Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Library
The door moved only three inches before Marco caught it with one hand.
"Don't."
Luca stood directly in front of Elena.
"Who's inside?"
No answer.
Marco pushed the door open.
The library lights were off.
A single desk lamp burned near the far wall.
Someone stood beside it.
A woman.
Elena stared.
Her breath left her.
"Rosa?"
Rosa Marlowe had worked for Elena's mother for twenty-seven years.
She had practically raised Elena after her mother died.
She was sixty-four now, with silver threaded through dark hair and a habit of wearing navy blue no matter the occasion.
Tonight, her coat was torn.
Blood marked one sleeve.
Elena pushed past Luca.
"Rosa!"
Luca caught her.
"Wait."
Rosa lifted both hands.
"It's me."
Marco swept the room.
"No one else."
Elena ran to her.
Rosa hugged her so tightly Elena almost cried.
"What happened?"
Rosa looked at Luca.
"Close the door."
He did.
Rosa reached into her coat.
Marco reacted instantly.
"Slowly."
She pulled out a flash drive.
Not a weapon.
"I've been trying to get this to Elena."
Elena stared at it.
"What is it?"
"The reason those men attacked you."
Luca looked at Elena.
"Men?"
She closed her eyes.
So much for hiding it.
Rosa saw the marks.
Her expression crumpled.
"Oh, sweetheart."
Luca's voice became dangerously calm.
"Start at the beginning."
Rosa nodded.
"Three weeks ago, Elena's foundation accountant noticed duplicate withdrawals. He contacted me because he didn't trust the internal board."
"Why you?"
"Because Elena's mother made me a secondary custodian."
Elena frowned.
"I didn't know that."
"You weren't supposed to."
"Why?"
"Because your mother didn't trust everyone around her."
Luca's eyes sharpened.
"Including my family?"
Rosa hesitated.
"Especially your family."
Elena stared at her.
Her mother had been dead eleven years.
She had known Luca's uncle.
She had attended DeSantis events.
But Elena had never heard her speak badly about them.
Rosa handed Luca the drive.
"There's a ledger here."
"Of the stolen money?"
"More than that."
Rosa sat down slowly.
Elena noticed the blood again.
"You're hurt."
"Not badly."
"Who did this?"
"I don't know."
Luca looked at Marco.
"Call Dr. Vale."
Rosa shook her head.
"No hospital."
"Doctor comes here."
She accepted that.
Elena knelt beside her.
"Tell me."
Rosa touched Elena's cheek.
"I went to your office after you stopped answering me three nights ago."
Elena stiffened.
"I found your purse near the elevators."
Luca looked at Elena.
"You didn't tell me that."
"I got it back."
"How?"
"It was there the next morning."
His expression said that wasn't remotely acceptable.
Rosa continued.
"The garage cameras had been erased. But one camera wasn't connected to the building system."
"Which one?"
"The old loading dock."
Elena's pulse increased.
"It recorded something?"
Rosa nodded.
"Part of it."
Luca inserted the drive into the library computer.
Rosa said, "Folder marked 3A."
Marco stood beside him.
Elena remained near Rosa.
Luca opened the video.
Black-and-white footage appeared.
The timestamp showed 11:47 p.m.
Elena saw herself cross the lower edge of the frame.
She remembered that moment.
She had been walking toward her car.
Then another figure appeared.
Male.
Tall.
Baseball cap.
Dark coat.
He followed her.
Elena felt sick.
"That's him."
Luca's jaw tightened.
The man disappeared off-screen.
Forty seconds passed.
Then Elena reappeared.
Being dragged.
The man's forearm was around her throat.
Even in grainy footage, they could see her struggling.
Luca didn't move.
His face emptied of expression.
The man shoved Elena against a concrete column.
One hand closed around her neck.
The other pointed toward her face.
The video had no audio.
But Elena remembered every word.
Delete it.
Forget it.
Or Luca dies first.
The man suddenly looked toward the camera.
Not fully.
Just enough.
His hand rose.
A black-stone ring caught the light.
Marco leaned closer.
"Family ring."
Luca froze the video.
"Zoom."
The image blurred.
But one detail remained.
The ring.
Silver border.
Black stone.
A small engraved line across the top.
Luca stared.
"That's not a standard ring."
Marco nodded slowly.
"No."
Elena looked between them.
"What?"
Luca enlarged the image.
"There are seven senior-family rings."
Rosa whispered, "Seven?"
"Six living."
Elena felt cold.
"Who had the seventh?"
Luca looked at her.
"My father."
The room went silent.
Luca's father, Victor DeSantis, had died fourteen years earlier.
Car accident.
Elena remembered the funeral.
She had been seventeen.
The entire city had attended.
Luca closed the laptop.
"Someone copied his ring."
Rosa looked away.
Luca noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Rosa."
She sighed.
"Victor's ring disappeared after he died."
Luca stared at her.
"How would you know?"
"Your mother told Elena's mother."
"My mother and Elena's mother discussed my father's ring?"
"Among other things."
Elena stood.
"What were they involved in?"
Rosa looked at her sadly.
"Trying to stop something."
"What?"
"Your mother called it the inheritance trap."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know all of it."
"Tell us what you do know."
Rosa took a breath.
"Victor DeSantis wanted to move the family away from illegal business."
Luca said nothing.
Elena knew that much.
His father had tried to clean the family empire.
