Chapter 4 - The House Caroline Left Behind
Mara did not go alone.
She argued.
Luca refused.
She argued harder.
Luca refused harder.
Finally Rosa, now bandaged and furious from the sitting room sofa, solved it.
“Mara drives. Luca follows two blocks behind. Vittorio tracks both vehicles. Nobody is happy. That means it is probably fair.”
Luca gave Rosa an irritated look.
Mara took her keys.
Nero walked toward the door.
“No,” Luca said.
The Doberman ignored him.
Mara looked down.
“He’s coming.”
“He’s blind.”
“He appears unaware that you consider that a limitation.”
Vittorio coughed into his fist.
Luca stared at both of them.
Ten minutes later, Nero was in Mara’s passenger seat.
The childhood house stood forty minutes outside the city.
Mara had not visited in eighteen years.
Her mother sold it after receiving what she described as “an offer too good to refuse.”
Now Mara wondered whether the phrase had meant more.
The house looked abandoned.
Luca’s car waited down the road.
Mara stepped onto the porch.
Nero moved beside her.
The front door was unlocked.
That was the first wrong thing.
The smell was the second.
Coffee.
Fresh.
Someone had been there minutes earlier.
Mara entered.
The living room was empty.
Furniture covered with sheets.
Dust everywhere except one path across the floor.
Nero followed it.
The path led to the kitchen.
On the table sat a blue envelope.
MARA.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Mara’s fingers shook.
She opened it.
Inside was a single sentence.
TRUST THE MAN WHO LOVES THE DOG MORE THAN HIS OWN REPUTATION.
Mara closed her eyes.
“Mom.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Nero growled.
Mara reached for her phone.
Before she could call Luca, someone moved behind her.
She spun.
Luca.
“How did you—”
“Back door.”
“You were supposed to stay outside.”
“So were the people upstairs.”
Fair point.
They climbed together.
Nero led.
At the top of the stairs stood Mara’s old bedroom.
Door closed.
A thin line of light showed beneath it.
Luca positioned himself beside the frame.
Mara opened the door.
Nobody attacked.
Inside was a projector.
It turned on automatically.
A woman appeared on the wall.
Caroline Ellis.
Mara’s mother.
Older than Mara remembered her.
Sick.
“This recording is for Mara.”
Mara covered her mouth.
“If you’re seeing this, I failed to keep you away from the Bellandis.”
Luca glanced at Mara.
Caroline continued.
“Antonio Bellandi was not a good man. But near the end of his life, he tried to become one.”
Luca’s face remained unreadable.
“His daughter Elena discovered Project Janus was trafficking more than money. Judges were being bought. Witnesses disappeared. Children of powerful families were threatened to enforce silence.”
Mara thought of Preston’s son.
The video continued.
“Elena stole the master ledger.”
Luca whispered, “Where?”
Caroline answered as though she heard him.
“She gave it to me.”
Mara froze.
“I hid it where Janus would never search.”
The screen flickered.
“Elena survived the attack on her car.”
Luca took one step toward the wall.
“She came to me injured. Terrified. She believed someone close to Luca had betrayed her.”
His breathing changed.
“Who?”
Caroline looked directly into the camera.
“I never learned his name.”
Luca’s shoulders fell slightly.
“But Elena did.”
A sound came downstairs.
Glass breaking.
Luca moved instantly.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“No.”
Nero was already at the stairs.
They descended together.
A man stood in the kitchen.
Simon Vale.
The third man from the ballroom.
His black suit was torn.
Blood marked his forehead.
He raised both hands.
“Don’t shoot.”
Luca had not drawn anything.
Simon apparently assumed.
“Where’s Preston?” Luca asked.
“They took him.”
“Who?”
“Janus.”
“That isn’t a person.”
“It is now.”
Simon leaned against the counter.
“The old network changed. One man controls it.”
“Name.”
Simon shook his head.
“They’ll kill my family.”
Luca stepped closer.
“They already threatened Preston’s.”
Simon looked at Mara.
“You don’t understand. The champagne was only supposed to be the first distraction.”
“What was the second?” she asked.
Simon’s expression twisted.
“You.”
Mara felt cold.
“Me?”
“The foundation grant. Your director getting sick. Your invitation.”
Luca’s face darkened.
“Her director was poisoned?”
“Not fatally. Just enough to keep her home.”
Mara stared.
“You arranged for me to attend?”
“No. Janus did.”
“Why?”
Simon pointed upstairs.
“Because Caroline left something here only Mara could unlock.”
Luca’s voice dropped.
“What?”
Simon looked toward Mara.
“Her childhood music box.”
Mara’s breath stopped.
She remembered it.
Wooden.
Painted stars.
Her mother had given it to her for her eighth birthday.
She had not seen it since they moved.
They ran upstairs.
The box sat inside the closet.
Mara opened it.
No music played.
The mechanism was broken.
She turned it over.
Four numbers had been scratched beneath it.
August 12.
Elena’s reported date of death.
Luca saw it.
“That can’t be coincidence.”
There was a tiny keyhole inside the box.
Mara used the silver compass necklace she had retrieved earlier from her apartment.
The pointed end fit.
A hidden drawer opened.
Inside lay a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Mara read it.
Luca, if Mara has opened this, I failed to return.
Forgive me.
E.
Luca sat down on Mara’s old bed.
For the first time that night, the feared man who could silence a ballroom looked completely human.
“She was alive.”
Mara sat beside him.
“At least long enough to write this.”
He stared at the note.
“I stopped looking.”
“You thought she was dead.”
“I should have known.”
“You were grieving.”
“I was weak.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
Mara spoke carefully.
“Believing evidence is not weakness.”
Something vulnerable entered his eyes.
Then Simon shouted from downstairs.
“Luca!”
They ran.
Simon stood at the kitchen window.
Outside, headlights surrounded the property.
Five vehicles.
Black.
Unmarked.
Luca took out his phone.
No signal.
Simon whispered, “They found us.”
Mara looked at Nero.
The dog faced the basement door.
Growling.
Luca noticed.
“There’s another way out?”
Mara remembered suddenly.
“A coal passage. My mother used it for storage.”
They opened the basement.
Dark stairs descended.
Nero went first.
At the bottom, Mara found the old passage.
The door was open.
Fresh footprints led inside.
Luca raised a flashlight.
Thirty feet ahead stood a woman.
Dark hair.
Silver compass necklace.
She stepped into the light.
Luca stopped breathing.
“Elena?”
The woman smiled through tears.
Then another voice came from behind them.
“Don’t move.”
Luca slowly turned.
May you like
Vittorio stood at the top of the basement stairs.
And for the first time all night, he was pointing a gun directly at Luca.
