Chapter 8 - Sophia's Last Call.
Lorenzo returned from the greenhouse with mud on his shoes and nothing in his hands.
Adrian had escaped through an old drainage route below the cliff road.
When Hunter told him what Margaret Vale had said, he went completely still.
Marco was ordered away from the third floor before he even knew why.
Margaret sat in Lorenzo’s study beneath the portrait of his grandfather.
She twisted a handkerchief between both hands.
“My son worked maintenance here,” she said.
“Nicholas knew every tunnel, every electrical room, every service entrance.”
Lorenzo stood near the fireplace.
“What did he find?”
Margaret looked at Hunter before answering.
“A room beneath the old wine cellar.”
“What room?”
“Files.”
“Money records.”
“Phones.”
“Pictures of people coming and going.”
Lorenzo’s expression hardened.
“Why did he think Marco was involved?”
“Because he saw him there.”
Margaret’s voice shook.
“Nicholas told me Marco met men from the Moretti side before your wife died.”
The name hit the room like a gunshot.
Lorenzo took one step toward her.
“You are saying my brother met the family that bombed Sophia’s car.”
“I am saying my son believed he did.”
“Why did you stay in this house?” Hunter asked.
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Because leaving would have told them Nicholas told me something.”
She pressed the handkerchief to her mouth.
“I thought if I stayed quiet, I could survive long enough to find proof.”
Lorenzo turned away.
Hunter saw his hands shaking.
The possibility of Marco’s betrayal was worse than any external enemy because it reached backward into every memory Lorenzo still trusted.
Gabriel entered carrying a small black phone.
“We found this taped beneath Adrian’s locker.”
The phone contained only one saved audio file.
Its date was two days before Sophia died.
Lorenzo pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Sophia’s voice came through.
“Lorenzo, if you hear this, something has gone very wrong.”
Lorenzo stopped breathing.
Hunter looked down at Leo.
Sophia continued.
“I know you think I have been distant because of the pregnancy.”
“I haven’t.”
“I have been afraid.”
A car horn sounded faintly in the recording.
“I found transfers from one of our charitable foundations into accounts tied to men I recognize from Moretti photographs.”
Lorenzo gripped the phone.
“I confronted the wrong person.”
Sophia’s breathing changed.
“I do not know who I can trust anymore.”
There was a pause.
Then she whispered something almost too soft to hear.
“Vincent knows.”
The recording ended.
Hunter looked at Lorenzo.
“Who is Vincent?”
Lorenzo’s face had gone pale.
“My father’s oldest friend.”
Gabriel spoke carefully.
“Vincent Caruso handled the family accounts for thirty years.”
Margaret looked up.
“He also signed Nicholas’s death certificate as a witness.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
Before anyone could speak again, the nursery alarm sounded upstairs.
One sharp tone.
Then another.
Hunter ran first.
She reached the nursery and pushed through the door.
May you like
The bottle she had left sealed on the counter was gone.
So was Leo.
