Chapter 8: What Marcus Could Prove
Vittorio did not call Marcus back.
He showed the message to Domenico, who photographed it, forwarded it to his own secure account, and said, "Don't respond.
Don't delete it.
If he has something real, he'll send it.
If he's bluffing, silence is the right answer."
"And if he's not bluffing?"
"Then we find out what he has before he decides how to use it."
Rosa arrived in the study twenty minutes later.
She was twenty-six, small, and visibly nervous — the kind of nervous that comes from being asked to sit in a room with a lawyer and your employer's employer.
She held her hands in her lap and looked at Domenico when he spoke to her, not at Vittorio.
"You don't need to be afraid," Domenico said.
"We only need to know what you saw."
Rosa nodded.
"I brought the laundry upstairs.
The second floor linen room is next to the small sitting room.
The door was open." She stopped.
"Miss Bianca had Lucy in the corner.
She was holding her by the arm — not hard, but firm.
She was speaking very quietly.
I couldn't hear all of it."
"What could you hear?" Domenico asked.
"She said, 'Your father doesn't need to know everything that happens here.
That's not how households work.' And then she said, 'You are a guest in this house the same as anyone else.'" Rosa paused.
"Lucy said, 'I'm not a guest, I live here.' And Bianca said, 'For now.'"
The room was very still.
"I started to step back," Rosa said.
"But the floor made a sound.
Bianca looked up and saw me.
She told me to put the laundry down and leave.
I did." She looked at her hands.
"I should have said something.
I know that."
"You're saying something now," Vittorio said.
Rosa looked at him for the first time.
"She frightened Lucy.
Not with shouting.
With the way she said things.
Quietly.
Like she had already decided how everything was going to go and Lucy just hadn't been told yet."
Domenico had her sign a written account.
She signed it without hesitation.
After she left, Vittorio's phone rang.
Not a message this time — a call.
Marcus Hale.
Domenico nodded once.
Vittorio answered and put it on speaker.
"I told you not to do anything you couldn't undo," Marcus said.
He sounded composed.
Careful.
"I haven't done anything yet," Vittorio said.
"Domenico Ferrara was seen arriving at your house this morning.
You've already done something."
"What is it you think you can prove, Marcus?"
A pause.
"Elena's doctor.
The one who managed her final months.
His name was Renard.
He retired to Lausanne two years after she died.
He reached out to Bianca's family eighteen months ago.
He had concerns he'd carried for a long time about the circumstances of Elena's treatment in the final weeks."
Vittorio said nothing.
"He believed the medication schedule was altered," Marcus said.
"Not by you.
He was clear about that.
But by someone with access to her care who stood to benefit from the timing of her death."
"And who did he believe that was?"
Another pause.
Longer.
"Her brother," Marcus said.
"Your brother-in-law.
Stefano."
Domenico's pen stopped moving.
"Renard documented it," Marcus continued.
"He never went to the authorities because he wasn't certain enough.
But he gave what he had to Bianca's family.
As insurance."
"Insurance against what?" Vittorio asked.
"Against you," Marcus said.
"In case you ever came after them."
Vittorio looked at Domenico.
Domenico's face had gone very still — the stillness of someone rapidly reassessing the shape of something large.
"Why are you telling me this?" Vittorio said.
"Because Bianca is going to use it," Marcus said.
"And I don't want her to.
That's the truth.
Whatever you think of me — I did not come here to destroy you.
I came here because she asked me to help her get what she wanted.
I didn't know how far back it went until recently."
"And what does she want?"
The line was quiet for three full seconds.
"The Meridian holding company," Marcus said.
"There's an asset inside it that belonged to Elena's family before the marriage.
Bianca's mother spent years trying to recover it through legal channels and failed.
Bianca decided to try a different way."
Vittorio closed his eyes briefly.
"She was never here for me," he said.
"No," Marcus said.
"I'm sorry."
Vittorio looked at the phone on the desk.
"Come in tomorrow morning.
Bring everything Renard gave you.
Everything." He paused.
"If you're telling the truth, I'll remember it.
If you're not, Domenico will."
He ended the call.
The study was quiet.
Outside the window, the garden had gone gold with late afternoon light.
"Stefano," Vittorio said.
"We don't know yet if Renard's account is accurate," Domenico said carefully.
"No." Vittorio stood.
"But I know Stefano has been asking about the Meridian structure for two years.
I thought it was grief.
I thought he was trying to stay connected to Elena's memory." He moved to the window.
"I gave him access to the subsidiary records last spring."
Domenico set down his pen.
"How much access?"
Vittorio didn't answer.
May you like
He was looking at the garden, at the long shadows the trees made across the grass.
"Enough," he said.
