Chapter 2 - 11:40
Lucia did not wait to see who was coming.
She moved.
Not running.
Running would make noise.
She walked quickly toward the security station at the end of the corridor, one hand closed around her keys.
The footsteps continued behind her.
Closer.
She rounded the corner.
A guard stood near the monitors.
“Miss Bellini?”
Lucia looked back.
The corridor was empty.
No footsteps now.
No shadow.
Nothing.
“You all right?” the guard asked.
Lucia opened her hand.
The note was still there.
“Who has access to the employee hallway?”
The guard frowned.
“Staff. Security. Household.”
“That’s a lot of people.”
“Did something happen?”
She almost showed him the note.
Then stopped.
Alfonso had said not here.
Enzo had said stay away from Camilla.
And somebody had slipped a warning into her coat pocket without her noticing.
Lucia folded the note again.
“No. I thought I heard someone.”
The guard glanced down the corridor.
“I’ll walk you out.”
She let him.
That night she barely slept.
At seven the next morning, she called the nursing agency.
She nearly asked to be reassigned.
Nearly.
Then she remembered Alfonso gripping her wrist.
Tomorrow night, you stay until midnight.
Lucia had cared for dying patients before.
She knew what fear sounded like.
Alfonso had not been afraid of death.
He had been afraid of time.
At 6:45 p.m., Lucia returned to the Marchetti estate.
The security guard at the gate checked her bag twice.
Inside the mansion, everything appeared normal.
Too normal.
Dinner was being prepared.
Staff moved quietly.
Men in suits spoke into earpieces.
A vase of fresh lilies had been placed near the staircase.
Lucia hated the lilies immediately.
Hospitals used them too often around families expecting bad news.
She reached Alfonso’s suite.
Enzo was already there.
He looked at her coat.
Then her face.
“You came back.”
“I work here.”
“That didn’t answer the question.”
Lucia closed the door.
She removed the note from her pocket and handed it to him.
Enzo read it.
Nothing in his face moved.
That was worse than anger.
“When did you get this?”
“Last night.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I don’t have your number.”
“You could have called the house.”
“And said what? Hello, this is the night nurse your grandfather tried to marry you to. Someone left me a death-note?”
“It doesn’t say death.”
“There’s blood on it.”
Enzo looked at the red mark.
Then he lifted his eyes.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“I heard footsteps.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see.”
He opened the suite door.
“Marco.”
A guard appeared immediately.
Enzo handed him the note.
“Bag it. Check service corridor cameras between eleven fifteen and eleven thirty-five. Every entrance. Every blind spot.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And find out whose blood this is.”
Marco left.
Lucia stared at Enzo.
“You have people who just do that?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you do.”
Alfonso spoke from the sitting room.
“You two argue like you’ve been married ten years.”
Lucia closed her eyes.
“Please don’t start.”
Alfonso grinned.
He looked weaker today.
Lucia saw it immediately.
Gray skin.
Shallower breathing.
Swelling in his hands.
She forgot everything else.
For the next hour, she worked.
Vitals.
Medication.
Oxygen.
A call to the physician.
Adjustments.
Alfonso complained about every instruction but followed all of them.
Enzo stayed nearby.
At eight, Camilla arrived.
Lucia was changing Alfonso’s IV dressing when the door opened.
Camilla entered without knocking.
She wore black tonight.
No diamonds.
No smile.
Her eyes went directly to Lucia.
“You returned.”
Lucia taped the dressing into place.
“Yes.”
“I’m surprised.”
“I’m employed.”
Camilla looked at Alfonso.
“May I speak with you privately?”
“No.”
“Alfonso.”
“No.”
Camilla’s jaw tightened.
Enzo stepped into the room.
“Camilla.”
She turned.
“I need five minutes.”
“You have two.”
Her eyes flicked toward Lucia.
“Alone.”
Enzo did not move.
Camilla lowered her voice.
“Our fathers had an understanding.”
“My father has been dead twelve years.”
“That doesn’t erase agreements.”
“What agreement?”
Lucia tried not to listen.
Impossible.
Camilla’s voice sharpened.
“You know exactly what.”
Alfonso opened his eyes.
“No, he doesn’t.”
Camilla looked at him.
The old man’s expression had gone cold.
“His father promised nothing,” Alfonso said.
