Chapter 2
Vanessa stood outside the study in a cream silk dress.
“There you are.”
Dante closed the door behind him.
“Why are the gates locked?” she asked.
“Security issue.”
“What kind?”
“The kind I’m handling.”
Downstairs, Sophia laughed in the kitchen.
Vanessa glanced toward the sound. “That child is here again?”
“Daycare closed.”
“Elena should have called.”
“She did.”
It was a lie. Dante wanted to see if Vanessa corrected him.
She didn’t.
Instead she touched his tie. “Your jeweler called. The family necklace will be ready tomorrow.”
“My mother’s necklace?”
“The one I’m wearing at the engagement dinner.”
“I never agreed to that.”
Her smile tightened. “You said we’d discuss it.”
“No. You asked. I said no.”
A flicker crossed her face before she walked away.
Rocco arrived minutes later with a tablet.
“The study hallway camera went offline at 11:42.”
“For how long?”
“Seventeen minutes.”
Sophia had appeared in the study at 12:03.
Rocco opened another screen. “Someone also used Elena’s staff code at the service door.”
“Elena was downstairs.”
“I know.”
A distant camera had caught one frame before the system went dark.
A woman in a cream dress.
Something bronze in her hand.
Dante stared at the image.
“Do not confront her yet.”
Rocco nodded.
Dante went to the kitchen.
Sophia sat coloring a purple bird.
“Sweetheart, where did you see the bird thing?”
She pointed upstairs.
“Pretty lady.”
“What did she do with it?”
“Put it in blue box.”
Elena whispered, “Vanessa has a blue jewelry case.”
Sophia shook her head.
“Paper box.”
Then she added, “Dead daddy papers.”
Dante’s chest tightened.
His brother Marco had been dead seven years.
Sophia hugged her one-eared cat.
“Lady said dead daddy signs better.”
Dante looked at Elena.
May you like
For the first time, she looked more frightened than embarrassed.
And he knew the missing seal was only the beginning.
