CHAPTER 7 THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GONE
The address led to an abandoned opera house on the edge of Milan.
Julian had purchased the property two years earlier through a restoration subsidiary, but construction had never begun.
The building stood empty behind iron fencing, its cracked facade covered in rain.
Camila knew Julian owned it.
That meant she had access to information beyond dinner schedules and social invitations.
She had studied his empire before entering his life.
Mara refused to let Julian go alone.
"The note specifically says no police because they expect you to panic," she said.
"We will give them the appearance they want."
Julian wore a transmitter beneath his shirt.
Two tactical teams entered through service tunnels while he approached the main doors carrying Elena's locket in a velvet box.
Elena remained at the hospital under guard.
She had argued until Dr. Meyers threatened to sedate Julian instead of her.
Before he left, Elena caught his wrist.
"Do not trade yourself for Sofia."
"I will not."
"That answer came too quickly."
"I am bringing her back."
"You cannot save everyone by making yourself the sacrifice."
Julian looked at her hand around his wrist.
It was the first time she had chosen to touch him since the lobby.
"I know."
"Do you?"
"I am beginning to."
The opera house doors opened beneath his hand.
Inside, dust floated through shafts of moonlight.
Rows of torn red seats faced a stage hidden behind a heavy curtain.
A single work lamp burned near the orchestra pit.
"Camila," Julian called.
His voice echoed through the empty balconies.
No one answered.
He walked toward the stage.
The velvet box felt absurdly light in his hand.
Elena's locket had been replaced with a copy.
The original remained in police custody.
A speaker crackled above him.
Camila's voice filled the hall.
"You look tired, Julian."
"Come out."
"You never liked waiting."
"Where is Sofia?"
"Close."
"Let me see her."
The stage curtain lifted six inches.
A woman's shoes appeared beneath it.
Julian moved closer.
"Sofia?"
The curtain rose.
A figure sat tied to a chair with a black hood covering her head.
A wire ran from the chair to an explosive device placed near the stage supports.
Red numbers counted down from nine minutes.
Julian stopped.
Mara's voice whispered through his earpiece.
"We see it."
Camila laughed softly through the speaker.
"Place the locket on the center mark."
A white circle had been painted on the stage floor.
Julian set down the velvet box.
"Release her."
"Open it first."
He did.
A camera mounted above the balcony turned toward the box.
Camila was watching remotely.
"That is not Elena's locket," she said.
The countdown dropped to seven minutes.
"Then come inspect it yourself."
"You think I am stupid."
"I think you spent four months pretending to love a man you planned to destroy."
"Love was never required."
"What was?"
"Access."
"To the merger?"
"To everything."
Her voice lost its playful edge.
"Your mother promised me a seat beside you, but Sebastian promised me your seat."
Julian glanced toward the darkened balcony.
The tactical team needed another two minutes to reach the stage mechanism.
"Sebastian intends to remove me."
"He intends to save Rossi Holdings from a grieving husband who has lost control."
"And then?"
"The board appoints him interim chief executive."
"You marry him?"
Camila laughed.
"Sebastian is my brother."
The revelation rearranged four months of Julian's life.
Camila De Luca was not Sebastian's legal sister.
Public records showed her as the daughter of a Spanish industrialist.
Now Julian understood why those records had always seemed strangely thin.
"Half-sister?" he asked.
"Our father preferred separate families."
"Vittoria knew."
"Vittoria knows almost everything."
"Not where Alessio is."
The speaker went silent.
Julian heard the change.
"You are afraid of him."
"Alessio is a sick man hiding behind old guilt."
"He survived the crash."
"For a while."
"What does that mean?"
"Ask your mother."
The countdown reached five minutes.
Mara whispered that the bomb squad was in position but needed the device's secondary trigger located.
Julian stepped toward the tied woman.
"Do not move," Camila said.
"The chair is pressure-sensitive."
"You said you wanted the locket."
"I wanted to know whether you had learned to lie."
"Now you know."
"Yes."
A door opened behind the stage.
Niko Vass emerged holding a pistol.
He looked exactly as Julian remembered from the hospital corridor.
The scar near his ear pulled tight when he smiled.
"Step away from the chair," Niko said.
Julian obeyed.
Niko picked up the velvet box and examined the false locket.
"Police copy."
"You expected otherwise?"
"Mrs. Rossi expected you to remain arrogant enough to come alone."
"Which Mrs. Rossi?"
Niko's expression revealed nothing.
The question was deliberate.
