Chapter 3 - The Woman My Wife Warned Me Never to Trust
I spent the next day dismantling my own empire.
Every employee was questioned.
Every camera was replaced.
Every account was frozen.
Every doctor was searched.
And every person who had touched Leo's medication was isolated.
But none of that answered the most terrifying question.
Why would anyone want my son dead?
The answer came from an old photograph.
Isabella had kept a picture of herself at eighteen.
I found it inside the hidden compartment with the flash drive.
She was standing beside another girl.
Nina.
I stared at the picture.
It wasn't possible.
Nina had told me she had never personally known my wife.
Yet there she was.
Standing beside Isabella.
I found her immediately.
She was in the library with Leo sleeping in her arms.
I held up the photograph.
"Explain."
Her face changed.
"My God."
"You lied."
"I was afraid."
"Who are you?"
"Nina Carter."
"That's not your real name."
She closed her eyes.
"No."
I stepped closer.
"Then give me the real one."
"My name is Elena Ward."
The name meant nothing.
"Who was the girl beside Isabella?"
"My sister."
My eyes narrowed.
"Your sister?"
"Her name was Rachel."
Nina's voice broke.
"Rachel worked for your wife's family."
I stared.
"How?"
"She was hired as Isabella's companion when they were teenagers."
That explained the photograph.
But not the lies.
"Where is Rachel now?"
"Dead."
"How?"
Nina looked at Leo.
"The same way your wife died."
My pulse accelerated.
"Tell me."
"A car crash."
I shook my head.
"You're saying your sister was murdered?"
"Yes."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
I grabbed the table.
"Stop giving me fragments."
She flinched.
"Isabella discovered something."
"What?"
"Your father."
My blood froze.
"My father died twelve years ago."
"I know."
"Then what could he have done?"
Nina looked toward the windows.
"He built something before he died."
"What?"
"A secret network."
"Money?"
"No."
"Drugs?"
"No."
She looked at me.
"People."
I didn't understand.
"Your family has been buying political protection for decades."
"I know that."
"No."
She shook her head.
"This was different."
She explained that my father had maintained relationships with judges, prosecutors, police officials and business executives who owed him favors.
When he died, Marco quietly inherited control.
I rejected the idea immediately.
"Marco has never controlled politics."
"That's what everyone thinks."
"Then why would Leo matter?"
"Because Isabella found records."
She handed me the flash drive.
"There are names on it."
I inserted the drive into a secure computer.
A spreadsheet appeared.
Hundreds of names.
Judges.
Bankers.
Police officials.
Executives.
And beneath them, transactions.
Millions.
My family had been paying people for years.
But one column was highlighted.
Asset Transfer: Rossi Heir.
"Leo?"
Nina nodded.
"Your father created a trust."
I scrolled.
The trust was worth more than two billion dollars.
"Why didn't I know?"
"Because the beneficiary is not you."
I stared at the screen.
"Then who?"
"Your first legitimate heir."
Leo.
The inheritance was locked behind a clause.
Leo needed to reach a certain age.
If he died before then, control would temporarily pass to a designated guardian.
I read the guardian's name.
Marco Rossi.
Everything clicked.
If Leo died, Marco gained control.
And my wife had known.
She had discovered the trust.
She had tried to protect our son.
And someone had killed her.
I stood.
"Where did you get this?"
"Rachel found it."
"Before she died?"
"Yes."
"She gave it to Isabella."
"Yes."
"And Isabella gave it to you?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you wait until Leo nearly died?"
Nina's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I couldn't get inside the nursery."
"What?"
"Security was too strong."
"So you became a maid."
"I became invisible."
She explained that she had spent months trying to enter the Rossi household to get close to Leo.
She had watched feeding bottles.
She had watched doctors.
She had watched Marco.
Then one night, she saw something.
Marco had entered the nursery alone.
He stood beside Leo's crib.
He didn't touch the child.
Instead, he took a vial from his pocket.
Nina had hidden in a linen closet.
She watched him pour something into a bottle.
She had tried to report it.
But before she could, another maid was found unconscious.
Nina became terrified.
So she waited.
Until she could no longer watch Leo starve.
I sat down.
For years I'd believed fear protected my family.
Now I understood.
Fear only made everyone too frightened to tell me the truth.
Then the door opened.
Marco entered.
He looked at Nina.
A flash of recognition passed across his face.
"You."
Nina stepped back.
Marco reached for his gun.
I drew mine first.
"Don't."
Marco froze.
"Brother, she has been manipulating you."
"Perhaps."
"But you're not going to shoot me."
"Give me one reason."
He laughed softly.
"Because the people behind this aren't who you think."
"What does that mean?"
Marco looked at Nina.
"Ask her why Rachel disappeared before she died."
Nina went pale.
"I told you."
Marco smiled.
"She didn't die."
Nina's breathing stopped.
He continued.
"Rachel is alive."
Nina stared at him.
"You're lying."
"Am I?"
He pulled a photograph from his pocket.
He threw it onto the table.
A woman sat in a hospital bed.
Rachel.
Alive.
But unconscious.
Nina collapsed into the chair.
"No."
Marco looked at me.
"Now ask yourself, Lorenzo, why would someone fake her death?"
I stared at the photograph.
Suddenly nothing made sense.
Unless Rachel had been part of the conspiracy.
Unless Isabella had trusted the wrong person.
Unless the entire story had been built around one lie.
Marco turned toward the door.
"You have forty-eight hours."
"For what?"
"Before the people who actually control this family come for Leo."
He left.
I looked at Nina.
"Was Rachel working against Isabella?"
Nina shook her head.
"I don't know."
I pointed toward the photograph.
"Find out."
She nodded through tears.
Then Leo began crying upstairs.
We ran.
When I entered the nursery, I found the crib empty.
The mattress had been cut open.
A tiny envelope lay inside.
My name was written on it in Isabella's handwriting.
I opened it.
Four words.
"Trust the girl, Lorenzo."
I looked at Nina.
May you like
For the first time since my wife's death, I realized she might not be the danger.
She might be the only person left standing between my son and the people trying to take his life.
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