Chapter 6 - THE THREE RED CAMELLIAS
Vittorio called Reed before he told anyone else.
He photographed the drawing and sent it through the secure channel Reed had established.
Reed called back almost immediately.
"Do not return to the estate yourself."
"I know."
"I mean it."
"Marcus may expect you to connect the flowers to the greenhouse."
"Then send a team."
"I already am."
Vittorio stood by the bedroom window while Lucy colored at a small desk behind him.
He had never felt farther from his own home.
The greenhouse sat on the east side of the estate beyond the formal gardens.
Sofia had loved it.
She had spent winter mornings there with Lucy, teaching her plant names and pretending each flower had a personality.
After Sofia died, Vittorio had stopped entering it.
The gardeners maintained it.
Lucy still visited sometimes with Teresa.
Bianca hated the humidity and rarely went inside.
At least that was what she had claimed.
Reed's team reached the greenhouse at 3:17 that afternoon.
A body camera transmitted a secure feed to Vittorio's laptop.
He watched two investigators enter through the glass doors.
The three red camellia bushes were at the far end beneath a trellis.
The soil around the middle bush looked undisturbed.
An investigator used a handheld scanner.
It beeped near the base.
They removed the top layer of soil carefully.
Six inches down, they found a weatherproof metal box.
Vittorio stopped breathing.
The box had a combination lock.
Lucy looked over from the desk.
"They found Mommy's treasure."
Vittorio turned toward her.
"Did she call it that?"
Lucy nodded.
"She said treasure is not always gold."
Vittorio almost smiled.
That was Sofia too.
The investigators transported the box to a secure evidence room before opening it.
Reed insisted on photographing every step.
Inside were three items.
The original red guardianship folder.
A flash drive sealed in plastic.
And an envelope addressed to Vittorio in Sofia's handwriting.
He recognized it instantly.
His hands began shaking.
Reed offered to have the letter delivered unopened.
Vittorio said no.
"Read it to me."
Reed hesitated.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Reed unfolded the paper.
His voice was careful.
"Vittorio, if you are reading this, then I either found the courage to show you everything or I ran out of time."
Vittorio sat down.
Lucy was still coloring behind him.
He lowered the laptop volume so she could not hear.
Reed continued.
"I need you to understand one thing before you blame yourself."
"The person watching us is patient."
"He uses ordinary moments because ordinary moments do not look like threats."
"He knows your schedule."
"He knows our finances."
"He knows which arguments make you angry and which memories make you careless."
Vittorio closed his eyes.
Sofia had understood Marcus before Vittorio had.
The letter continued.
"I believe Marcus is connected to Blackridge Capital."
"I believe he has been leaking information about our family and company for years."
"I also found messages between Marcus and a woman named Bianca Vale."
Bianca Vale.
Vittorio had always known her as Bianca Laurent.
Laurent was her mother's maiden name.
The detail struck him hard.
She had entered his life under a surname Sofia would not have recognized immediately.
Reed continued reading.
"I do not know Bianca."
"But Marcus describes her as someone who can get close to you if necessary."
"One message says, 'She knows his type.'"
"Another says, 'Do not introduce them until after.'"
After.
The single word sat between every person listening.
After what?
Sofia's letter answered.
"I fear 'after' means after I am no longer in the way."
Vittorio stood so quickly that the chair scraped the floor.
Lucy looked back.
"Daddy?"
He forced his expression to soften.
"I am okay."
It was a lie.
He hated lying to her even for that.
Reed waited until Lucy returned to her coloring.
Then he continued.
"I cannot prove anyone intends to hurt me."
"I can only prove someone has been watching us."
"If something happens, give the flash drive to someone outside our normal circle."
"Not the board."
"Not the family office."
"Not even Daniel until you know whether the leak reaches him."
Vittorio's eyes opened sharply.
Daniel.
His attorney.
His friend for fifteen years.
The man currently coordinating the legal response.
Reed stopped reading.
"That is the end."
Vittorio stared at the screen.
"She named Daniel?"
"She said not even Daniel until you know whether the leak reaches him."
"That is not the same as accusing him."
Vittorio knew Reed was right.
It did not make the sentence easier to hear.
"Open the flash drive."
"We are imaging it now."
"I will call you when we know what is on it."
Vittorio ended the call.
Emma had been standing in the doorway.
She had heard enough to understand.
"Daniel?"
"Sofia did not accuse him."
"She warned me not to assume anyone was clean."
Emma folded her arms around herself.
"Do you?"
"Assume Daniel is clean?"
Vittorio looked out the window.
"I did this morning."
"Now I assume nothing."
That evening, Reed sent a forensic summary of the flash drive.
It contained thousands of exported messages from a private messaging service.
Sofia had apparently copied them from a device she found connected to the hidden camera system.
