Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT VIVIAN VANISHED
Emergency lights came on red.
Marco pushed Emma and me beneath the stone breakfast bar.
“Stay down.”
Alessandro stood near the doorway.
“Vivian!”
No answer.
Matteo struggled against Marco.
“Let me go.”
“You moved when the lights died.”
“My sister disappeared.”
“Exactly.”
Another gunshot sounded somewhere upstairs.
Guests began shouting.
Alessandro pulled his phone out.
No signal.
“Jammer.”
Marco swore.
Emma covered her ears.
I held her against my chest.
The blue rabbit was still in her hands.
Alessandro crouched beside us.
“Clara.”
I looked at him.
“You stay with Marco.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find who turned off my house.”
He looked toward Emma.
“And my fiancée.”
I wanted to ask whether those two problems might be the same.
I didn’t.
Five minutes later, the villa’s backup generators restored partial power.
Three security guards were missing.
So was Vivian.
No exterior gate had opened.
No vehicle had left.
Which meant she was still inside.
Or had used a route Alessandro didn’t know existed.
That possibility bothered him.
The twelve families had been moved into the ballroom under guard.
Nobody liked it.
Don Bellini accused Alessandro of staging the entire crisis.
Don Ricci told Bellini to stop behaving like a politician.
I barely heard any of them.
I kept thinking about Daniel.
The photograph.
The forty million.
The key.
My husband had died in what police called a highway accident.
His car had gone through a guardrail outside Como during heavy rain.
No witnesses.
No suspicious evidence.
I had believed the report because grief left little room for conspiracy.
Now everything looked different.
Alessandro took us to his private study.
Only Marco and Matteo came.
Matteo was no longer restrained.
But two guards stood behind him.
The tiny metal drive sat on Alessandro’s desk.
“Open it,” Matteo said.
Alessandro looked at him.
“You seem eager.”
“Because if Daniel left what I think he left, Vivian is in danger.”
“From whom?”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“The same people who killed him.”
My pulse stopped.
“You said you didn’t know who killed him.”
“I said I didn’t kill him.”
“You knew he was murdered?”
“Yes.”
I crossed the room and slapped Matteo.
The sound cracked through the study.
Nobody stopped me.
Matteo touched his cheek.
I was shaking.
“You let me bury him believing he died in an accident.”
“I was protecting you.”
“Do not use that word.”
Emma had fallen asleep in Marco’s arms from exhaustion.
Thank God.
I didn’t want her hearing this.
Matteo lowered his hand.
“Daniel begged me not to contact you.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew someone was watching you.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew Vivian.”
His eyes shifted.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Matteo looked at Alessandro.
“Vivian had been Daniel’s handler.”
The room went silent.
Alessandro stared at his fiancée’s brother.
“Explain.”
“Before she met you publicly, Vivian worked for our father’s intelligence network.”
“You told me she studied art in Paris.”
“She did.”
“And?”
“She also carried messages, verified accounts, recruited outsiders.”
Alessandro looked physically sick.
Not because Vivian had worked in the family world.
Because she had lied.
“For how long?”
“Eight years.”
“And Daniel?”
“She recruited him.”
I almost sat down.
My husband had known Vivian before he knew me.
Matteo continued.
“Daniel was brilliant with systems. He could look at a building and understand every weakness.”
“The symbol?”
“Your father trusted him after Daniel uncovered a theft inside the Verona accounts.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
“Who was stealing?”
Matteo didn’t answer.
The silence said enough.
“Your father?” Alessandro asked.
“No.”
“Vivian?”
“No.”
“Then you.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“I moved money.”
My stomach turned.
“Forty million?”
“Not for myself.”
“Everyone says that before explaining stolen money,” Marco muttered.
Matteo glared at him.
“I was moving it because your father planned to finance a war against the Caruso family.”
Alessandro stood.
“He never told me.”
“He didn’t trust you to approve.”
“Because I wouldn’t.”
“Exactly.”
Matteo looked at the drive.
“Daniel discovered the transfer and moved the money out of reach.”
“Into Emma’s trust?”
“Yes.”
“But why her?”
“Because Daniel believed nobody would look at a child.”
I laughed bitterly.
“They’re looking now.”
Matteo nodded.
“He left the biometric key with you.”
“Inside a toy.”
“Yes.”
“And the second half?”
Matteo’s expression became grim.
“Vivian.”
Alessandro looked toward the door.
“What does that mean?”
“To open the trust, two encrypted identities are required. One was hidden in the rabbit. Vivian carried the other.”
“Where?”
Matteo shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Marco returned Emma to me.
She slept against my shoulder.
Alessandro looked at the drive.
“If Vivian is the second key, whoever took her wants the money.”
“Yes.”
“Who knew?”
Matteo paused.
“My father.”
“He’s dead.”
“Daniel.”
“Dead.”
“Vivian.”
“Missing.”
“And you.”
“Yes.”
Alessandro’s gaze became lethal.
Matteo gave a tired smile.
“If I wanted the money, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you.”
“Maybe you thought that would make you look innocent.”
“That sounds like you.”
Before Alessandro could answer, Marco’s radio crackled.
“Boss.”
A guard’s voice.
“We found something.”
“Where?”
“The chapel.”
“What?”
“Blood.”
My stomach clenched.
“And?”
“A wedding veil.”
Alessandro’s face went blank.
Vivian’s custom veil.
The one she was supposed to wear in three weeks.
He left immediately.
I followed despite Marco telling me not to.
The villa chapel sat behind the eastern garden.
Inside, candles still burned from an earlier family blessing.
A streak of blood crossed the white stone floor.
Vivian’s veil lay beneath the altar.
Alessandro picked it up.
Something metallic dropped from the lace.
A necklace.
Vivian’s.
Attached to the clasp was a folded slip of paper.
Alessandro opened it.
Three words.
BRING THE CHILD.
My body went cold.
Below it was an address.
An abandoned silk factory outside Milan.
And a time.
Midnight.
Then Emma woke in my arms.
She looked at the blood.
At the veil.
At Alessandro.
May you like
And whispered the one thing no adult in that chapel wanted to hear.
“Daddy went there too.”
