Chapter 4 - Someone Inside the Mansion
Roman raised one hand.
Nobody moved.
The footsteps continued.
Clara pulled Maisie closer.
The child had been brought from the kitchen moments earlier and now buried her face against her mother.
A figure appeared.
Mrs. Bellini.
The cook held a flashlight.
“Don’t shoot an old woman,” she said.
Roman lowered his hand.
“Where’s Matteo?”
“His room is empty.”
Roman looked toward the third floor.
The intercom crackled again.
“Alone, Roman.”
Matteo’s voice.
Recorded.
Gabriel examined the control panel.
“Loop.”
Someone wanted Roman upstairs.
Roman refused to obey blindly.
They moved as a group.
Matteo’s suite was empty.
His closet had been cleared.
Desk drawers stood open.
Clara noticed a photograph facedown.
She picked it up.
Roman as a boy.
His father beside him.
Matteo behind them.
On the back someone had written:
ONE SON INHERITS. ONE BROTHER WATCHES.
Roman read it.
“My father’s handwriting.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Your father suspected Matteo?”
“Maybe.”
They searched the desk.
Nothing.
Maisie wriggled from Clara’s arms.
“Crayon.”
“Not now, sweetheart.”
“Yellow crayon.”
She pointed beneath the bed.
Clara crouched.
A yellow crayon lay there.
Not Maisie’s current one.
This one was older.
Its paper wrapper had faded.
Clara picked it up.
Maisie had lost a box of crayons upstairs months earlier.
“How did this get here?”
Then Clara saw scratches in the floor.
She moved the rug.
A small metal panel was embedded beneath it.
Roman opened it.
Inside was a burner phone.
One contact.
D.
Daniel.
Roman accessed the messages.
Most were deleted.
One remained.
SHED READY. SEDATIVE CONFIRMED. CHILD NOT EXPECTED.
Clara’s blood chilled.
Maisie had not merely stumbled upon the crime.
Her presence had disrupted it.
If she had obeyed Clara and stayed behind the fountain, Roman would have died.
The fire would have destroyed the rope.
Destroyed evidence.
Perhaps destroyed the cuff link.
Adrian would have been blamed.
Perfect.
Except for a toddler with a yellow crayon.
Roman sat on the edge of the bed.
He had spent his life believing power meant knowing what happened under his own roof.
He had been wrong.
Clara watched him.
“Roman.”
He looked up.
“You’re allowed to be angry.”
“I am.”
“You’re allowed to show it.”
“That’s usually expensive.”
“Try it without breaking furniture.”
A humorless smile touched his mouth.
Then vanished.
“I trusted him.”
Clara understood.
“So did I.”
She meant Eli.
Trust did not die cleanly when someone betrayed it.
It left questions.
Roman stood.
“We find Sofia.”
Gabriel traced Daniel’s vehicle to an abandoned Duca warehouse near the river.
Roman wanted Clara and Maisie to remain behind.
Clara refused.
“Daniel threatened my daughter. Eli died because of these people. I’m finished waiting in rooms while men decide what I’m allowed to know.”
Roman looked at her for a long moment.
“Maisie stays.”
“Yes.”
“With Bellini and Gabriel.”
“Gabriel is coming with you.”
Roman looked annoyed.
Clara folded her arms.
“Then find someone else you trust.”
That was the problem.
Roman had almost nobody left.
They compromised.
Gabriel remained.
Roman took Adrian and two men whose loyalty Gabriel personally verified.
Clara stayed with Maisie.
For twenty minutes.
Then she discovered something that changed the plan.
Maisie was coloring at the kitchen table when she said, “Shiny man has blue car.”
Clara stopped.
“What?”
“Shiny man.”
“Daniel?”
Maisie nodded.
“Blue car?”
She nodded again.
Daniel’s SUV was black.
Clara opened the estate vehicle registry.
There was one dark-blue sedan assigned to senior staff.
Matteo’s.
The tracker showed it was still on the property.
Near the old gardener’s cottage.
Clara called Roman.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She called Adrian.
Nothing.
She called Gabriel.
He was standing beside her.
“Roman may be walking into a trap,” she said.