Construction.
Shipping.
Hotels.
Real estate.
Luca had continued the transition.
Rosa said, "Some people didn't want that."
"Who?"
"Men who benefited from the old system."
"Names."
"I don't have them."
Luca's patience thinned.
"Rosa."
"I genuinely don't."
Elena stepped between them slightly.
"Luca."
He backed off.
Rosa continued.
"Your father and Elena's mother created a financial archive. It documented offshore accounts, shell companies, judges, police officials, contractors—everything."
Marco whistled softly.
Luca asked, "Where is it?"
"Missing."
"Since when?"
"The night Victor died."
Elena stared.
"My mother knew about this?"
"Yes."
"And she never told me."
"Because people died over it."
Elena's stomach tightened.
"My mother died two years after Victor."
Rosa's eyes filled.
"Yes."
"You told me it was cancer."
"It was."
"Was it?"
Rosa looked shocked.
"Elena, no. Your mother was sick. That wasn't a lie."
Elena exhaled shakily.
"But she was frightened before she died."
Rosa nodded.
"Very."
"Of the archive?"
"Of whoever was still searching for it."
Luca crossed his arms.
"How does Elena's foundation connect?"
Rosa looked at him.
"The foundation wasn't just a charity."
Elena stood.
"What?"
"Your mother used it as a lockbox."
"For what?"
"Information."
Elena stared at the flash drive.
Rosa said, "The stolen money wasn't the goal. It was camouflage."
"For what?"
"Someone was searching through the foundation's old accounts."
Luca understood first.
"For a trail."
Rosa nodded.
"A trail to the archive."
Elena sat down.
This was becoming impossible.
She had believed someone stole fourteen million dollars.
Instead, the money was being moved to hide a search.
"Then why attack me?"
"Because you downloaded the ledger."
"I didn't know what it meant."
"They didn't know that."
Luca paced toward the fireplace.
Marco asked, "Who has administrative access to the foundation?"
Elena listed the names.
"Myself. Our CFO, Daniel Price. Our legal director. Rosa. Two board members."
"Any DeSantis?"
"No."
Rosa said, "Not officially."
Luca stopped.
"What does that mean?"
Rosa looked toward the door.
"One board member was appointed by Dominic."
Elena frowned.
"Samuel Kent?"
Rosa nodded.
Elena almost laughed.
Samuel was seventy-one.
Soft-spoken.
A retired judge.
He had known her since childhood.
"He wouldn't."
Rosa's expression remained grim.
"I hope not."
A knock came.
Marco reached for his weapon.
"It's Vale," a man called.
Luca opened the door enough to let the doctor enter.
While Rosa's arm was examined, Luca pulled Elena aside.
"You are staying with me tonight."
"No."
"That wasn't a question."
She glared at him.
"You don't get to order me around."
"Someone put his hand around your throat."
"I know."
"Someone threatened you."
She looked away.
His eyes narrowed.
"What exactly did he say?"
Elena didn't answer.
Luca stepped closer.
"Elena."
"If I tell you, you'll become more reckless."
His expression hardened.
"Tell me."
She whispered, "He said if I didn't delete the files, you'd die first."
Silence.
Something dark moved behind Luca's eyes.
"That's why you said nothing."
"Yes."
"You thought hiding this protected me."
"I thought it bought time."
"From what?"
"I don't know."
He looked away.
For the first time that evening, he seemed shaken.
Not afraid.
Hurt.
"You should've trusted me."
"I trusted you too much."
He looked back.
"What does that mean?"
"I knew what you'd do if you saw these marks."
"What?"
"This."
She gestured toward the locked mansion.
"Twenty people trapped inside. Security on every door. Your family turning against itself."
"If one of them touched you—"
"You don't know that one did."
"He wore our ring."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"No."
His voice lowered.
"But your fear does."
Before Elena could answer, Marco's phone buzzed.
He checked the screen.
His face changed.
"Luca."
"What?"
"Security found something."
"Where?"
"Carlo's car."
Elena stiffened.
Marco showed him a photograph.
A black leather glove.
A bottle of cleaning solvent.
A second phone.
And a black-stone ring.
Luca stared.
"Bring Carlo here."
Marco called downstairs.
Nobody answered.
He tried again.
"No response."
Luca opened the library door.
Two guards were in the hall.
"Where's Carlo?"
One guard looked confused.
"In the dining room."
"Check."
The guard hurried away.
Thirty seconds later he returned.
"He's gone."
Luca's face turned deadly still.
"How?"
"No one saw him leave."
Marco checked his phone again.
"The exterior doors are locked."
Elena whispered, "Then he's still inside."
A sound came from the hallway.
Running footsteps.
Matteo appeared around the corner.
He was breathing hard.
"Luca."
"What happened?"
Matteo held up Carlo's phone.
"I found this in the upstairs corridor."
Luca took it.
The screen was open to a message.
No sender.
Only six words.
SHE REMEMBERS THE RING. MOVE NOW.
Elena's blood went cold.
Then another message arrived.
Luca opened it.
Three words appeared.
CHECK THE CELLAR.
Matteo looked toward the stairs.
Marco drew his weapon.
Luca told Elena to stay with Rosa.
She refused.
He was about to argue when a scream rose from somewhere beneath the mansion.
Everyone froze.
The scream stopped.
May you like
Then the cellar door slammed shut.
From the other side, someone began pounding.
