Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA THAT WENT DARK
Leo read Nico's message three times without changing expression.
SHE KNOWS WHO KILLED YOUR WIFE.
The words were too neat for panic.
Too deliberate for a man running for his life.
Mateo took the phone back and examined the number.
"Could be spoofed."
Leo kept staring at the screen.
"Could be him."
"If it is, why send that instead of calling?"
"Because somebody is listening."
Beatrice watched both men and felt the room tightening around them.
For years, she had served coffee to conversations that stopped whenever she entered.
She knew the difference between ordinary secrecy and fear.
This was fear.
A nurse opened the door before anyone could say more.
"Mr. Rossi?"
Leo turned instantly.
"Your daughter is stable."
His shoulders lowered by less than an inch.
It was the most relief Beatrice had ever seen him allow himself in public.
"Can I see her?"
"Yes, but only one person at first."
Lily's voice drifted from the hallway.
"Bee too."
The nurse closed her eyes briefly as if reconsidering every career decision that had brought her to this family.
"Two people."
Leo glanced at Beatrice.
"Come on."
Lily lay propped against white pillows with a nebulizer mask over her face and her stuffed rabbit tucked beneath one arm.
The blue tint had disappeared from her lips.
Her eyes were exhausted but alert.
Beatrice sat beside the bed while Leo stood on the other side.
For several minutes, nobody mentioned cellars, cameras, or murder.
Leo brushed hair from Lily's forehead.
Beatrice adjusted the blanket.
Lily held the rabbit against her chest.
Then she looked at Leo.
"Is Victoria gone?"
Leo chose his answer carefully.
"She can't come near you."
"Ever?"
"Ever."
Lily stared at him as if testing whether grown men could keep promises better than grown women.
"She said you would believe her."
Leo's hand stopped moving.
"When did she say that?"
"Before she put me downstairs."
Beatrice felt her stomach turn.
Lily spoke through the mask in short bursts.
"She said Bee would get blamed because Bee is always making trouble."
Beatrice looked down.
Leo's eyes flicked toward her.
"Beatrice doesn't make trouble."
Lily's gaze sharpened with six-year-old certainty.
"I know."
"What else did Victoria say?"
Lily hesitated.
Beatrice recognized the look immediately.
It was the look Lily wore whenever adults asked questions that felt like traps.
Beatrice leaned closer.
"You are not in trouble."
Lily looked at her.
"No matter what you heard, no matter what you saw, you are not in trouble."
The little girl's fingers relaxed around the rabbit.
"She was talking to Mr. Nico."
Leo's face went blank.
"Where?"
"By the stairs."
"Today?"
Lily nodded.
"She said the camera had to be sleeping before Daddy came home."
Mateo, who had entered silently behind the nurse, stopped at the foot of the bed.
Leo did not look at him.
"What did Nico say?"
Lily frowned as she searched her memory.
"He said he wasn't doing another favor."
"Another favor?"
"Yes."
"Did Victoria answer him?"
Lily nodded again.
"She said his wife liked the house on Belmont."
Mateo's expression hardened.
Leo turned toward him.
"Nico doesn't own a house on Belmont."
"Not officially."
Mateo already had his phone out.
"I want property records, shell companies, trusts, everything tied to Ferrara and his wife."
He listened for a moment.
"Start with Belmont Avenue."
Lily tugged Leo's sleeve.
"Daddy."
He bent toward her.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Nico was scared."
Leo's eyes shifted.
"Of Victoria?"
Lily shook her head.
"Of the man on the phone."
That answer changed the room.
"What man?"
"I don't know."
"Did you hear his name?"
Lily closed her eyes.
"Victoria called him sir."
Mateo and Leo exchanged a look.
Victoria Kensington did not call many people sir.
Her father was one of them.
Harold Kensington had spent four decades building a legitimate empire in banking, real estate, and political influence while pretending men like Leo Rossi belonged to a different species.
He had tolerated Leo because Serena had loved him.
He had never forgiven Serena for marrying him.
He had never forgiven Leo for surviving her.
Mateo stepped into the hall to make another call.
Beatrice stayed beside Lily until the medication made the child sleepy.
Her own body finally began to ache everywhere at once.
When Lily's breathing settled into a steady rhythm, Leo nodded toward the corridor.
Beatrice followed him outside.
"You need to rest."
"So do you."
"I don't."
"That explains why you look so cheerful."
He stared at her for a second.
Then something unexpected happened.
Leo laughed.
It lasted less than a breath.
Still, Beatrice heard it.
He seemed almost offended by himself.
"Sit down," he said.
"That's more like you."
They took two chairs near Lily's room.
Hospital staff moved around them with the disciplined speed of people too busy to be impressed by wealth or danger.
For the first time since the cellar door opened, Leo seemed almost human-sized.
Beatrice watched him rub both hands over his face.
"You believed the bombing case was finished," she said.
"It was finished."
"Was it?"
His hands dropped.
"The men responsible were identified."
"By whom?"
Leo looked at her.
Beatrice immediately wished she had kept her mouth shut.
Then she remembered Lily on the cellar floor.
She stopped wishing.
"Who identified them?"