Gabriel looked at the tracker.
Then at her.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“My husband died because everybody told everybody else to stay somewhere.”
Gabriel swore softly.
They left Maisie with Mrs. Bellini and crossed the grounds.
The gardener’s cottage appeared abandoned.
Blue sedan outside.
Engine cold.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
Clara stayed behind him.
Inside they found Sofia.
Alone.
Bound to a chair.
Alive.
Gabriel freed her.
“Where’s Daniel?”
“He left.”
“Where?”
“The warehouse.”
Clara’s heart sank.
Roman.
Sofia grabbed her wrist.
“No. Listen.”
She was crying.
“Daniel wanted Roman to believe I went with him willingly. He forced me to sit where the camera could see me.”
“The hand signal?”
Sofia nodded.
“I knew about locker 317 because Adrian told me years ago.”
Clara stared.
“Why?”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“Because I knew Eli.”
Another secret.
Sofia explained.
Eli had contacted her before Adrian.
He believed Sofia was the only Duca who could quietly access Roman’s internal records.
She had helped.
Then Eli died.
Fear silenced her.
Just like Adrian.
Clara felt anger rise.
“How many people knew my husband was in danger and said nothing?”
Sofia lowered her eyes.
“Too many.”
Gabriel’s phone rang.
Roman.
He answered.
Static.
Then Roman’s voice.
“We found nothing.”
Clara grabbed the phone.
“Get out of there.”
“Clara?”
“Sofia is here. Daniel wanted you at the warehouse.”
Silence.
Then an explosion boomed through the phone.
The connection died.
“Roman!”
Nothing.
Clara stared at Gabriel.
He was already moving.
They drove toward the river.
Fire glowed against the night sky.
Again.
Clara’s stomach twisted.
Not another fire.
Not another attempt to erase evidence.
Fire crews had not yet arrived.
Adrian stumbled from the warehouse entrance.
Blood ran from his forehead.
“Roman’s inside!”
Clara ran.
Gabriel caught her.
“No.”
She fought him.
“Let me go!”
Then Roman emerged through smoke with one of his men supporting him.
Alive.
Clara stopped breathing.
Roman saw her.
Even covered in soot, he looked furious.
“You were supposed to stay home.”
“So were you.”
He almost laughed.
Then Adrian shouted.
A vehicle was speeding away.
Daniel.
Roman watched it disappear.
He could chase him.
Instead he looked at Clara.
At Sofia.
At Adrian.
People Daniel had tried to destroy.
“No more chasing.”
Clara frowned.
“What?”
“We make him come back.”
Roman returned to the mansion before dawn.
He gathered every senior employee.
Every family member.
Every adviser.
Then he announced something none of them expected.
He was stepping down.
Effective immediately.
Control of the Duca companies would transfer temporarily to Uncle Matteo.
Gasps filled the room.
Matteo stared at Roman.
“My boy—”
“You always said family should carry the burden.”
Matteo embraced him.
Clara watched from the doorway.
Roman’s face showed nothing.
But she understood.
This was bait.
If Matteo believed he had won, he would move the stolen money.
And moving it would expose the network.
The meeting ended.
Matteo went upstairs.
Adrian monitored the financial servers.
Sofia watched internal communications.
Clara sat with Maisie.
Roman joined them.
“How long?”
Clara asked.
“Until Matteo makes a mistake.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“He already did.”
Roman showed her his phone.
A transfer request had appeared.
Forty-eight million dollars.
Authorized by Matteo.
Destination encrypted.
Adrian was tracing it.
Then another alert appeared.
Not financial.
Security.
Someone had opened the hidden room behind the wine cellar.
Roman and Clara looked at each other.
They ran downstairs.
The bottle rack stood open.
The metal door was unlocked.
Roman entered first.
The room had been emptied.
Every photograph.
Every file.
Gone.
Except one envelope lying on the floor.
Roman picked it up.
His name was written across the front.
Inside was a photograph of Clara.
Sleeping.
Taken through her bedroom window.
On the back were six words.
SHE WAS NEVER JUST THE MAID.
May you like
Roman turned toward Clara.
Then they heard Maisie scream upstairs.
