Chapter 3 - THE MAN WITH THE SCAR
Vivian entered the medical room alone.
She looked frightened.
Just enough.
Not too much.
Alessandro noticed.
She crossed quickly toward the bed.
“Oh my God.”
He watched her approach.
“You collapsed.”
“So I’m told.”
“What happened?”
“Wine.”
Her face remained perfect.
“What about it?”
“Something was in it.”
Vivian stopped.
Alessandro counted two heartbeats before she reacted.
“What?”
“Poison.”
She covered her mouth.
Beautifully.
A woman who had rehearsed grief might have done exactly the same thing.
“Who would do that?”
Alessandro looked at her.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
Her eyes widened.
“Me?”
“You gave me the glass.”
Vivian laughed once.
Not convincingly.
“Alessandro, there were waiters carrying wine everywhere.”
“You brought that one personally.”
“Because it was the bottle your uncle sent.”
Alessandro went still.
“My uncle?”
“Matteo.”
That was clever.
Matteo Moretti was dead.
Two years.
Cancer.
A dead man could not deny sending wine.
Vivian continued quickly.
“It was on the service table with a card.”
“What card?”
“I don’t know. I threw it away.”
Alessandro almost admired the speed.
Almost.
“Where is Luca?”
Vivian’s expression changed by less than a fraction.
“I assume helping security.”
“Why?”
“He’s your right hand.”
That answer had once comforted Alessandro.
Tonight it sounded like a warning.
He leaned back.
“Did you see Rosa Delgado watching you?”
Vivian’s eyes sharpened.
“Rosa?”
“The maid.”
“I know who she is.”
“Do you?”
Vivian stared.
“She works in your house.”
“So does Gabriel.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“No.”
Alessandro’s voice cooled.
“Apparently I’ve been wrong about what matters.”
Vivian folded her arms.
“Are you accusing me because a maid said something?”
Alessandro did not answer.
That made her nervous.
She changed direction.
“Where is the child?”
There.
The question.
Alessandro’s pulse slowed.
“What child?”
Vivian hesitated.
“Rosa’s daughter.”
“Why?”
“She was wandering through the party.”
“You noticed?”
“Everyone noticed.”
That was a lie.
Almost nobody had.
Alessandro looked toward the door.
“Vivian.”
“Yes?”
“If someone poisoned me tonight, what should happen to them?”
Her face tightened.
“You’re asking me that now?”
“Yes.”
She looked directly into his eyes.
“They should die.”
Alessandro held her gaze.
Old Alessandro might have agreed.
Tonight he thought of Lily’s tiny hands.
Poison.
Mommy saw.
Scar man saw me.
He nodded.
“Interesting.”
Vivian left five minutes later.
Gabriel entered through the second door.
“She’s lying.”
“Yes.”
“Want her detained?”
“Not yet.”
Gabriel frowned.
“We have poison in your blood.”
“And if Luca is involved, he’ll disappear the second Vivian stops answering her phone.”
Gabriel nodded reluctantly.
“We keep both visible.”
“Exactly.”
Then the door opened again.
Rosa stepped inside without knocking.
Her face showed she realized too late.
“I’m sorry.”
“Come in.”
She hesitated.
“I remembered something.”
Alessandro motioned toward the chair.
Rosa remained standing.
“What?”
“The mirror.”
He waited.
“Before Miss Vivian brought you the wine, I saw her looking at Mr. Romano.”
“Looking?”
Rosa struggled.
“It wasn’t normal.”
“Define normal.”
She looked uncomfortable.
“They looked like two people who knew each other privately.”
Alessandro’s stomach tightened.
“More than professionally?”
“Yes.”
“How sure?”
Rosa thought of Miguel.
Thought of the early years.
How he used to look at her when nobody else mattered.
“Very.”
Alessandro looked away.
That betrayal was somehow stranger than the poison.
Luca.
Vivian.
His closest friend.
His fiancée.
Not separate.
Together.
Then Rosa added, “Lily saw something too.”
Alessandro looked toward her.
“What?”
“She says Mr. Romano gave Miss Vivian a little bottle.”
There it was.
A witness who had no idea what a shipping contract was.
No idea what succession meant.
No reason to invent anything.
“Where?”
“Service corridor.”
“Did Luca see her?”
“Afterward.”
Alessandro stood too quickly.
The room tilted.
Rosa caught his arm instinctively.
“Sit down.”
He looked at her hand.