Most messages used initials or code names.
One participant was clearly Marcus.
Another was called B.
A third was called H.
The messages stretched back more than four years.
The early ones discussed Blackridge.
They described board votes.
They described Vittorio's weaknesses as a negotiator.
They discussed Sofia's influence over him.
One message from H read, SHE KEEPS HIM FROM SELLING.
Marcus replied, THEN REMOVE THE VARIABLE.
No one explained what remove meant.
Three months later, Sofia died.
After her death, the messages changed.
B asked when she should make contact.
Marcus replied, TOO SOON LOOKS UGLY.
Six months later, he wrote, NOW.
Vittorio remembered exactly where he had met Bianca.
A charity dinner at the Halcyon Hotel.
Marcus had invited him.
Bianca had been seated two chairs away.
She had seemed spontaneous.
She had seemed uninterested in his money.
She had known just enough about art to make him laugh at his own ignorance.
Nothing about that night had been spontaneous.
Vittorio felt humiliated by how well the scene had worked.
He called Reed.
"Find out who arranged the Halcyon seating chart."
"Already requested."
"And Bianca's name was Vale before Laurent."
"We found that too."
"She worked for Blackridge."
Vittorio went still.
"Doing what?"
"Strategic communications consultant."
"Four years ago."
"Her employment ended two weeks after Sofia's death."
Vittorio gripped the phone.
"She told me she had never worked in finance."
"Technically she worked in communications."
Reed's dry tone carried no amusement.
"People build lies out of technical truths because they survive casual questions."
Vittorio looked toward Lucy's bedroom.
"What about H?"
"Unknown."
"But the account remained active after Marcus fled today."
Vittorio's skin prickled.
"How do you know?"
"A new message arrived on the recovered account at 5:42 p.m."
"What did it say?"
Reed paused.
"It said Marcus was never supposed to take the red folder."
"Then it said, 'He is improvising.'"
Vittorio processed that.
Marcus was not the top of the structure.
Someone above him was still watching.
"Can you trace H?"
"We are trying."
"Do not tell Daniel about H yet."
There was a brief silence.
"Understood."
Vittorio ended the call.
Emma stepped into the room carrying tea.
"Lucy finally fell asleep."
Vittorio nodded.
"Thank you."
Emma set the tray down.
"There is something else she told me."
Vittorio looked up.
"What?"
"Bianca took her somewhere twice without telling Teresa."
Vittorio stood.
"Where?"
"Lucy calls it the blue room."
"She says Marcus was there."
"And a woman she did not know asked her questions about you."
Vittorio's face hardened.
"What kind of questions?"
Emma looked sick.
"Questions like whether you shouted."
"Whether you drank."
The message archive also contained a set of photographs Vittorio had never seen.
They showed Bianca walking past Lucy's school months before Vittorio officially introduced them.
In one image, Bianca sat in a parked car across from the pickup line.
In another, Marcus stood beside the same car wearing sunglasses and looking toward the gate.
The timestamps predated the Halcyon charity dinner.
Vittorio stared at the photographs until the screen blurred.
"She watched my daughter before she met me."
Reed corrected him gently.
"Before you knew she met you."
That difference mattered.
Bianca's public entrance into Vittorio's life had been scheduled.
Her private observation of Lucy had started earlier.
One message from Marcus to B appeared beside the photographs.
CHILD ATTACHED TO ROUTINE. DO NOT FORCE ENTRY.
Another followed three weeks later.
FATHER RESPONDS TO ANYONE WHO MAKES HER LAUGH.
Vittorio remembered Bianca's third meeting with Lucy.
She had brought a small magic kit and deliberately failed every trick until Lucy corrected her.
Lucy had laughed for twenty minutes.
Vittorio had watched from the doorway and felt something in him soften.
Now he saw the memory inside Marcus's instruction.
The pain was not that the laughter had been fake.
Lucy's laughter had been real.
The pain was that someone had studied how to produce it in order to reach him.
Rachel closed the image folder.
"Do not let them steal the real part too."
Vittorio looked at her.
"Lucy laughed because she wanted to laugh."
"That belongs to Lucy, not to them."
He nodded slowly.
It was a small boundary, but he needed it.
Lucy later asked why everyone cared so much about an old book and some flowers.
Vittorio told her that her mother had left messages because she wanted the family safe.
He did not explain the crimes.
Maya had warned him that children did not need adult details in order to receive honest answers.
Lucy accepted that.
Then she asked whether Sofia had been scared.
Vittorio answered yes.
Lucy thought for a moment.
"She did it even scared?"
"Yes."
Lucy nodded.
"Then scared does not mean you cannot do things."
Vittorio carried that sentence with him into the rest of the investigation.
"Whether you ever scared her."
May you like
"And every time Lucy gave the wrong answer, Bianca made her start again."