“My father says otherwise.”
“Your father lies when breathing.”
Camilla’s face flushed.
“Be careful.”
Enzo moved before Lucia realized it.
One step.
That was all.
But the room changed.
“Do not threaten him.”
Camilla swallowed.
“I wasn’t.”
“Good.”
For the first time, Lucia saw fear in Camilla’s face.
Not embarrassment.
Not anger.
Fear.
Camilla left thirty seconds later.
At nine fifteen, Marco returned.
He spoke quietly to Enzo near the doorway.
Lucia caught only fragments.
Camera loop.
Fourteen minutes missing.
Internal access.
Blood type unknown.
Enzo’s face hardened.
He dismissed Marco and walked to Alfonso.
“You knew someone would interfere.”
Alfonso looked toward the clock.
“Two hours.”
“Who?”
“Not yet.”
“Someone threatened Lucia.”
“I expected that.”
Lucia stared at him.
“You expected it?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I told you to stay.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Alfonso sighed.
“You would have left.”
“I still might.”
“No, you won’t.”
Lucia folded her arms.
“You’re incredibly confident for a man who needs me to organize his pills.”
Alfonso smiled.
“You see, Enzo?”
Enzo rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“Nonno, if you say she tells you no again, I’m leaving.”
At ten thirty, Alfonso insisted he wanted to sit in his wheelchair.
Lucia helped him.
Enzo watched every movement.
At eleven fifteen, a storm began outside.
Rain pressed against the tall windows.
Lucia heard thunder somewhere beyond the hills.
At eleven thirty-eight, Alfonso looked at the clock.
“Time.”
Enzo pushed the wheelchair.
Lucia followed.
They left the suite with two guards.
“Library?” Enzo asked.
Alfonso nodded.
The Marchetti library occupied the west wing.
Lucia had never been inside.
Dark shelves rose to the ceiling.
A stone fireplace burned low.
A long table stood beneath an old brass clock.
11:39.
Enzo locked the doors.
“Now what?”
Alfonso pointed toward a portrait above the fireplace.
It showed a younger Alfonso beside a dark-haired woman.
Rosa, Lucia guessed.
“Take it down.”
Enzo did.
Behind the portrait was a small steel panel.
A safe.
Enzo looked at Alfonso.
“Combination?”
Alfonso looked at Lucia.
“Her birthday.”
Lucia stared at him.
“What?”
Enzo turned slowly.
“You know her birthday?”
“March twelfth.”
Lucia felt the room tilt slightly.
“How do you know that?”
Alfonso did not answer.
Enzo entered 0312.
The safe clicked.
Inside were three things.
A black ledger.
A sealed envelope.
And an old photograph.
Enzo removed the photograph first.
The color had faded.
A young woman stood outside a hospital.
Dark hair.
Gentle face.
Nursing uniform.
Lucia’s breath stopped.
“That’s my mother.”
Enzo looked at her.
Lucia took the photo with shaking fingers.
Her mother, Elena Bellini, had died when Lucia was seventeen.
She had never seen this picture.
Never.
Beside Elena stood Alfonso.
Much younger.
Smiling.
Lucia looked at him.
“How did you know my mother?”
Alfonso’s eyes filled with something Lucia had never seen there before.
Regret.
“She saved my life.”
The brass clock clicked.
11:40.
Then the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the library.
Lucia heard Enzo move.
A guard shouted outside.
Then came the unmistakable sound of glass breaking.
Enzo grabbed Lucia’s arm and pulled her down behind the table.
“Stay low.”
A second crash.
A gunshot exploded from the hallway.
Lucia flinched.
Alfonso was still in the wheelchair.
“Enzo!”
“I’ve got him.”
Emergency lights flickered red.
A shadow appeared beyond the frosted glass door.
One of the guards yelled.
Then silence.
Enzo drew a gun from beneath his jacket.
Lucia stared at it.
“Please tell me you know how to use that.”
He looked at her.
“Very well.”
The library door handle moved.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
A phone began vibrating on the table.
Not Enzo’s.
Not Lucia’s.
Alfonso’s old phone.
Enzo picked it up.
One message.
NO NAME.
He opened it.
Lucia saw only five words.
May you like
THE NURSE WAS NEVER RANDOM.
Then the locked library door slowly began opening from the outside.
