Chapter 3 - The Empty Bed
“Elena!”
Ruby ran.
Sebastian caught up before she reached the balcony.
He pulled the curtain aside.
The doors stood open.
Cold night air swept into the room.
“Elena!”
No answer.
Ruby’s pulse hammered.
The bed rails were lowered.
An IV line trailed across the floor.
A tiny dot of blood marked the sheet where Elena had pulled the catheter free.
“She couldn’t have gone far.”
Sebastian’s face had become terrifyingly calm.
He spoke into his phone.
“Lock the property. Search every room. Nobody leaves.”
Ruby checked the bathroom.
Empty.
Closet.
Empty.
Sebastian inspected the balcony.
“No descent.”
“What?”
“No rope. No ladder. She didn’t leave this way.”
Ruby looked down.
Two floors below lay the gardens.
Elena could not have climbed.
“She walked out.”
“The hallway?”
“The outage.”
Ruby understood.
Someone had used the darkness.
Or Elena had.
“Why would she leave her bed?”
Sebastian’s mouth tightened.
Ruby thought of Elena downstairs earlier.
Independent.
Stubborn.
Protective.
“Maybe she heard something.”
They hurried into the hall.
One security guard appeared.
“East wing clear.”
“Cameras?”
“System rebooting.”
“Find out why power failed.”
“Yes, boss.”
Ruby headed toward the stairs.
Sebastian grabbed her hand.
“Stay behind me.”
She opened her mouth.
Then heard another crash downstairs.
This time she obeyed.
They descended.
Broken glass covered the foyer.
One window beside the entrance had been shattered.
A brick lay on the marble floor.
Wrapped around it was paper.
Sebastian bent and removed the note.
Ruby read over his shoulder.
ONE MOTHER FOR ANOTHER.
Her stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
Sebastian stared at the message.
“I don’t know.”
Ruby did not believe him.
He folded the paper.
“Search the grounds.”
Men scattered.
Ruby stepped in front of him.
“You do know.”
“No.”
“Sebastian.”
His eyes hardened.
“This isn’t the time.”
“This is exactly the time.”
He walked past her.
Ruby followed.
“Who is ‘another mother’?”
He stopped.
For several seconds his shoulders remained rigid.
Then he said, “Dante’s mother died.”
Ruby waited.
“Eight years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“And that has something to do with your family?”
Sebastian turned.
“My father ordered the car followed.”
Ruby went still.
“The driver panicked.”
“Was your father trying to kill her?”
“No.”
“You know that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I was there when the order was given.”
Sebastian looked toward the broken window.
“He wanted information from Dante’s father. Nothing more. But the driver saw the tail, sped up, crossed a median, and hit a truck.”
Ruby exhaled slowly.
“Dante blames you.”
“He blames the Romano name.”
“And now Elena is missing.”
Sebastian’s phone rang.
He answered instantly.
“Yes.”
His expression shifted.
“Where?”
He listened.
“We’re coming.”
He hung up.
“Found her.”
Ruby nearly sagged.
“Where?”
“Greenhouse.”
They ran through the rear corridor.
The greenhouse stood beyond the kitchen garden.
Security surrounded it.
Sebastian pushed through the glass door.
Elena sat in a wicker chair.
Alive.
Furious.
A wool blanket covered her shoulders.
Beside her stood an elderly gardener who looked more frightened of Sebastian than of the intruder he claimed he had seen.
Ruby rushed forward.
“Elena!”
“I’m fine.”
“You pulled out your IV!”
“It was annoying me.”
“You vanished during an attack!”
“I did not vanish. I followed someone.”
Sebastian closed his eyes briefly.
“You followed an intruder.”
“He was in my hallway.”
“And you thought what? You’d arrest him yourself?”
“I wanted to see where he went.”
Ruby checked her pulse.
“Fast.”
“I’ve been lectured for ten minutes.”
“You’re about to be lectured for twenty more.”
Sebastian crouched.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Elena looked toward the gardener.
“I heard my door open when the lights went out.”
Sebastian listened.
“I assumed it was Ruby.”
Ruby shook her head.
“A man came inside. Tall. Baseball cap. He looked at the bed.”
“Did he speak?”
“One sentence.”
“What?”
Elena’s eyes settled on her son.
“He said, ‘Tell Sebastian the debt is due.’”
Silence.
Ruby watched Sebastian.
He knew.
Again.
“What debt?”
Elena answered before he could.
“His father’s.”
Sebastian stood.
“Mother.”
“I’m tired of secrets.”
“So am I,” Ruby said.
He looked between them.
“This isn’t happening in a greenhouse.”
Elena lifted her chin.
“Then take me inside.”
Twenty minutes later, Elena was back in bed.
Ruby had restarted her IV.
Security filled the corridors.
The power failure had been traced to an external junction box deliberately sabotaged.
The broken window had been a distraction.
No one knew how the intruder entered the second floor.
Ruby stood near the foot of Elena’s bed.
Sebastian remained beside the window.
Elena said, “Tell her.”
“Mother.”
“She’s already in danger.”
Ruby held his gaze.
“She’s right.”
He looked irritated by their alliance.
Finally he pulled out a chair.
“My father died six years ago.”
Ruby waited.
“He left behind businesses, debts, alliances, enemies.”
“Did you inherit all of them?”
