Chapter 17 - THE THIRD STRIKE
Daniel was taken to a secure hospital outside St. Augustine's network.
Enzo refused to let Malcolm Voss's hospital touch him.
No one argued.
Adeline stayed beside her brother through examinations, scans, and the slow process of documenting his injuries.
He had two cracked ribs, a deep cut along his scalp, severe dehydration, and bruising that made Adeline's hands shake every time she saw it.
None of the injuries were immediately life-threatening.
That fact became the only reason she could sit still.
Enzo waited outside the room.
Matteo stood at the end of the hall.
The state investigators moved in and out with questions.
Daniel answered only after his attorney arrived.
He had learned caution the hard way.
At four in the afternoon, Adeline finally asked the question that had followed her all day.
“Where is Margaret?”
Daniel looked toward the closed hospital door.
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“I promised not to say until she agreed.”
“Daniel.”
“She saved my life.”
“So did I when you were six and tried to jump off the garage roof.”
“That was different.”
“You landed on me.”
“I was six.”
“You were heavy.”
For the first time in months, they laughed together.
Then Daniel's expression became serious.
“Margaret has lived under another name for twelve years.”
“She faked the boating accident herself.”
“Why?”
“She found out Victor was using her family trust to move money for Voss, Hale, Price, and people tied to Salvatore's companies.”
“Did Salvatore know?”
“Not at first.”
“Later?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Margaret thinks he figured out part of it.”
“What did he do?”
“He started tracing the transfers with Thomas and Bell.”
“Then why did he accuse Dad?”
“Because Frank changed the C3 records.”
“I know that part.”
“But Salvatore later realized the records were false.”
Adeline sat forward.
“When?”
“After Dad disappeared.”
“What did he do?”
Daniel looked toward the door again.
“He tried to find him.”
Adeline felt anger rise.
“Quietly?”
“Yes.”
“Of course.”
“Addie.”
“No.”
She stood.
“Our father was branded a thief.”
“Mom died believing he had ruined us and driven away.”
“We lost our house.”
“We lost everything.”
“And Salvatore Marchetti quietly decided maybe he had made a mistake?”
Daniel's face tightened.
“I am not defending him.”
“Good.”
“I'm telling you what happened.”
Adeline looked toward the window.
She had spent years imagining the person responsible for her father's destruction as a monster.
The truth was more frustrating.
Salvatore had been powerful, suspicious, and wrong.
Then he had been too proud to admit publicly that he might have destroyed an innocent man.
That kind of cowardice could ruin as many lives as deliberate cruelty.
Daniel continued.
“Carlo helped Dad escape Salvatore's original order.”
“Victor intercepted them.”
“What did Dad do to save Carlo?”
“He gave Victor the location of one copy of the audit.”
“Then?”
“Victor kept Dad confined for months trying to find the rest.”
Adeline's stomach turned.
“Months?”
“Yes.”
“Was Margaret there?”
“No.”
“She had already disappeared and was trying to rebuild the evidence.”
“How did Dad die?”
Daniel went quiet.
Adeline's heart sank.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
Daniel's eyes filled.
“He escaped.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
“He reached a highway outside Joliet.”
“He was hit by a truck.”
Adeline closed her eyes.
It was not the dramatic answer she had imagined.
That made it hurt more.
After months of confinement and fear, Thomas Croft had died within miles of freedom.
“Was he alone?”
“No.”
“Who was with him?”
“Margaret.”
Adeline looked up.
“She found him two days before.”
“She tried to get him out of Illinois.”
“She held his hand when he died.”
Tears ran down Adeline's face.
Daniel reached for her.
“She buried him under another name because Victor's men were still looking.”
“She can show us where.”
Adeline sat beside him again.
For years she had visited a grave containing the ashes of an unidentified man her mother had been told was Thomas.
Even that had been a lie.
“Why didn't Margaret tell us?”
“She wanted to.”
“Then why didn't she?”
“Because Victor was watching you.”
“He began watching both of us after Mom requested old employment records from Marchetti Holdings.”
Adeline remembered that year.
Their mother had become obsessed with proving Thomas innocent before cancer took her.
“She died without knowing.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
Adeline wiped her face.
“And Camilla?”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“Camilla found Margaret three years ago.”
“How?”
“She hired a private investigator.”
“Did Victor know?”
“Not at first.”
“What did Camilla do?”
“She made her mother a deal.”
“What deal?”
“She would keep Margaret's location from Victor if Margaret gave her access to the old evidence.”
Adeline stared.
“Margaret agreed?”
“She gave Camilla copies she believed were incomplete.”
“But Camilla used them to blackmail people.”
“Hale.”
“Price.”
“Voss.”
“Yes.”
Adeline understood the shift.
Camilla had not simply inherited Victor's cruelty.
She had built her own leverage from the evidence meant to destroy him.
