Chapter 1 - Someone You Trust
Elena Russo sat on Luca Valenti’s bed with blood staining her white dress and whispered: “Someone you trust did this.”
When Luca entered, he noticed a torn black cufflink clenched inside her trembling hand.
A tiny silver letter was engraved beneath it.
“V.”
Luca realized the danger had never come from outside his home.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Luca Valenti had spent most of his adult life learning how to make silence work for him.
Other men shouted when they were frightened.
They threatened when they felt weak.
Luca had discovered young that the quieter he became, the more dangerous people assumed the next moment would be.
Tonight, however, his silence had nothing to do with intimidation.
He simply could not understand what he was seeing.
Elena Russo sat on the edge of his bed.
Her long blonde hair hung loose around her face. Tears had cut pale tracks through her makeup. One strap of her ivory evening dress had slipped slightly from her shoulder, and several dark reddish stains marked the lower fabric.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself.
She looked smaller than she had two hours earlier downstairs, when she had stood beneath the chandelier surrounded by politicians, businessmen, attorneys, and men who pretended not to know exactly how Luca Valenti had acquired his influence.
Then she had been smiling.
Now she was shaking.
Behind Luca, his aunt Sofia stood near the doorway in her black lace gown.
Two guards, Marco Bellini and Tomas Riva, remained farther back.
Luca took one step toward Elena.
“Elena.”
She flinched.
That stopped him faster than a gun could have.
He lowered his voice.
“What happened?”
Her eyes lifted.
“I didn’t know where else to go.”
Luca looked at the stains.
“Are you hurt?”
Elena shook her head.
“Not all of it is mine.”
Marco shifted behind him.
Sofia inhaled sharply.
Luca heard both.
He turned only his eyes toward the doorway.
“Everyone out.”
Sofia unfolded her arms.
“Luca, perhaps we should—”
“Out.”
It was not loud.
It did not need to be.
Marco and Tomas immediately stepped backward.
Sofia remained.
She had been part of Luca’s life since before he could remember. After his mother died, Sofia had been the woman who made certain he ate, attended school, learned manners, and understood which forks belonged beside which plates even while the men around him taught him entirely different lessons.
She was one of perhaps three people alive who could contradict Luca without immediately regretting it.
Tonight, she studied Elena with a strange expression.
Not sympathy.
Calculation.
Luca noticed.
“Aunt Sofia.”
Her gaze moved to him.
“Leave us.”
Something cold entered her eyes.
Then it disappeared.
“Of course.”
She turned and walked into the hall.
The guards followed.
Luca closed the bedroom door.
The click of the latch made Elena exhale.
He did not approach immediately.
Instead, he removed his jacket and placed it across a chair.
Then he crouched several feet from her.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Tell me where you’re hurt.”
“My arm.”
He saw a shallow scrape near her elbow.
Nothing that explained the stains.
He looked at the dress again.
“Elena.”
“I tried to help him.”
“Who?”
She swallowed.
“Matteo.”
Luca went still.
Matteo Serra was one of the younger security men working the west side of the estate.
Twenty-six years old.
Newly married.
His wife was expecting their first child.
“What happened to Matteo?”
“I found him near the service stairs.”
“Alive?”
“He was when I found him.”
The answer landed heavily.
Luca sat beside her, leaving enough space that she would not feel trapped.
“Start at the beginning.”
Elena stared at her hands.
She had come to the Valenti estate because Sofia had invited her to the charity dinner.
That alone had surprised Luca.
Sofia did not particularly like Elena.
She had never said so directly, but Luca knew his aunt well enough to recognize disapproval hidden beneath polished smiles.
Elena’s father, Carlo Russo, had once handled legitimate shipping contracts for Luca’s father. After Carlo’s death, Elena had inherited a small logistics company and enough unanswered questions to make Luca keep an eye on her.
Over the last year, that professional concern had become something neither of them had named.
They had dinner sometimes.
They argued often.
She challenged him constantly.
And Luca had begun arranging his days around the possibility of seeing her.
During the party, Elena told him, she had received a message.
“From whom?”
“I thought it was you.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What did it say?”
“That you wanted to see me upstairs.”
“I never sent it.”
“I know that now.”
She had left the ballroom and taken the private corridor toward Luca’s office.
Halfway there, she heard something crash near the service staircase.
When she opened the door, Matteo was on the floor.
There was blood on his shirt.
He had grabbed her wrist.
“He kept saying one word.”
“What word?”
“Ledger.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What else?”
“He told me not to trust the cameras.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t get the chance to explain.”
Elena looked toward the closed bedroom door.
“I heard footsteps.”
“How many?”
“Two people. Maybe three.”
She had tried to pull Matteo behind the stairwell door, but he was too heavy.
Someone appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
Elena never saw the person’s face.
Only a black sleeve.
A hand.
And a silver cufflink.
She ran.
The person followed her through the upper corridor.
Elena tried Luca’s office first.
Locked.
Then the library.
Also locked.
Finally she reached his bedroom.
The door had been open.
She entered, locked it, and waited.
“No one tried the handle?”
Elena hesitated.
“Someone did.”
