Chapter 1 - THE FIRST WORD
The first word Lily Rossi spoke after her mother's death was not Daddy.
It was Bee.
The rainy afternoon beneath the kitchen table came back to Beatrice in a rush as she knelt on the cellar floor and watched Leo hold his daughter against his chest.
Two years earlier, thunder had rattled the windows while Lily sat under the table with her knees tucked beneath her chin and stared at the shortbread cookie Beatrice had pushed toward her.
Beatrice had been talking because silence felt crueler than foolishness.
"Heaven should have better manners," she had said.
For several seconds, Lily had only blinked.
Then the smallest sound escaped her throat.
"Bee."
Beatrice had stopped breathing.
Leo had been standing in the kitchen doorway without either of them knowing it.
He had heard the word too.
The man who had ordered armed crews across half of Chicago and negotiated deals with men who never smiled had leaned one shoulder against the doorframe and covered his mouth with his hand.
He had not thanked Beatrice that day.
He had not known how.
But from then on, Lily had followed Beatrice through the mansion as if the maid carried a piece of sunlight nobody else could see.
Now, in the freezing cellar, that same little girl clung to Leo and wheezed into his shoulder.
"Bee," Lily whispered again.
Beatrice reached for her.
Leo shifted without hesitation and let Lily's fingers curl around Beatrice's swollen hand.
The child winced when she saw the bruising.
"She hurt you."
Leo's head lifted.
The entire cellar seemed to change temperature.
Beatrice squeezed Lily's hand before the girl could see the look on her father's face.
"I'm okay, sweetheart."
"No."
Lily's voice was weak, but the certainty in it was not.
"She hit you with the tray."
Leo looked at Beatrice.
Beatrice looked away.
There would be time for the truth once Lily could breathe without fighting for every inch of air.
Mateo appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a phone pressed to his ear.
"Ambulance is ninety seconds out."
Leo nodded once.
"Lock the estate down."
Mateo's gaze went toward the open cellar door.
"Already done."
"Nobody leaves."
"Nobody will."
Above them, Victoria shouted that she wanted her attorney.
Leo did not even look up.
"She gets a chair and nothing else."
Mateo's expression hardened.
"Done."
Beatrice pushed herself to her feet and nearly fell.
Leo caught her elbow with his free hand.
She flinched before she could stop herself.
His eyes dropped to the tear in her uniform and then to the darkening bruise along her wrist.
"What did she do to you?"
"Later."
"Beatrice."
"Your daughter first."
For once, Leo Rossi obeyed someone without argument.
The ambulance arrived through the service gate because the main drive had already been sealed.
Two paramedics hurried inside with equipment while Mateo cleared a path through the kitchen.
Victoria sat in a dining chair near the far wall with two guards behind her.
Her mascara had begun to run, but her posture was still perfect.
"Leo, you are making a terrible mistake."
He carried Lily past her as though Victoria were already dead to him.
Lily saw her anyway.
Her small body tightened.
The monitor clipped to her finger began to chirp faster.
"Don't let her come," Lily said.
Leo stopped.
Every person in the kitchen heard her.
Victoria's face lost color.
Leo turned just enough for Victoria to see the side of his face.
"She won't."
The paramedics loaded Lily onto the stretcher, but she refused to release Beatrice's hand.
One of them glanced at Beatrice's injuries.
"Ma'am, you need treatment too."
"I'm going with her."
"You can ride in the second unit."
Lily's grip tightened.
"Bee comes."
Leo looked at the paramedic.
The paramedic looked at Leo.
Nobody argued after that.
Beatrice sat on the bench beside the stretcher while Leo rode near Lily's head.
The ambulance doors closed on the mansion, the guards, Mateo, and Victoria's furious voice.
For the first five minutes, Lily said nothing.
Her breathing slowly steadied as medication opened her airway.
Beatrice watched the numbers on the monitor because looking at Lily's face hurt too much.
Leo watched Beatrice.
She finally noticed.
"What?"
"You knew what to do."
"Basic first aid."
"You saved her."
Beatrice shook her head.
"The inhaler saved her."
"You knew where it was."
"I put it there every morning."
"You went into that cellar after she broke your hand."
Beatrice glanced down.
"It's not broken."
The paramedic sitting across from them raised an eyebrow.
"It might be."
Beatrice gave him a tired look.
"Please don't help him."
For the briefest moment, something almost like a smile touched Leo's mouth.
Then Lily stirred.
"Daddy."
Leo leaned closer immediately.
"I'm here."
"She turned it off."
Leo's expression went still.
"Turned what off, princess?"
Lily swallowed.
"The camera."
Beatrice looked at Leo.
The Rossi mansion had security cameras in every corridor except private bedrooms and bathrooms.
The kitchen camera pointed directly toward the cellar entrance.
Leo's voice became careful.
"Which camera?"
Lily's eyes closed as exhaustion pulled at her.
"The one by the clock."
Beatrice knew exactly which one she meant.
"Victoria stood on a chair before dinner," Lily whispered.
"She said she didn't like being watched."
Leo's jaw tightened.
"Did you see her touch it?"
Lily nodded faintly.
"She covered the little green light."
Beatrice felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cellar.
Victoria had not lost her temper.
She had prepared.