Vittoria was Mrs. Rossi.
So was Elena.
For now.
"Remove the hood," Julian said.
Niko checked the timer.
"You do not give orders here."
"Then why keep me alive?"
"Because your signature is still required."
"For the Helios merger."
"For the transfer after it."
Julian understood.
The billion-dollar merger would consolidate shipping, property, and energy assets under a new parent company.
If he signed the final documents, Sebastian could use emergency board powers to remove him and seize control of a far larger empire.
"You needed Elena gone before the trust recognized the baby," Julian said.
"Smart."
"You needed Camila close enough to drug me, discredit me, or marry me."
"Smarter."
"And you needed Alessio dead."
Niko's eyes flicked toward the curtain.
Julian heard movement behind it.
Not police.
Someone else.
Niko raised the gun.
A hand emerged from the darkness and struck his wrist.
The shot went into the ceiling.
A scarred man drove Niko against the stage wall.
Julian saw his face clearly.
Alessio.
Older, thinner, but alive.
The brothers stared at each other across fifteen stolen years.
Niko recovered and pulled a knife.
Alessio blocked the blade, but the movement reopened the gunshot wound in his side.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Julian tackled Niko from behind.
They crashed into the stage rigging.
Police rushed through the wings.
Mara shouted for everyone to get down.
Niko broke free, leaped from the stage, and disappeared through the orchestra pit seconds before officers reached him.
The bomb squad cut power to the timer with fifty-three seconds remaining.
The numbers froze.
Julian moved toward Alessio.
His brother backed away.
"Do not."
"You are bleeding."
"I have been bleeding for fifteen years."
The words carried more anger than pain.
Julian stopped.
"I thought you were dead."
"That was the point."
"Where have you been?"
"Surviving what our mother built."
Mara removed the hood from the tied woman.
It was not Sofia.
The chair held a mannequin dressed in women's clothing, with a photograph of Sofia taped across the chest.
Camila had never brought her there.
The speaker crackled one final time.
"Wrong woman," Camila said.
"Wrong locket."
Then the line disconnected.
Alessio staggered.
Julian caught him despite his protest.
For one second, they stood as brothers rather than enemies.
Alessio's hand closed around Julian's shoulder.
"She took Sofia," he whispered.
"Where?"
"The old ferry terminal."
"Who took her?"
"Camila."
"Why?"
"Because Sofia has the letter."
"What letter?"
Alessio looked at him with eyes full of exhaustion.
"The one Father wrote before Mother killed him."
Julian heard police moving through the balconies above them.
The opera house no longer felt abandoned.
It felt like a machine that had finally revealed its gears.
Alessio gripped Julian's sleeve before the medics could reach him.
"Listen to me before they give me something that makes me sleep."
"Save your strength."
"I saved it for fifteen years and it changed nothing."
His breathing came in shallow bursts.
"The night of my crash, I carried the original Marina Verde order in my coat."
"The one Father signed to stop construction."
"Yes."
"What happened to it?"
"Mother took it after Niko dragged me from the car."
Julian stared at him.
"Niko was there?"
"He caused the crash."
"Why keep you alive?"
"Because Mother needed to know who else had seen the records."
Alessio's eyes moved toward the dark auditorium.
"She kept me at the Lugano clinic under another name."
The same clinic where Elena had been confined.
The connection felt like a wire pulled tight across two generations.
"How did you escape?" Julian asked.
"A nurse helped me after Father died."
"Why did you not come home?"
"Because the nurse disappeared, and every person I contacted was threatened."
His gaze hardened.
"I watched Mother turn you into the perfect heir while Sebastian learned how to stand beside you and smile."
"You could have warned me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"Every anonymous report about Sebastian's shell companies came from me."
Julian remembered dismissing those reports as attacks from competitors.
Sebastian had reviewed each one and declared it fabricated.
Julian had thanked him for protecting the company.
The humiliation burned.
"Why Elena?" he asked.
"Because she found the same path I did."
Alessio looked toward the false locket on the stage.
"And because she was the first person close to you who still believed truth mattered more than the Rossi name."
His knees gave way.
Julian lowered him to the stage as medics rushed forward.
In Alessio's coat pocket, Mara found a photograph taken two days earlier.
It showed Sofia alive beside the river, holding a sealed envelope.
On the back, she had written an address and six words.
JULIAN MUST LEARN WHO SIGNED FIRST.
Beneath the message was a time.
Midnight.
May you like
Julian checked his watch.
It was 11:47.