Luca felt something inside him turn cold.
“When?”
“Maybe five minutes before you arrived.”
“Did they say anything?”
“No.”
“Did you see them?”
“No.”
She opened her fist.
The cufflink lay against her palm.
“I pulled this off whoever chased me.”
Luca took it.
Black stone.
Silver edge.
A small engraved V underneath.
His family had commissioned twelve identical pairs years earlier for senior members of the Valenti organization.
Luca knew every man who had received them.
And every one of those men was downstairs tonight.
Including people he had trusted for decades.
He stood.
Elena grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t.”
He looked down.
“If you walk downstairs angry, whoever did this will know I told you.”
“They already know you escaped.”
“They don’t know what Matteo told me.”
Luca studied her.
“You said he only said ‘ledger.’”
Elena’s fingers tightened.
“That’s what I told you.”
A pause.
Luca sat again.
“What did he actually say?”
She looked directly into his eyes.
“Blue ledger. Chapel wall.”
Luca said nothing.
The old family chapel stood at the far edge of the estate.
It had not been used in years.
His father had ordered it sealed after Luca’s mother died.
“What else?”
“Matteo said, ‘Your father knew.’”
Luca’s face changed.
Elena saw it.
“Luca?”
“My father has been dead twelve years.”
“I know.”
“What exactly did Matteo say?”
She closed her eyes, remembering.
“Blue ledger. Chapel wall. Valenti knew.”
Luca stood.
This time Elena did not stop him.
He walked to the bedside table and picked up the internal phone.
He called security.
Marco answered.
“Find Matteo Serra.”
Silence.
Then Marco said, “Boss?”
“Now.”
Luca disconnected.
Elena watched him.
“What happens if he’s dead?”
“We find who killed him.”
“And if he’s alive?”
Luca looked at the cufflink.
“Then we find out why someone wanted him dead.”
Three minutes later, Marco knocked.
Luca opened the door only enough to speak.
Marco’s face told him the answer before his mouth did.
“Matteo’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“No body. No blood. Nothing.”
Luca glanced at Elena.
She stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Marco continued.
“The service staircase is clean.”
Elena stared at him.
“No. I was there. His blood is on my dress.”
“We checked.”
“You checked the wrong stairs.”
“There’s only one west service staircase.”
Elena shook her head.
“I know what I saw.”
Luca looked at Marco.
“Cameras.”
“Offline for eleven minutes.”
Elena whispered, “Matteo warned me.”
Luca opened the door fully.
“Sofia?”
“Downstairs.”
“Who left the estate?”
“Nobody.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“Lock the gates.”
Marco nodded.
“No one enters. No one leaves.”
“What do I tell the guests?”
“Nothing.”
Marco disappeared.
Elena stepped beside Luca.
“You’re trapping whoever did this inside.”
“No.”
He looked down the corridor.
“I’m trapping everyone.”
The party continued downstairs for another twenty minutes.
Music played.
Champagne moved from hand to hand.
People smiled beneath crystal chandeliers while Luca’s men quietly sealed every exit.
Nobody understood they were no longer guests.
Luca walked downstairs with Elena beside him.
She had changed into a dark robe Sofia’s maid brought her, but Luca had ordered the stained dress preserved.
He wanted every mark examined.
The ballroom grew quieter when he entered.
Sofia approached.
“Is Elena feeling better?”
Luca watched her carefully.
“She will.”
“I’m relieved.”
“Where were you twenty minutes before I went upstairs?”
Sofia’s expression did not change.
“Speaking with Senator D’Amico.”
“All twenty minutes?”
“Are you interrogating me?”
“I asked a question.”
Before she could answer, Marco appeared at the ballroom entrance.
His face was pale.
Luca excused himself.
Marco led him into the hall.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“Matteo’s phone.”
“Where?”
Marco looked toward Elena.
“In your bedroom.”
Elena froze.
“That’s impossible.”
Marco handed Luca a clear evidence bag.
The phone screen was cracked.
Across the back was a smear of dried blood.
Luca turned it over.
A message notification glowed on the screen.
One unsent draft.
Three words.
ASK ELENA WHY.
Luca looked at her.
Elena’s face drained of color.
“I’ve never seen that phone.”
Marco said nothing.
Luca unlocked the screen using Matteo’s security code.
The draft opened.
There was more beneath the first line.
ASK ELENA WHY HER FATHER’S NAME IS IN THE LEDGER.
Elena stopped breathing.
“My father?”
Luca read the final line.
Then he looked at her.
“What?”
He did not answer.
She stepped closer.
“Luca, what does it say?”
He turned the phone toward her.
The last sentence was unfinished.
CARLO RUSSO DIDN’T DIE IN THE ACCIDENT. HE WAS—
A noise came from the upstairs corridor.
A door slammed.
Marco reached inside his jacket.
Luca looked toward the staircase.
One of the guards shouted his name.
Then another voice came from above.
“Boss! We found Matteo!”
Luca started toward the stairs.
The guard appeared at the railing.
His face had gone white.
“He’s alive.”
Luca stopped.
May you like
The guard swallowed.
“And he keeps asking for Elena.”
