Chapter 3
I moved Hannah and Ellie into the east guest suite.
Hannah protested.
“I’m staff.”
“Not tonight.”
“I don’t want trouble.”
“You already have trouble. I’m deciding where it sleeps.”
She looked at me like she could not decide whether to fear me or thank me.
Ellie had no such problem.
She walked into the suite, saw the big bed, and whispered, “Mommy, are we in a castle?”
Hannah started crying.
Quietly.
The kind of crying people do when they cannot afford to fall apart.
I stood in the doorway, not knowing what to do with the softness in my chest.
Lily used to call this house a castle.
Before fire took her voice from every room.
Tony found Vincent’s abandoned car near a marina.
No Vincent.
No security footage.
No witnesses willing to speak.
That meant professionals.
Not panic.
Someone had planned this.
I sat in my study after midnight, staring at the red stain on the carpet where the wine had spilled.
Tony placed a file in front of me.
“Hannah Carter. Widow. Husband David Carter died two years ago in a construction accident.”
I opened the file.
David had worked for a subcontractor connected to one of my legitimate construction firms.
A company managed by my cousin Matteo.
My eyes narrowed.
“Why didn’t I know this?”
“It was small. Insurance settled.”
“Nothing is small now.”
I read further.
David died after scaffolding collapsed.
No criminal charges.
Witness statements disappeared.
One foreman left the state.
Hannah received barely enough money to bury him.
Then a photo slipped from the file.
David Carter.
Standing beside Vincent Bellini.
Outside one of my warehouses.
I lifted the photo.
“When was this taken?”
Tony swallowed.
“Three days before David died.”
A poison attempt.
A dead husband.
A child threatened.
And Vincent at the center of both.
May you like
The past was no longer past.
It had found a child in a pink backpack and followed her into my house.
