Chapter 2 - THE GIRL IN THE CASHMERE SWEATERClara survived the first night.
Barely.
Dr. Rossi discovered traces of a powerful toxin in her bloodstream.
Someone had calculated the dosage carefully.
Enough to kill.
Not enough to leave obvious evidence.
Alessandro didn't sleep.
He sat beside Clara's bed until morning.
Then security finally found the homeless girl.
Her name was Nadia.
She was nineteen.
She had no permanent address.
No family nearby.
No stable job.
But she had something else.
A secret.
Alessandro entered the interrogation room.
Nadia immediately looked terrified.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“I didn't mean for her to collapse.”
Alessandro sat across from her.
“Tell me everything.”
Nadia looked at the table.
“A woman paid me.”
“What woman?”
“She gave me two thousand dollars.”
“What did she tell you?”
Nadia swallowed.
“She told me exactly what to say.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
“Repeat it.”
“She put something in your cake.”
“Why?”
“To make everyone panic.”
Alessandro's expression hardened.
“Why would someone want that?”
“I don't know.”
“What did she look like?”
Nadia closed her eyes.
“Older.”
“Age?”
“Maybe fifty.”
“Hair?”
“Dark.”
“Clothes?”
“A red dress.”
Alessandro went still.
“Jewelry?”
Nadia nodded.
“She wore a huge green ring.”
An emerald.
Alessandro knew exactly who it belonged to.
Victoria Moretti.
His aunt.
The woman who had helped raise him after his father died.
The woman who had never accepted his takeover of the family empire.
But there was more.
Nadia admitted she had been instructed to run immediately after shouting the warning.
“She said security would chase me.”
“Why?”
“So everyone would think I was guilty.”
Alessandro stared at her.
“You were supposed to become the suspect.”
Nadia nodded.
“She said nobody would believe a homeless girl.”
Alessandro's expression darkened.
“Where is the money?”
Nadia pulled an envelope from her coat.
“I haven't spent it.”
Alessandro stared.
“Why?”
Nadia's voice broke.
“Because I knew something was wrong.”
For the first time, Alessandro saw something beyond fear in her eyes.
Regret.
“I didn't know someone would actually get poisoned.”
“You tried to stop it.”
Nadia nodded.
“I shouted because I couldn't go through with it.”
Alessandro stood.
“You saved her life.”
Nadia looked surprised.
“Does that mean you're going to kill me?”
“No.”
He placed a phone on the table.
“Call whoever you trust.”
Nadia shook her head.
“I don't have anyone.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“Then you do now.”
Nadia stared at him.
But Alessandro wasn't finished.
He had security review every camera from the night of the party.
Four cameras covered the restaurant.
Three showed nothing useful.
The fourth was positioned above the wine station.
Marco froze the footage.
8:47 p.m.
The sommelier poured two glasses.
He turned away.
A figure entered the frame.
Black gloves.
Red silk sleeve.
A hand reached toward Clara's glass.
Something clear dropped into the wine.
Then the figure disappeared.
Alessandro leaned closer.
“Zoom.”
The image sharpened.
A flash of green appeared beneath the glove.
An emerald ring.
The same ring Nadia had described.
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
“Victoria.”
But then Marco noticed something else.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The camera timestamp.”
Alessandro looked.
The poisoning happened at 8:47.
But Victoria's security badge had registered her entering the building at 8:53.
Six minutes later.
Alessandro stared.
Someone had used Victoria's ring.
Or someone had manipulated the footage.
Either way, the truth was deeper than he thought.
Then the screen flickered.
A second figure appeared.
Standing behind the wine station.
Watching the first person.
Alessandro froze.
“Who is that?”
Marco enlarged the image.
The figure was almost completely hidden.
But one detail was visible.
A gold phoenix pendant.
Alessandro recognized it immediately.
It belonged to Clara.
But Clara had never owned it.
Which meant someone had deliberately placed her jewelry at the crime scene.
Someone wanted the evidence to point toward her.
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And that meant the poisoning wasn't simply an attempt to kill Clara.
It was an attempt to destroy Alessandro by turning him against the person he loved.
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