
“I still don't understand why Bianca needs Marcus to find me before Vittorio does.”
