Chapter 7 - CLARA TALKS
They found Clara at a pharmacy in Skokie.
She saw Vittorio through the window and ran.
Ruiz caught up first but did not touch her.
"Clara, nobody is taking you anywhere."
She stopped.
When Vittorio reached them, she was crying.
"I'm sorry."
"For leaving?"
"For leaving Lucy."
"Start with why."
Clara told them Marcus had offered her fifty thousand dollars to sign a statement saying Vittorio frightened Lucy.
She refused.
Then Bianca threatened to report Clara's younger brother for a probation violation she claimed she could prove.
"I signed the NDA and left," Clara said. "I thought if I disappeared, they'd leave Lucy alone."
"Why didn't you call me?"
Clara looked at him sadly.
"Because every phone number I had for you went through Marcus."
Again.
Always Marcus.
She also confirmed the engagement-party drink.
"Bianca poured something from a dropper into your glass. I saw her."
Maya asked, "Do you know what it was?"
"No."
"Did Marcus?"
"Yes."
Clara had one more thing.
A photo she took before leaving the estate.
Bianca and Marcus standing in Vittorio's father's old office with Salvatore D'Angelo.
Vittorio's uncle.
Salvatore had spent years telling Vittorio the family needed stronger leadership.
Stronger meant more obedient to the old ways.
"Why is he with them?" Emma asked.
Clara shook her head.
Vittorio knew.
If he was declared unfit, control of several D'Angelo holding companies would shift temporarily to the senior family trustee.
Salvatore.
The trust scheme was bigger than Lucy's money.
It was a coup.
Clara grabbed Vittorio's sleeve.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The breakfast room wasn't supposed to happen today."
Vittorio frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Bianca had a date written in her planner. Next Thursday. She called it the incident."
Emma's face changed.
May you like
"Then what happened this morning?"
Clara whispered, "Lucy must have ruined their schedule."
