Chapter 4: The Name Caruso Wouldn't Say
Caruso arrived forty minutes later.
He was in his late sixties, heavyset, with the careful walk of a man who had spent decades deciding what not to say.
He came through the side entrance with Marco at his elbow and stopped just inside the study door when he saw me.
His eyes went straight to the locket.
He didn't speak.
"Sit down, Caruso," Vincent said.
He sat.
"This is Isabella Teresa Romano," Vincent said.
"She's twenty-three years old.
She was born February ninth.
Her mother's name was Teresa Romano.
Her mother is d*ad." He paused.
"She's wearing Elena's locket."
Caruso's hands were flat on his thighs.
He didn't look at me again.
"Vincent—"
"Don't."
The single word landed hard.
Caruso closed his mouth.
"I want to know what actually happened the night Elena d*ed," Vincent said.
"Not the report.
Not what you told my father.
What actually happened."
"I told your father everything."
"Then you won't mind telling me."
A long pause.
"There was an accident," Caruso said.
"Black ice.
Elena's car went off the road on the mountain pass.
By the time anyone reached the scene, the car had burned.
There was nothing left to—" He stopped.
"The medical examiner confirmed two fatalities.
Elena and the infant."
"The infant was never found," Vincent said.
"You told my father it was due to the fire."
"That's correct."
"Was it?"
Caruso's jaw tightened.
"That is what the report states."
Vincent leaned forward.
"I'm not asking about the report."
Silence.
I watched Caruso's hands.
His right thumb was pressing hard into his palm.
"There was a woman at the scene," I said.
Both men looked at me.
I didn't know where the words came from.
But the moment I said them, something shifted in Caruso's face — a small collapse, barely visible, like a wall taking a crack.
"My mother told me one thing before she d*ed," I said.
"She said she had been at an accident once.
That she had found someone who needed help.
That she had made a choice she could never undo." I looked at Caruso.
"Was she there?"
He said nothing.
"Was Teresa Romano at the scene of Elena's accident?"
His thumb stopped moving.
"Yes," he said quietly.
Vincent stood up so fast his chair scraped back.
"You knew," he said.
"You knew there was a witness and you buried it."
"I was told to."
"By whom?"
Caruso looked up.
For the first time all night, he looked genuinely old.
"By your father," he said.
The room went completely still.
Vincent didn't move.
He stood behind his chair with both hands on the back of it, and for a long moment the only sound was the wind pressing against the windows.
"My father," he said.
"He came to me the morning after the accident.
Before the report was filed.
He told me Elena had made enemies.
That the child being alive was a danger.
That the safest thing — for everyone — was for the world to believe they were both gone."
"He hid his own granddaughter."
"He believed he was protecting her."
"From what?"
Caruso looked at his hands.
"He never told me that part."
Vincent walked to the window.
He stood there with his back to both of us, and I watched his reflection in the dark glass — jaw set, eyes somewhere far away.
"Where does Vivian fit into this?" I asked.
Caruso hesitated.
"She was engaged to Vincent's father," he said.
"Years ago.
Before your mother.
She knew the family well.
She knew about Elena.
She knew about the accident." He paused.
"And she knew that if the child ever surfaced, the inheritance structure your grandfather set up would change entirely."
I felt the words land one by one.
"She knew who I was," I said.
"Before tonight."
"I believe so."
"She arranged for me to be hired here."
Caruso said nothing.
Which was its own kind of answer.
I looked at Vincent's reflection in the window.
"She didn't bring me here to humiliate me," I said slowly.
"She brought me here to find out if I knew."
Vincent turned around.
"And when she realized you didn't," he said, "she decided it was safer to destroy you before you could."
His phone buzzed on the desk.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
"Vivian is gone," he said.
"She got out through the kitchen."
May you like
He looked at Marco in the doorway.
"Find her."
