Chapter 3 - The Man Lorenzo Called Family
Pino crossed the library before Vittorio could understand the command, but the dog did not attack the arm holding the knife. Instead, he slammed his full weight against Vittorio’s legs, knocking the older man backward while Lorenzo caught Emilia before she struck the floor.
The knife skidded beneath the desk.
Carlo reached for his gun.
Lorenzo kicked it from his hand.
Within seconds, guards loyal to Lorenzo pinned Vittorio, Matteo, and Carlo against the carpet. Renata rushed forward, but Emilia refused to release Lorenzo’s neck.
“You’re safe,” he told her.
The child trembled against him.
Vittorio struggled to rise. “You fool. You have no idea what you’ve done.”
Lorenzo carried Emilia to Renata before looking down at the man he had once called Uncle Vittorio.
“I discovered that my father trusted the wrong friend.”
The accusation landed harder than any blow.
Vittorio stopped struggling.
Lorenzo ordered the doors secured and separated the three conspirators. Carlo was taken to a basement room. Matteo was placed in the east study. Vittorio remained in the library under guard.
Agnes stood near the mantel, visibly shaken.
“Mr. Duca, I accused Renata in front of the entire staff.”
“Yes.”
“I believed the evidence.”
“You believed evidence placed where you were meant to find it.”
Agnes’s eyes lowered. “That does not excuse what I did.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Lorenzo told her to prepare a quiet guest room for Renata and Emilia. Renata immediately refused.
“I want to leave.”
“You cannot.”
Fear flashed across her face.
Lorenzo softened his tone. “The people who framed you may have accomplices outside. Until I know why they wanted that memory card, the safest place for you is here.”
“This house is not safe.”
The words were true, and they stung more than he expected.
“It will be.”
“You cannot promise that.”
“I can promise anyone who approaches your daughter will have to go through me and Pino.”
Emilia reached down from her mother’s arms and touched the Doberman’s ear. Pino sat beneath her hand like a silent guardian.
Renata looked between the dog and Lorenzo.
“Why would Mr. Salvi do this to me?”
“He needed someone disposable.”
“I have never even spoken to him.”
“That may be why he chose you.”
Renata’s face crumpled, but she forced herself not to cry in front of her daughter.
Lorenzo turned toward the clock. Vittorio had risked exposure, destroyed a decades-old relationship, and threatened a child because of whatever had been hidden inside it.
Lorenzo intended to learn why.
Matteo lasted eleven minutes in the east study.
He began with denials, moved to excuses, and finally blamed his uncle. Lorenzo sat across from him without raising his voice.
“Vittorio told me the memory card contained evidence that could destroy both families,” Matteo said.
“What evidence?”
“I don’t know.”
“You opened the clock.”
“I removed the card. I didn’t view it.”
“Where is it?”
Matteo hesitated.
Lorenzo leaned forward. “Your uncle placed a knife against a child’s throat. Whatever loyalty you think you owe him ended in that library.”
“He said he only needed time.”
“For what?”
“To complete the marriage agreement.”
Lorenzo frowned. “My marriage has nothing to do with a stolen clock.”
“It has everything to do with it.”
Matteo explained that Vittorio had arranged Lorenzo’s proposed engagement to Sofia Bellandi. The public story claimed the marriage would unite two rival families. In reality, Vittorio and Sofia’s father planned to use the partnership to gain access to Lorenzo’s shipping companies, political contacts, and private accounts.
“The card proves it?” Lorenzo asked.
“It proves more.”
“How much more?”
Matteo’s voice dropped. “Your father discovered their plan before he died.”
Lorenzo did not move.
His father, Alessandro Duca, had died five years earlier when his car went over a cliff during a storm. Investigators blamed brake failure. Lorenzo had accepted the report despite private doubts he could never prove.
Matteo stared at the floor. “Your father recorded meetings. Names, payments, dates. He hid copies in objects that belonged to your mother.”
“The clock.”
“Yes.”
“How did Vittorio learn about it?”
“A retired accountant contacted him last week. The man said Alessandro had instructed him to reveal the evidence if Vittorio ever forced you into the Bellandi alliance.”
“Who is the accountant?”
“Samuel Greco.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Lorenzo grabbed Matteo by the collar. It was the first time his control cracked.
“Where is the card?”
“I gave it to Carlo!”
“When?”
“Before the meeting. He was supposed to deliver it to Sofia’s father tonight.”
Lorenzo released him and left the room.
Carlo’s basement room was empty.
One guard lay unconscious near the doorway. A service exit stood open, allowing cold wind to enter.
Lorenzo’s security chief had escaped with the memory card.
He called his driver and ordered every road from the estate monitored. Then he contacted people whose loyalty had been tested over years, not purchased by Vittorio.
As the mansion erupted into controlled motion, Lorenzo returned upstairs.
He found Emilia sitting on the bed in a guest room while Renata cleaned a scrape on her knee. Pino lay beside the child, his head resting across her feet. A tray of untouched food sat nearby.
Emilia looked up.
“Did you find the bad man?”
“I found several.”
“Is Mommy going away?”
“No.”
Renata secured a bandage over the scrape. “Emilia, Mr. Duca has important work.”
The girl took the stuffed rabbit from beside her and held it toward Lorenzo.
“Bunny can help.”
Lorenzo looked at the damaged toy.
One eye was missing. A seam along its stomach had been crudely repaired with blue thread.
“When did it lose its eye?” he asked.
“Today. The shiny-shoe man pulled it.”
Lorenzo remembered the footage. Matteo had taken the rabbit and twisted it in his hand while threatening her.
“May I see it?”
Emilia reluctantly passed it to him.
The toy felt heavier than it should have.
Lorenzo examined the missing eye. Beneath the torn fabric, something reflected the lamplight.
He opened the damaged seam carefully.
A tiny black memory card dropped into his palm.
Renata stared.
Emilia whispered, “Is Bunny sick?”
Lorenzo looked at the card, then at the innocent child who had unknowingly carried the object that powerful men were willing to kill for.
“No,” he said. “Your rabbit may have just saved all of us.”
A gunshot shattered the guest-room window.
Lorenzo threw himself over Emilia and Renata as glass exploded across the bed.
Pino sprang toward the broken window, barking for the first time.
May you like
Someone outside knew the real memory card had never left the mansion.
And they were willing to fire through a child to get it.
