Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN MATTEO NEVER BROUGHT HOME
"Matteo was engaged?"
Adriano stared at Valentina across the dining table.
She nodded.
"Quietly."
"That's impossible."
"Your brother didn't tell you everything."
"He would have told me he planned to marry."
Valentina's eyes hardened.
"Would he? You signed agreements with men he didn't trust. You made decisions for the family without asking him. He loved you, Adriano, but he was tired of being treated like a younger brother who needed permission to breathe."
The words struck harder than Adriano expected.
There was truth in them.
Matteo had complained about being excluded from important meetings.
Adriano had dismissed it as impatience.
He had been thirty-five then, already carrying the authority of their father.
Matteo had been twenty-nine.
Still trying to prove himself.
"Where is Elena?"
Valentina looked away.
"I haven't seen her in years."
"You're lying."
"No."
"Then how did you get her bracelet?"
Valentina twisted the gold circles around her wrist.
"She gave it to me before she left New Jersey."
"Why?"
"She said I needed something to remember her by."
Adriano leaned closer.
"Why didn't you tell me she was your sister?"
"Because her connection to Matteo would have ended our relationship before it began."
"That connection made her family."
Valentina's mouth trembled.
"Not to your uncle."
He watched her carefully.
"What does Lorenzo have over you?"
She looked toward the door.
"Please don't ask me that."
"Valentina."
"If I tell you everything I know, someone will get hurt."
"Someone is already hurt."
She lowered her head.
For the first time, Adriano saw that her fear might not be an act.
But fear did not explain why she had opened his hidden drawer.
It did not explain why she had copied the seal.
And it certainly did not explain why she had allowed Camila to be accused.
"Did you take my seal?"
Valentina closed her eyes.
"Yes."
The answer came so quietly that Adriano almost missed it.
"Why?"
"Because Lorenzo told me he could return something that belonged to Elena."
"What?"
She shook her head.
"Evidence."
"Of what?"
"That Matteo was not killed by the Russos."
Adriano's hands tightened around his glass.
"What did he want in return?"
Valentina looked at him.
"An exact copy of the seal."
Adriano did not raise his voice.
He did not throw the glass.
He simply removed the engagement ring he had been wearing on a chain beneath his shirt.
It was his mother's ring, a plain gold band with a small sapphire.
He placed it on the table between them.
Valentina stared.
"Adriano, please."
"I loved you."
Her face collapsed.
"I know."
"I would have given you protection. Money. Help finding Elena. Whatever you needed."
"You don't understand."
"No. I don't."
He stood.
"You accused a woman who works in my house because she couldn't afford to fight back."
"I didn't put those things in Camila's locker."
Adriano stopped.
"What?"
"I found them there."
"Who put them there?"
"I don't know."
"Then why didn't you tell me you had taken the seal?"
"Because Lorenzo threatened to release a photograph."
"What photograph?"
Valentina gripped the edge of the table.
"One that makes it look as though Elena helped arrange Matteo's murder."
Adriano studied her.
"Did she?"
"No."
"How can you be sure?"
Valentina looked up, tears on her cheeks.
"Because Matteo died trying to protect her."
By morning, the engagement had been suspended.
Adriano did not announce the reason.
He instructed Valentina to move into the east guest suite while the household investigation continued.
He also removed her authority over the staff.
She accepted the decision without argument.
That unsettled him.
Valentina Whitmore was accustomed to winning disagreements.
Now she seemed relieved simply to remain inside the house.
Camila learned about the changes at breakfast.
Mrs. Alvarez told her quietly.
"Mrs. Whitmore isn't allowed to give staff instructions anymore."
Camila glanced toward the hall.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
But Camila knew enough to worry.
That afternoon, the house manager informed her that Lucía's place at the nearby daycare had been canceled.
The cancellation had been requested in writing.
Under Camila's name.
She had not signed anything.
Adriano examined the form.
The signature was a poor imitation.
Below it was a notation: Alternative child placement arranged.
He looked at the date.
The paperwork had been submitted the day before Lucía accused Valentina.
Someone had planned to remove the child even before she spoke.
Camila sat across from him, shaking.
"They were going to take her somewhere."
"Nobody is taking Lucía."
"You don't understand. Daniel's death took everything from us. I cannot lose my daughter."
Adriano moved around the desk.
He crouched beside her chair.
"Look at me."
She raised her eyes.
"I have done many things in my life that I am not proud of," he said. "But I will not let a child be used as a weapon in my own home."
Camila wiped her cheeks.
"Promise?"
He hesitated only long enough to understand the weight of the word.
"I promise."
The cancellation form provided a new lead.
The alternative placement listed a children's residence in eastern Pennsylvania.
Adriano asked a trusted outside investigator, Teresa Marino, to examine the address.
Teresa had once worked as an auditor for a large shipping company.
She was not connected to the Vitale organization.
And unlike Salvatore, she had no loyalty to Lorenzo.
She returned that evening.
"The address isn't a daycare," she said.
"What is it?"
"An office used by a private guardianship service."
Adriano frowned.
"Why would anyone arrange guardianship for a child whose mother is alive?"
Teresa laid down several pages.
"That's the interesting part. Someone submitted preliminary paperwork stating Camila was an unstable parent with no permanent housing."
Adriano felt his anger rise.
"She's employed here."
"I know."
"She has an apartment."
"I know."
"Then who signed the allegations?"
Teresa pointed to the bottom of the page.
A name appeared beneath the witness line.
Salvatore Bellini.
Adriano stared.
His oldest protector.
The man who had carried Matteo's coffin.
The man who claimed he did not know who ordered Daniel's death.
He looked up.
"Find Salvatore."
Teresa shook her head.
"He's already gone."
Adriano discovered Salvatore had left the property two hours earlier.
His car remained in the garage.
His security badge sat on his desk.
Beside it was a folded note addressed to Adriano.
Only one sentence.
If I stay, the child pays for what I did.
Adriano read it twice.
Then he turned the paper over.
On the back was a hand-drawn picture of the gray stuffed cat.
One ear bent.
A small black square inside it.
The memory card.
Salvatore knew about the recording.
More importantly, he knew Lucía had been used to hide it.
Adriano returned to Camila's apartment that night.
She had gone there to collect clothing and Lucía's favorite blanket.
When he arrived, the door stood open.
Camila was inside, kneeling beside a wooden box.
Her face was white.
"What happened?"
She looked up.
"Someone was here."
"What did they take?"
"Nothing valuable."
She lifted a small envelope.
"They left this."
Inside was an old photograph.
Daniel Reyes stood beside Matteo Vitale.
Between them was a laughing young woman Adriano recognized from the earlier picture.
Elena Marquez.
On the back, Daniel had written:
For Lucía, when she's old enough to understand why her father was brave.
But below that, in different handwriting, was a new sentence.
THE CHILD ISN'T THE WITNESS YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF.
Adriano turned the photograph toward the lamp.
Someone had scratched away part of the image.
Not randomly.
There was a fourth person standing at the edge of the original photograph.
Only a hand remained visible.
May you like
A man's hand.
Wearing Adriano's own gold ring.
