Chapter 3
Roman’s uncle is dead before anyone reaches him.
Cesare’s blood runs between the stones while guards carry the wounded inside. Roman kneels beside him, but his eyes keep lifting toward me.
Twenty minutes ago, I was his jealous wife. Now I am the Bellini woman standing beside a leaked route.
Matteo makes sure everyone notices.
Matteo wipes blood from his cuff. “Four people had the change: Roman, Cesare, me, and Elena.”
“My phone was in Roman’s hand when the attack began.”
“After you had plenty of time to send a message.” Matteo looks at the blood on my palm from the broken glass. “Convenient that you’re barely hurt.”
I want Roman to tell him to stop. I hate that I still want anything from Roman tonight.
He rises from his uncle’s body. “Search every room. No one leaves the estate.”
Not a defense. Not an accusation either.
That difference is enough to keep me hoping. I hate myself for it.
Two guards escort me upstairs. The paper seal across my bedroom door remains, but one corner sits higher than I left it. I pressed that edge flat before dinner.
Now the crease runs the wrong way.
“Wait.” I reach for it, but Matteo tears the seal first and opens the door.
They find the communicator beneath the lining of my travel case.
For a moment, I can only stare. It is small, black, and clean against the pale fabric. Too clean. Dust covers the corners of the case because I have not used it since winter, yet the device carries none.
Matteo lifts it with a handkerchief. “Still going to tell us the route leaked by accident?”
“Someone entered this room.” I point to the broken seal. “Check the corridor records. Check the door log before anyone touches it.”
“Or we could stop pretending you need more time to invent an explanation.”
Roman enters behind him, smelling of smoke and blood. I look at him and remember his hand taking my phone, his body covering Vivienne, his eyes finding me beside Cesare’s corpse.
Still, I try once more.
“The seal was lifted and replaced. The device has no dust. You know I’m right.”
Roman studies the door, then the communicator. “Until the records are reviewed, Elena does not leave the estate.”
My stomach drops. “You’re confining me?”
“I’m preventing another body from reaching the courtyard.”
He does not mention that the next body might be mine.
Matteo removes the communicator’s back panel. A slim storage card slips free, hits the carpet, and disappears beneath the hem of my dress.
No one sees it. Everyone is watching the device in Matteo’s hand.
I lower my heel over the card.
Inez arrives with fresh towels for the guards. She has served beside me long enough to notice when I hold myself too still, and her eyes drop once to my shoe before returning to my face.
Inez unfolds a towel over her arm. “Lady Elena needs another dress. This one has blood on it.”
Roman nods without looking at me.
Inside the dressing room, I press the card into Inez’s damp palm. “Do not open it here. Hide it somewhere neither family controls.”
Fear flashes across her face. “If they search me—”
“They will search me first.” I close her fingers around it. “Go.”
When we return, Vivienne is standing near the bedroom door. Her sleeve has fallen over the wrist Roman held at dinner, and Matteo is speaking loudly enough for the guards to hear.
Inez walks past them without changing pace.
Vivienne watches her leave. Then her gaze comes back to me.
Her fingers close around her wrist. The silver clasp of her bag is hidden in her palm, pressed into the same place four times. Slowly, she smiles.