At the hospital, a pediatric respiratory team took Lily through double doors before Leo could protest.
A nurse stopped him with one practiced hand.
"You can see her as soon as the doctor stabilizes her."
Leo stared at the doors.
"How long?"
"As soon as we safely can."
He looked like he wanted to break through the wall.
Beatrice sat down because her legs had finally stopped accepting orders.
A different nurse crouched in front of her.
"Now you."
"I'm fine."
"You are bleeding through your sleeve."
Beatrice looked down.
She had not noticed.
Leo had.
"Treat her."
The nurse gave him a flat stare.
"I was planning to."
Beatrice almost laughed.
Leo did not.
Twenty minutes later, her cheek had been cleaned, three fingers splinted, and her left wrist wrapped.
Nothing was broken, but the doctor warned her that the swelling would worsen by morning.
Leo stood by the window throughout the examination.
He did not speak until the doctor left.
"Tell me everything."
Beatrice looked at the closed door.
"Lily first."
"She is being treated."
"She can hear more than people think."
Leo lowered his voice.
"Then tell me quietly."
Beatrice stared at the white bandage around her hand.
"Victoria was angry because Lily spilled juice on the tablecloth."
Leo's eyes narrowed.
"That's why she locked her in a cellar?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Beatrice looked up.
"Because Lily said something Victoria did not want me to hear."
Silence filled the room.
"What did she say?"
Beatrice remembered Lily standing near the breakfast room with her stuffed rabbit hanging from one hand.
Victoria had been on the phone in the library with the door almost closed.
Lily had repeated words she did not understand.
Words that had made Victoria cross the room so quickly the wineglass in her hand had shattered against a cabinet.
Beatrice spoke slowly.
"Lily said Victoria told someone that once the anniversary passed, nobody would ask questions about the bombing anymore."
Leo did not move.
The bombing.
The word had lived in the mansion for two years without anyone daring to say it casually.
The car explosion that killed Serena Rossi had been ruled retaliation from a rival crew that no longer existed.
Leo had accepted that explanation because he had personally destroyed everyone he believed responsible.
Beatrice continued.
"I told Lily she must have heard wrong."
"Did she?"
"I don't think so."
Leo's face changed by degrees.
Not anger.
Something colder.
"What happened next?"
"Victoria came into the kitchen."
Beatrice rubbed her thumb against the edge of the bandage.
"She told Lily to go upstairs."
"Lily refused."
"Yes."
"Then?"
"Victoria grabbed her arm."
Leo took one step away from the window.
"I stopped her."
"And she hit you."
"First she threw the tray."
"Then?"
"She shoved me into the pantry door."
Beatrice paused.
"Lily screamed."
Leo's hands curled at his sides.
"Victoria dragged her toward the cellar."
"You tried to stop her."
"I tried."
"And the guards?"
That was the question Beatrice had been avoiding.
She looked directly at him now.
"Nobody came."
Leo's voice dropped lower.
"Nobody heard?"
"I broke a serving cart against the wall."
"The alarm should have triggered."
"It didn't."
He understood immediately.
The missing camera was not the only thing that had been disabled.
Someone had shut down the service corridor alarm too.
Beatrice leaned forward.
"Mr. Rossi, Victoria could not have done all of that by herself."
A knock came at the door.
Mateo entered without waiting.
His normally controlled face was grim.
Leo looked at him.
"Tell me."
Mateo shut the door.
"The kitchen camera went dark at 6:12."
Beatrice checked the wall clock automatically even though it was not the same clock.
"The cellar door locked at 6:19."
Mateo nodded.
"The service alarm was manually bypassed at 6:08."
Leo's eyes sharpened.
"From where?"
Mateo did not answer immediately.
That hesitation was enough.
"From where, Mateo?"
"Security control."
Leo stared at him.
"Who was on duty?"
Mateo's jaw flexed.
"Nico Ferrara."
Leo knew the name.
Nico had worked for him for eleven years.
Nico had carried Lily out of the church on the day of Serena's funeral because Leo's hands had been too numb to hold her.
"Bring him here."
Mateo's eyes stayed on Leo.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because he's gone."
The room became very quiet.
Mateo continued.
"His phone is off."
"His car left the east gate three minutes before you arrived."
"And somebody deleted the recording of him leaving."
Leo looked toward the hallway where Lily was being treated.
For two years, he had believed his wife's death was a closed wound.
Now that wound had opened in the same house where his daughter had nearly died.
Beatrice saw the realization settle over him.
Victoria had not simply locked Lily in a cellar.
She had touched something buried beneath the Rossi family long before that door ever closed.
Then Mateo pulled a small clear evidence bag from his coat pocket.
Inside it was a silver button smeared with blood.
Beatrice stared at it.
She recognized it instantly.
It had come from Nico Ferrara's uniform.
Mateo's voice was quiet.
"We found this beside the security console."
Leo looked at the blood.
"Whose is it?"
Mateo met his eyes.
"We don't know yet."
Then his phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
For the first time that night, Mateo Calder appeared genuinely surprised.
"What?" Leo asked.
Mateo turned the phone toward him.
A single text message had arrived from Nico's number.
It contained six words.
May you like
SHE KNOWS WHO KILLED YOUR WIFE.
