Chapter 2 - THE CHILD ON THE TERRACE
Lily Delgado had not meant to disobey her mother.
She had followed light.
That was all.
The kitchen door opened each time a server rushed through it, spilling gold across the dark service corridor. Beyond that corridor, hundreds of moving bodies crossed the ballroom beneath chandeliers brighter than anything Lily had ever seen.
Music meant nothing to her ears.
But she felt the violins through the marble.
Tiny vibrations traveled through her bare feet.
She followed them.
Nobody noticed the three-year-old moving between black trousers and silk dresses. Adults looked over children when they believed children did not belong in the room.
Lily passed a table covered with white flowers.
A woman almost stepped on her.
Then she saw her mother.
Rosa stood near the far wall holding an empty silver tray.
But before Lily could reach her, something else caught her attention.
The beautiful woman in red.
Vivian.
Lily remembered her because everyone looked at Vivian.
She also remembered the man with the scar beside the wall.
Luca.
The two adults moved through a side door.
Lily followed.
A narrow passage led toward the private study.
The door did not close completely.
Through the gap, Lily saw Vivian take a small dark bottle from her purse.
Luca held a wineglass.
Their lips moved.
Lily could not hear their words.
But she knew faces.
Her mother had taught her that.
Happy.
Angry.
Afraid.
Lie.
Luca looked afraid.
Vivian looked angry.
Then Vivian poured several drops into the wine.
Luca caught her wrist.
Vivian jerked free.
She pointed toward the ballroom.
Then made a cutting motion across her throat.
Lily did not understand everything.
But she understood bad.
She understood secret.
She understood the strange look adults wore when they knew they should not be seen.
Luca placed the glass on a tray outside the study.
A waiter appeared moments later and unknowingly carried it away.
Lily followed again.
She saw Vivian take the glass from the tray herself.
She crossed the ballroom.
She handed it to Alessandro.
Drink, her lips seemed to say.
Lily had never met Alessandro.
But she knew him.
Everyone in the house changed when he entered a room.
People straightened.
People stopped laughing too loudly.
People watched him without staring directly.
Lily watched the glass rise.
She remembered her mother’s lessons.
Danger.
Stop.
Bad.
She ran.
By the time she reached the terrace, Alessandro had already tasted the wine once.
He stood alone near the stone railing, one hand around the crystal stem.
Lily stepped into the cold.
Her feet were freezing.
She lifted her hands.
Your beautiful fiancée put something bad in your glass.
Alessandro froze.
His eyes dropped to her fingers.
For a moment Lily worried he did not understand.
Then his face changed.
He signed back slowly.
Where is your mother?
Lily’s eyes widened.
Few hearing adults answered her.
She pointed toward the ballroom.
Cleaning.
Alessandro lowered the wine.
What did you see?
Lily struggled.
Her vocabulary was small.
She pointed toward the mansion.
Beautiful lady.
Scar man.
Little bottle.
Glass.
Then she signed the word Rosa had once taught her after warning her never to touch cleaning chemicals.
Poison.
Alessandro’s pulse slowed instead of speeding.
That was what happened when he became truly dangerous.
He looked through the windows.
Vivian stood near his uncle Matteo, smiling.
Luca had disappeared.
Alessandro crouched so he was level with Lily.
His movements were careful.
“Did they see you?” he asked aloud, then signed the simpler version.
They see you?
Lily shook her head.
Then hesitated.
Beautiful lady saw Mama.
That sentence hit harder.
Alessandro looked at the child.
“Your mother saw them?”
Lily nodded.
Looking.
Beautiful lady knows.
Alessandro stood.
He reached into his pocket and pressed one button on his phone.
A man answered instantly.
“Yes, boss?”
“Gabriel. Terrace. Alone.”
Thirty seconds later, Gabriel Ferraro stepped outside.
He was forty-five, broad-shouldered, and responsible for security inside the estate.
His eyes went first to Alessandro.
Then Lily.
Then the wine.
“Problem?”
Alessandro held out the glass.
“Do not spill this.”
Gabriel took it.
“What is it?”
“Possibly my cause of death.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Alessandro continued.
“Lock down the security office. Quietly. Pull every camera from the west hall, private study corridor, ballroom, kitchen entrance, and terrace from the last ninety minutes.”
“Who am I looking for?”
“Everyone.”
Gabriel nodded.
“And nobody leaves?”
“Not yet.”
Alessandro looked through the windows again.
“If we shut the gates now, whoever did this will know I know.”
Gabriel glanced at Lily.
“She saw something?”
“She saw enough.”
Lily suddenly grabbed Alessandro’s sleeve.
Mama.
Her face had changed.
Fear.
Alessandro followed her gaze.
Rosa was no longer in the ballroom.
“Where was she?”
Lily pointed.
Alessandro’s stomach tightened.
He signed quickly.
Stay with this man.
Lily shook her head violently.
Mama.
“I will find her.”
She did not understand the words.
So he signed them.
I find Mama.
Promise.
Lily stared at him.
Then nodded.
Alessandro walked inside.
Vivian saw him immediately.
Her eyes went to his empty hand.
For the smallest fraction of a second, alarm flashed across her face.
Then she smiled.
“There you are.”
Alessandro approached.
“Looking for me?”
“For ten minutes.”
“I needed air.”
“You didn’t finish your wine.”
“No.”
Vivian’s fingers tightened around her clutch.
“Didn’t like it?”
“It tasted strange.”
Her smile remained.
“Barolo tastes strange to you?”
“Tonight it did.”
Luca appeared behind her.
The scar on his cheek looked pale beneath the chandelier light.
“Everything all right?”
Alessandro turned toward the man he had trusted for fifteen years.
“Perfect.”
Luca held his gaze.
Neither blinked.
Vivian slid her hand into Alessandro’s arm.
“The toast is in five minutes.”
“Then we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.”
He smiled.
The expression frightened Luca more than anger would have.
Across the ballroom, Gabriel moved discreetly toward the security wing with Lily in his arms.
Alessandro watched them disappear.
Then he turned back to Vivian.
“Where is Rosa Delgado?”
Vivian’s hand went still.
“Who?”
“The maid carrying champagne earlier.”
“I don’t know.”
Luca answered too quickly.
“Probably working.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“I didn’t ask you.”
Silence.
Vivian laughed lightly.
“There are fifty employees here, Alessandro. Why are you asking me about one maid?”
“Because I want to speak with her.”
“What about?”
He watched her face carefully.
“A stain.”
Vivian relaxed by a degree.
“A stain?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
Alessandro leaned closer.
“The kind that doesn’t come out.”
Then he walked away.
Behind him, Vivian looked at Luca.
Neither noticed the camera above the east arch.
Neither knew Gabriel had already found footage showing Rosa entering the servants’ corridor thirteen minutes earlier.
Or that two men followed her less than thirty seconds later.
Alessandro reached the corridor at a controlled walk.
Halfway down, he saw the silver tray Rosa had been carrying.
It lay upside down.
Champagne glasses were shattered across the floor.
One white glove rested beside them.
There was blood on the cuff.
Alessandro stopped.
For the first time since Lily had warned him, real fear entered his eyes.
Not for himself.
For the woman whose child was waiting for him to keep a promise.
He picked up the bloodstained glove.
Behind him, Gabriel’s voice came through his earpiece.
“Boss.”
“Yes.”
“You need to see something.”
“Did you find Rosa?”
“No.”
Alessandro closed his hand around the glove.
“But we found who took her.”
A pause.
May you like
“It was Moretti men.”
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