Chapter 3 - Bianca’s Perfect Smile
Bianca arrived at the Vitali estate the next morning wearing a cream-colored dress and carrying flowers.
She looked like the woman every magazine wanted on its cover.
Elegant.
Beautiful.
Perfect.
Exactly the kind of woman the city expected beside Marello Vitali.
She smiled when she saw him.
But the smile disappeared when she noticed I was standing beside him.
Her face changed for less than a second.
It was almost invisible.
Almost.
Marello saw it.
"So you're early."
She laughed lightly.
"I wanted to check the decorations."
Her eyes moved around the room.
"Where are your guards?"
"Outside."
"That's unusual."
"Is it?"
She smiled again.
"No."
Then Leo ran into the room.
He wasn't wearing shoes.
He stopped when he saw Bianca.
She crouched.
"Hello."
Leo hid behind my leg.
Marello noticed.
"He's shy."
Bianca smiled.
"Who's he?"
Marello looked at me.
Then at her.
"A family friend."
She looked suspicious.
"A family friend?"
"Yes."
She stood.
"What's his name?"
"Leo."
Her smile froze.
Only for a heartbeat.
But I saw it.
She remembered the name.
Why?
I had never told her.
Marello saw it too.
"Does that name mean something to you?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"Of course."
She laughed awkwardly.
Leo looked at her.
"Do you know my mommy?"
Bianca went pale.
I pulled him closer.
Marello stepped between them.
"Go upstairs, Leo."
The boy obeyed.
Bianca looked at me.
Something cold passed through her eyes.
"Who is she?"
Marello didn't answer.
She stared at the staircase.
Then back at him.
"Are you hiding something from me?"
Marello smiled.
"Are you?"
The room became silent.
Bianca's phone rang.
She glanced at it.
"I need to take this."
"Here?"
"Outside."
She walked away.
Marello motioned to me.
We followed.
Bianca entered the garden.
She spoke quietly into the phone.
"Dario said it was supposed to happen tonight."
Marello looked at me.
I whispered:
"Dario."
His jaw tightened.
We recorded everything.
Bianca continued.
"The child is here."
Our bodies went cold.
"I don't know how."
A pause.
"No. He doesn't know about the full plan."
Another pause.
"I told you I can handle him."
Marello's hands tightened.
Bianca ended the call.
Before she returned, Marello grabbed my hand.
"We've heard enough."
He whispered:
"Now we find out how much she knows."
But instead of confronting her, he acted normal.
He smiled.
He kissed her cheek.
He spoke about wedding flowers.
He asked whether she wanted the ceremony moved indoors.
Bianca relaxed.
She believed she still had control.
That afternoon, Marello asked her to review the guest list.
She agreed.
While she was distracted, Marcus searched her suite.
They found three phones.
Two passports.
A key card for a private warehouse.
And a photograph.
It showed Bianca with Dario seven years earlier.
But that wasn't the worst part.
Standing behind them was Bianca's father.
A man Marello believed had died before Bianca ever met him.
His name was Antonio De Luca.
Antonio had once been part of the Vitali organization.
He had betrayed Marello's father.
He had disappeared after the betrayal.
I recognized him.
He was the man who had stood in the warehouse the night I was kidnapped.
I touched the photograph.
"That's him."
Marello's face darkened.
"You're certain?"
"I remember his voice."
He looked toward Bianca's room.
"So this goes deeper."
Marcus produced another file.
Antonio had recently been moving funds through Bianca's charity.
Hundreds of millions.
Money from companies connected to Marello.
The wedding wasn't simply a personal betrayal.
It was a takeover operation.
The marriage would merge certain assets.
Then, if Marello died, Bianca would become the legal bridge controlling them.
But there was more.
A prenup clause gave Bianca temporary control over major accounts if Marello died within the first year of marriage.
It had been disguised as a standard estate provision.
Marello read it twice.
"She planned everything."
I nodded.
Then Marcus found something hidden in the lining of Bianca's suitcase.
A vial.
A laboratory code.
And a note.
THREE DROPS IN HIS CHAMPAGNE.
Marello closed his eyes.
He looked furious.
But I knew better.
This was not rage.
This was control.
"We let the wedding happen."
I stared at him.
"You are serious."
"Yes."
"We could arrest her now."
"Then Dario disappears."
"And Antonio."
"And everyone above them."
He placed the vial on the table.
"Three days."
"Three days?"
"Three days until they think I am dead."
My stomach tightened.
"What are you planning?"
He looked at me.
"Nothing."
I stared.
He smiled.
"That's the point."
That night, Leo woke crying.
I went to his room.
He was sitting upright.
"I dreamed someone took Mama."
I hugged him.
"No one will take me."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
The door opened.
Marello stood there.
Leo looked at him.
"Papa."
Marello walked over.
"Bad dream?"
Leo nodded.
Marello sat on the bed.
"You know what I do when I'm scared?"
"What?"
"I stay close to the people I love."
Leo smiled.
"Me too."
Marello looked at me.
The three of us sat there.
For seven years, I had imagined my son meeting his father.
I had imagined tears.
Anger.
Questions.
But I had never imagined this.
A little boy sleeping between us while the most feared man in the city watched him like he was the most precious thing on earth.
Marello looked at me.
"Tomorrow, we start dismantling the conspiracy."
"How?"
He smiled faintly.
"By giving them exactly what they want."
"And what do they want?"
"The Vitali king dead."
May you like
His eyes darkened.
"So we'll give them a dead king."