“Most.”
“Why?”
“Because my younger brother was dead.”
Ruby blinked.
Elena looked away.
Sebastian continued.
“Luca was twenty-seven. He hated the organization. Wanted nothing to do with it.”
“What happened?”
“He was killed outside a nightclub.”
Ruby softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Sebastian nodded once.
“My father believed Bellini ordered it.”
“Did he?”
“No proof.”
“But your father retaliated.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Sebastian’s voice flattened.
“People died.”
Ruby felt sick.
He saw it.
“I’m not asking you to accept any of this.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you because you asked for truth.”
“I did.”
Elena spoke softly.
“Sebastian spent years cleaning up what his father built.”
Ruby looked at him.
He gave a humorless laugh.
“Cleaning is generous.”
“You stopped drugs.”
“Yes.”
“Trafficking?”
“Yes.”
“Protection rackets?”
“Most.”
“Most?”
“Some businesses pay voluntarily for security.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
He sighed.
“Fine. I’m still working on that.”
Despite everything, Elena smiled.
Ruby did not.
“Why stay in control at all?”
“Because when my father died, three men were ready to replace him. Two trafficked women. One sold heroin.”
Ruby fell silent.
“If I walked away, one of them would have taken everything.”
“So you became the least terrible option.”
His eyes met hers.
“That’s one way to describe it.”
“Is that how you describe it?”
“No.”
“How do you?”
Sebastian looked tired.
“I became what I hated because I thought I could control what it became.”
That answer felt honest.
And tragic.
Ruby sat.
“Did it work?”
“Sometimes.”
“Not tonight.”
“No.”
Elena reached toward him.
Sebastian took his mother’s hand.
“Your father believed fear was respect,” she said.
“I know.”
“He believed love was leverage.”
“I know.”
“And now Dante believes the same thing.”
Sebastian looked toward Ruby.
She saw the conclusion forming.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No what?”
“You’re about to tell me I need to disappear.”
His silence confirmed it.
Ruby stood.
“Absolutely not.”
“Ruby—”
“I have a job.”
“You can take leave.”
“I have an apartment.”
“I can arrange—”
“I have a life.”
“I am trying to save it.”
“And you think the solution is putting me in some guarded penthouse until your enemies forget I exist?”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Elena covered a smile.
Ruby stepped closer.
“You told me power doesn’t disappear when good men surrender it.”
Sebastian stiffened.
“So why should my life disappear because bad men threaten it?”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because I can lose you.”
The words stopped the room.
Sebastian seemed to realize too late that he had said them aloud.
Ruby’s anger faltered.
Elena’s expression softened.
Sebastian looked away.
Ruby spoke quietly.
“You barely know me.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that like it solves anything.”
“It doesn’t.”
She sat again.
For a while, no one spoke.
Then Elena said, “I have an idea.”
Both turned.
Sebastian immediately said, “No.”
“I haven’t said it.”
“I know you.”
“We make Ruby boring.”
Ruby blinked.
“What?”
“To Dante.”
Elena looked pleased with herself.
“He thinks she matters because Sebastian keeps appearing.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“So Sebastian stops appearing.”
Ruby felt an unreasonable stab of disappointment.
Elena continued.
“Publicly.”
Sebastian frowned.
“You want me to pretend she means nothing.”
“Yes.”
Ruby disliked that even more.
Elena saw it.
“Only temporarily, darling.”
Ruby cleared her throat.
“Of course.”
Sebastian looked at her.
Something passed between them.
Then he nodded slowly.
“It could work.”
Ruby forced a shrug.
“Fine.”
Elena smiled.
Sebastian did not.
The next morning, the plan began.
Ruby arrived downstairs at ten.
Sebastian stood in the foyer.
Three members of his security team were nearby.
Two household employees carried breakfast trays.
Enough witnesses.
He looked directly at Ruby.
His expression was cold.
“Your services are no longer required.”
Even knowing it was staged, the words hurt.
Ruby kept her face steady.
“Elena still needs care.”
“We’ve hired someone else.”
From the staircase, Elena watched.
Ruby lifted her chin.
“Then I’ll collect my things.”
Sebastian nodded.
No warmth.
No hesitation.
Perfect performance.
Ruby walked past him.
As she did, he whispered so quietly only she heard.
“I’m sorry.”
She did not look back.
Twenty minutes later, Ruby drove through the mansion gates with security following at a distance.
The plan was simple.
Return home.
Behave normally.
Let anyone watching believe Sebastian had discarded her.
For three hours, nothing happened.
Ruby unpacked.
Made coffee.
Ignored the black SUV parked two blocks away that Sebastian had told her belonged to his men.
At two fifteen, someone knocked.
Ruby froze.
Her phone rang.
Sebastian.
“Don’t answer the door.”
She whispered, “Someone’s there.”
“I know.”
“Who?”
“We’re checking.”
Another knock.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Ruby?”
Ruby stared at the door.
The woman knocked again.
“My name is Sofia.”
Sebastian went silent on the phone.
Ruby heard his breathing change.
“Sofia who?” she called.
The answer came through the wood.
“Sofia Romano.”
Ruby’s eyes widened.
Sebastian whispered into the phone.
“Do not open that door.”
May you like
Outside, the woman said one more sentence.
“I’m Sebastian’s wife.”