“Why Antonio?”
Daniel's face became grim.
“Because Antonio was about to sign a document the morning after the engagement party.”
“What document?”
“A restructuring of the Marchetti family trust.”
Adeline frowned.
“Enzo never mentioned that.”
“He may not know.”
The door opened.
Enzo entered.
“I know now.”
Daniel looked at him.
“How?”
“Antonio told me ten minutes ago.”
Adeline stood.
“What restructuring?”
Enzo's expression was cold.
“After my marriage, Camilla would have received a limited voting interest through a marital trust.”
“Antonio controls the final block needed to approve it.”
Daniel nodded.
“If Antonio became medically incapacitated before signing a new restriction, his proxy authority would temporarily pass to you.”
Adeline looked confused.
“That would still be Enzo.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Unless Enzo was married to Camilla when the proxy transferred.”
Enzo's jaw tightened.
“She would gain indirect access through the marital trust.”
“Yes.”
Adeline felt cold.
“So Camilla wanted Antonio sick enough to be incapacitated, not necessarily dead.”
Daniel nodded.
“And she wanted it to look like his heart condition.”
Enzo looked toward the hallway.
“The engagement party was six weeks before the wedding.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Camilla planned to move the wedding.”
“What?”
“She had already arranged a private civil ceremony for tomorrow.”
Enzo stared at him.
“She told people you wanted privacy because of security threats.”
Adeline almost laughed at the audacity.
“She was going to marry you without telling you?”
Daniel looked at Enzo.
“She had a plan to make him agree.”
“What plan?”
“Blackmail.”
Enzo's face hardened.
“With what?”
Daniel looked toward Matteo through the glass.
“Evidence that makes it appear Enzo ordered Thomas Croft killed.”
Adeline stopped breathing.
Enzo went still.
Daniel continued.
“It is false.”
“But it is convincing.”
“Camilla planned to threaten him with it the morning after Antonio became ill.”
Adeline stared at Enzo.
“And if he refused?”
“She would release it.”
Enzo's phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?” Adeline asked.
He turned the phone toward them.
A breaking-news alert filled the screen.
CAMILLA ASHFORD TO SPEAK AT 6 P.M. ABOUT ABUSE, COERCION, AND CRIMINAL THREATS INSIDE MARCHETTI ESTATE.
Adeline stared at the headline.
Daniel whispered.
“She is doing it now.”
Enzo read the next line.
Camilla's attorney claimed she possessed documents linking Enzo to the disappearance and death of former Marchetti accountant Thomas Croft.
Adeline's face went numb.
Camilla had beaten her in front of two hundred people.
Now she was preparing to tell the world that Enzo had destroyed her father.
And if Adeline defended him, Camilla would say the maid had chosen her lover over her own dead family.
The hospital television showed commentators debating whether Camilla's announced press conference would destroy Enzo before he could answer.
Adeline muted it.
Daniel watched her.
“You hate that she is using Dad.”
“Yes.”
“You also hate that part of the accusation touches something real.”
Adeline looked at him.
“What part?”
“Salvatore did order action against Dad.”
“Even if Enzo did not.”
She sat down.
“That is what makes good lies work.”
Daniel nodded.
“They borrow enough truth to survive the first question.”
Enzo stood in the doorway.
He had heard.
“My father made the accusation possible.”
Adeline looked at him.
“You did not.”
“No.”
“But my family benefited from the silence afterward.”
“Yes.”
Enzo entered the room.
“I am going to say that publicly.”
Daniel frowned.
“Your lawyers will hate it.”
“They already do.”
“You could expose yourself to civil claims.”
“Probably.”
Adeline studied him.
“Why admit what you do not legally have to?”
Enzo looked at the forged document on his phone.
“Because if my answer is only that my signature is fake, Camilla gets to make the story about whether I personally signed one page.”
He put the phone down.
“The larger truth is that Thomas was wronged by a system my family controlled.”
Daniel looked impressed despite himself.
“That is a dangerous sentence.”
“It is also true.”
Adeline remembered the corridor.
Camilla had counted on everyone caring more about position than fact.
Victor had done the same for years.
Perhaps the most destabilizing thing Enzo could do was refuse the privilege of a smaller truth.
His phone rang again.
This time it was Antonio.
Enzo answered.
“What happened?”
He listened.
Then his face tightened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Do not touch anything.”
He ended the call.
Adeline stood.
“What?”
“Someone delivered a package to the estate.”
“From Camilla?”
“No name.”
“What is inside?”
Enzo looked at her.
“My mother's engagement necklace.”
Adeline frowned.
“And a note.”
“What does it say?”
Enzo's voice went cold.
BY SIX TONIGHT, YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD KEPT THE WRONG WOMAN IN YOUR HOUSE.
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Camilla's press conference was no longer only defense.
It was retaliation.
