Chapter 2
Marcus tried to stand.
Vittorio stopped him with one look.
“Sit.”
Marcus laughed.
“You think a child’s breakfast is evidence of anything?”
Vittorio did not answer.
He crouched beside the table.
Retrieved the red leather tube.
Old Romano crest.
His grandfather’s generation.
Vittorio had never seen it outside storage.
He opened it.
Empty.
Marcus smiled.
“Congratulations.”
Then crueler:
“You found a tube.”
Vittorio looked at Emma.
“What was inside?”
She swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see Marcus take something?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
Marcus rolled his eyes.
“Staff love stories when the Boss starts listening.”
Emma went pale.
Marcus continued.
“Maybe she wants a promotion.”
Vittorio looked at him.
Marcus smiled.
“Everyone wants something.”
Then toward Emma:
“Her mother’s rent comes due next week.”
Emma’s face changed.
There it was.
Personal leverage.
Vittorio asked:
“You pay it?”
Marcus shrugged.
“I help people.”
Emma whispered:
“He threatened to stop.”
Marcus laughed.
“Threatened?”
He looked around.
“Listen to her.”
Then:
“If an employee betrays the family, why should the family keep feeding hers?”
Vittorio’s expression hardened.
Same weapon.
Food.
Shelter.
Dependency.
He looked at Lucy.
“How long has Bianca been doing this?”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“Five weeks.”
Vittorio became still.
Five weeks.
He had been in the estate almost every day.
Council rooms.
Late dinners.
Calls.
Yet ten feet away—
this.
“How?”
Emma whispered:
“Only when you were in meetings.”
Bianca laughed from beside the overturned cabinet.
“Exactly.”
Everyone looked at her.
She wiped her face.
“You’re so important.”
Her voice turned mocking.
“Meetings.”
“Crews.”
“Territory.”
“Meanwhile your daughter learns manners.”
Lucy buried her face against Emma.
Bianca saw.
“Look at her.”
“Always hiding.”
Vittorio stood.
Bianca continued.
“If she weren’t so spoiled, none of this would’ve been necessary.”
Blame.
Even now.
“What did Lucy see?”
Bianca’s smile weakened.
“Nothing.”
Vittorio looked at Marcus.
“What river route?”
“No idea.”
Then Emma quietly said:
“I have seventeen videos.”
Silence.
Marcus stopped breathing.
Bianca’s eyes snapped toward her.
Emma tightened her grip on Lucy.
“I started recording after Lucy told me she was scared to eat.”
Vittorio looked at the phone.
Seventeen.
Not one incident.
A pattern.
Emma continued.
“Some are Bianca.”
“Some Marcus.”
Then:
“One is both of them talking about tonight.”
Marcus stood.
The guards moved.
Vittorio looked at Emma.
“What did they say?”
She swallowed.
“That after your council meeting…”
Her eyes moved toward the broken map rack.
“…the east river gate would open for six minutes.”
The breakfast room became silent.
Vittorio’s council had ended twelve minutes early.
May you like
If he had stayed—
the gate would have opened while he was still behind those doors.
