Chapter 3 - THE ROOM AT THE END OF THE HALL
The doctor photographed Mara's bruises with her permission and advised her to get a formal examination. Alessandro asked his attorney, Elena Park, to arrange one outside the family network. Mara insisted the staff who had witnessed the abuse be protected before anyone questioned them.
"You think I'm going to fire them?" he asked.
"I think you've been gone often enough that they don't know what you'll do."
It hit harder than an accusation.
At midnight Celia led them to a sealed upstairs bedroom. Inside a drawer were a pair of leather gloves and a child's hair ribbon, faded yellow.
"Isabella lived here before your father threw her out," Celia said. "After she married Daniel, she'd still bring their daughter to visit."
Mara picked up the ribbon. Her memory opened like a door: her mother braiding her hair in front of a mirror, humming off-key.
"Why leave these things?" she asked.
"Because someone wanted us to remember her as a traitor, not a person."
Celia opened a loose panel behind the wardrobe. Empty.
"I checked last month," Celia whispered. "It was here."
"Who has keys?" Alessandro asked.
"Your uncle. Victoria. And your head of estate operations, Matteo."
Alessandro called security. Matteo's phone was switched off. The guards searched his quarters and found an open suitcase, a rail ticket, and two passports under different names.
"He left at eleven," the gatekeeper reported. "In one of your cars."
"Where was he going?"
"To the old chapel. He said he was supervising demolition at dawn."
Mara's grip tightened on the ribbon. "There's a stone in the chapel floor with my mother's initials. I thought it was a memorial."
May you like
Celia whispered, "It's not."
Outside, a distant engine started on the frozen gravel road.