She immediately released him.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re saying that too much.”
She blinked.
“Occupational habit.”
Despite everything, the corner of his mouth moved.
Then Gabriel returned.
“We found the missing security footage.”
Alessandro looked up.
“Missing?”
“Service corridor cameras were wiped from 8:42 to 8:49.”
Rosa’s face changed.
“That’s when…”
“Yes.”
“Who can delete footage?” Alessandro asked.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Four people.”
“Names.”
“Me. You. Systems administrator Daniel Kim.”
He paused.
“And Luca.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
There were betrayals that entered like gunfire.
This one entered like arithmetic.
Every number added correctly.
He simply hated the answer.
Gabriel continued.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“The ballroom feed shows Luca leaving his position at 8:40.”
“To where?”
“Service hall.”
“Then?”
“Camera goes dark.”
Rosa whispered, “Lily was there.”
Gabriel nodded.
Alessandro looked toward the ceiling.
“If he realized she saw him…”
Rosa went pale.
“I need my daughter.”
“She’s safe.”
“I need to see her.”
“Go.”
Rosa hurried out.
Gabriel watched.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“You’re trusting her fast.”
Alessandro looked toward the closed door.
“No.”
He thought of Vivian.
Of Luca.
Of twenty years of loyalty proving absolutely nothing.
“I’m starting to understand trust is supposed to follow evidence.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“That’s new.”
“Don’t enjoy it.”
An hour later, the party had been quietly dissolved under the explanation of a medical emergency.
Guests were escorted out after names were recorded.
Vivian remained upstairs.
Luca remained downstairs, helping security.
Exactly where Alessandro wanted him.
Then Rosa screamed.
Not loudly.
One sharp sound from the family sitting room.
Alessandro was out of the medical bed before the doctor could stop him.
He reached Rosa’s room seconds behind Gabriel.
Rosa stood beside Lily.
The child was unharmed.
But Hopper, the threadbare rabbit, lay on the floor.
One side seam had torn open.
Gray stuffing spilled across the carpet.
And among the stuffing sat a small brass capsule.
Rosa stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Lily signed frantically.
Hopper broke.
“I know, baby.”
Rosa picked up the brass cylinder.
It was no larger than her thumb.
Stamped into one side were two letters.
M.D.
Miguel Delgado.
Rosa stopped breathing.
Alessandro saw her face.
“That belonged to your husband?”
“I don’t know.”
She twisted the capsule.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny memory card wrapped in plastic.
Rosa’s knees weakened.
“Miguel bought Hopper two days before he died.”
Alessandro stared at the card.
“Your husband worked construction?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“North River Tower.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Alessandro noticed.
“What?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“North River was one of ours.”
Rosa went still.
Alessandro turned.
“Who managed it?”
Gabriel did not want to answer.
Alessandro already knew.
“Say it.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“Luca Romano.”
The room went silent.
Rosa looked at the memory card in her hand.
Her husband had died on a Moretti construction site.
Luca had managed the project.
Luca had just tried to poison Alessandro.
And Miguel Delgado had hidden something inside his deaf daughter’s stuffed rabbit before he disappeared forever.
Alessandro looked toward Gabriel.
“Get me an offline computer.”
Rosa tightened her hand around the capsule.
“No.”
Alessandro stopped.
“It’s mine.”
He looked at her.
She corrected herself.
“It’s Miguel’s.”
A long pause.
Then Alessandro nodded.
“You open it.”
Rosa stared, surprised.
He stepped backward.
“Your husband left it for you.”
Five minutes later, the memory card loaded.
The first file was a photograph.
Luca Romano stood beside a shipping container at North River Tower.
His scar clearly visible.
Beside him stood Vivian Duca.
The photograph had been taken eighteen months earlier.
Three months before Alessandro had ever been introduced to her.
Rosa covered her mouth.
Alessandro stared.
Then Gabriel opened the second file.
A video.
Miguel’s face appeared on-screen.
Tired.
Terrified.
Alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Rosa, if you’re seeing this…”
His voice cracked.
“Something happened to me.”
Rosa began crying before he finished the sentence.
Miguel looked over his shoulder.
Then whispered:
“Do not believe the construction accident story.”
Alessandro’s face became stone.
Miguel continued.
“I found out what Luca Romano is doing.”
May you like
And suddenly the poisoned wine was no longer the beginning of the betrayal.
It was only the first secret Lily had exposed.
