Chapter 4 - The Fake Medicine Was Only the Beginning—Someone Had Been Trying to Poison Lorenzo's DaughterThe estate doctor tested the counterfeit bottles.
They contained harmless vitamins.
The real medication in Isabella's emergency reserve was checked immediately.
One bottle contained an unfamiliar powder.
If Isabella had taken it, she might not have survived.
Lorenzo sat beside his daughter's bed that night.
He didn't leave.
I stood in the doorway.
For the first time, I saw him not as a mafia boss but simply as a father.
“She's going to be okay,” I said.
He looked at me.
“She almost wasn't.”
“I know.”
He stared at the floor.
“I should have protected her.”
“You're doing it now.”
He looked at me.
“Why did you stay?”
“With what?”
“After all this.”
I thought of Emma.
“Because leaving would mean they win.”
Lorenzo nodded.
Then he said something I never expected.
“I owe you an apology.”
I shook my head.
“You were suspicious.”
“I believed the evidence.”
“You believed what they wanted you to believe.”
His jaw tightened.
“Exactly.”
Later that night, Vincent found Mrs. Carlisle's old computer.
A hidden folder contained photographs.
Isabella.
Emma.
Me.
Lorenzo.
And a photograph of Vivien meeting a man outside a private hospital.
The man was Gabriel Varga.
But there was another photograph.
The man standing beside him was Lorenzo's younger brother, Mateo.
Mateo was supposed to have died ten years ago.
I stared at the image.
“Lorenzo?”
He stepped beside me.
His face went completely blank.
“That's my brother.”
“Wasn't he killed?”
“Yes.”
Vincent zoomed in.
“He's alive.”
Then the phone rang.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Now you know.”
Lorenzo grabbed the receiver.
“Who is this?”
“Someone who has been watching your family for a very long time.”
“What do you want?”
“The girl.”
Silence.
“Which girl?”
“Isabella.”
The line went dead.
Lorenzo looked at Vincent.
Then at me.
I understood.
We had been looking at the wrong target.
May you like
Emma wasn't the prize.
Isabella was.
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