Leo leaned back.
"My investigators."
"Which investigators?"
His eyes narrowed.
"You ask a lot of questions for someone who spent years pretending not to hear anything."
"Invisible people hear everything."
That answer seemed to land harder than she expected.
Leo looked away.
"Mateo led the investigation."
Beatrice's stomach tightened.
She trusted Mateo more than almost anyone in the house.
He had never mocked her.
He had never spoken through her.
He remembered the names of kitchen staff and guards alike.
But trust was not evidence.
"And Nico worked security then?"
"Yes."
"Did Victoria?"
Leo's head turned back toward her.
"Victoria wasn't in my life then."
"I didn't ask that."
He became very still.
Beatrice continued.
"Did she have access to the house?"
"Serena and Victoria grew up together."
"So yes."
"Yes."
The answer sat between them.
Victoria had known Serena long before Leo ever noticed her.
She had been at birthdays, charity galas, family dinners, and the funeral.
She knew the mansion layout.
She knew the security routines.
She knew Lily's asthma.
She knew exactly how to hurt Leo without touching him.
Mateo returned carrying a tablet.
"We found the house."
Leo stood.
"Belmont?"
"Purchased eighteen months ago through a company registered in Nevada."
"Who owns the company?"
Mateo's mouth tightened.
"A Kensington family trust."
Beatrice felt the blood drain from her face.
Leo's reaction was colder.
"Amount?"
"Two point four million."
"Transferred when?"
Mateo scrolled.
"First payment was six weeks after Serena died."
Nobody spoke.
The timing was too precise to ignore.
Leo took the tablet.
His thumb moved once across the screen.
"Where is Nico's wife?"
"She flew to Madrid yesterday."
"Alone?"
"With their two sons."
Leo handed the tablet back.
"So Nico knew tonight was coming."
Mateo nodded.
"Looks that way."
"Find him."
"I have every crew looking."
"Not every crew."
Mateo understood.
If the betrayal reached security, using the entire organization would only tell the traitor where Leo was looking.
"I'll keep it small."
Leo leaned closer.
"Nobody who worked the Serena investigation."
Mateo's eyes flickered.
It was small, but Beatrice saw it.
Leo saw it too.
"Problem?"
Mateo shook his head.
"No."
But there had been a pause.
Before Leo could press him, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Mateo immediately signaled for silence.
Leo answered.
"Rossi."
For a moment, there was only static.
Then a man's voice whispered through the speaker.
"I didn't know about the cellar."
Leo's expression hardened.
Nico.
"Where are you?"
"Doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
"I disabled the alarm."
Beatrice's fingers tightened around the edge of her chair.
"Victoria said she needed ten minutes without staff interrupting."
Leo's voice remained controlled.
"Why would you give her that?"
Nico breathed unevenly.
"Because I owed them."
"The house on Belmont?"
Silence.
"You found it."
"I found the payment after my wife died too."
Nico's breathing stopped for a second.
"Leo, listen to me."
"I'm listening."
"The bombing wasn't ordered by the men you killed."
Leo's eyes locked on Mateo.
Mateo did not move.
"Who ordered it?"
"I never knew."
"Wrong answer."
"I knew who cleaned it up."
Leo's voice dropped.
"Who?"
A sound came through the phone.
A car door.
Then footsteps.
Nico whispered faster.
"There was a second file."
"What second file?"
"Serena kept records."
"Where?"
"Ask the maid."
Beatrice's heart slammed against her ribs.
Leo stared at her.
She shook her head.
She had no idea what Nico meant.
"Which maid?" Leo demanded.
Nico made a sound that might have been a laugh or a sob.
"The one nobody sees."
A sharp crack sounded over the phone.
Nico gasped.
The line went dead.
Leo called back immediately.
Nothing.
Mateo was already moving toward the elevators.
"Trace it."
"On it."
Leo did not follow.
He remained in front of Beatrice.
His face was unreadable.
"What records?"
"I don't know."
"Nico thought you did."
"Then Nico knew something I didn't."
Leo's gaze stayed on her.
Beatrice stood despite the pain in her knees.
"Do you think I had something to do with Serena's death?"
"No."
The answer came instantly.
That surprised both of them.
Leo stepped closer.
"But I think Serena trusted you with something."
Beatrice opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
A memory had surfaced.
Not from two years ago.
From three days before Serena died.
Serena had entered the kitchen after midnight while Beatrice was preparing dough for the next morning.
She had been carrying a blue envelope.
She had looked frightened.
At the time, Beatrice had assumed she had argued with Leo.
Serena had asked one strange question.
If I gave you something and told you not to open it unless Lily was in danger, would you hide it where Leo would never look?
Beatrice had laughed because she thought Serena was joking.
Serena had not laughed back.
Beatrice looked at Leo now.
"Oh, God."
His eyes sharpened.
"What?"
Beatrice saw the blue envelope as clearly as if it were still lying on the flour-dusted counter.
"Serena gave me something."
Leo stopped breathing.
"Where is it?"
Beatrice swallowed.
"In your house."
"Where?"
She looked toward Lily's hospital room.
May you like
"Somewhere Victoria has had two years to find it."
