Chapter 4
Robert Bellini did not look like a man who had been caught.
He looked satisfied.
That frightened me.
Marco’s security team surrounded him.
Two guards behind.
One on each side.
Robert lifted both hands.
“No weapons.”
Luca stared.
“Why are you here?”
“To correct my son.”
Julian laughed.
“Half son.”
Robert looked at him.
“Do not be childish.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“Do not call me your son when it helps.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Dad, stop.”
Robert ignored her.
His eyes moved to me.
“Claire.”
I hated the familiarity.
“You know who I am.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since you came to the estate.”
My stomach dropped.
“Two years.”
“Yes.”
“You let me work here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep you visible.”
Silence.
Luca stepped forward.
“You used my house to watch her.”
Robert looked at him.
“It kept her alive.”
“That is not your decision.”
“No.”
Robert sighed.
“But it was effective.”
Diesel growled.
Robert looked down.
“He was not part of the plan.”
I stared.
“Diesel?”
“The dog was supposed to be transferred to my daughter’s city house.”
Vanessa turned.
“What?”
“You told me Luca wanted Diesel here.”
Robert’s expression did not change.
“I lied.”
Luca looked toward the Rottweiler.
Diesel sat beside me.
Loyal.
Heavy.
Warm against my injured leg.
Robert continued:
“He complicated surveillance.”
I almost laughed.
Good.
Diesel had complicated a billionaire’s secret plan by loving me too much.
Luca looked at Robert.
“Twenty-seven million.”
Robert nodded.
“Anna moved it.”
“From the reserve.”
“Yes.”
“Into Claire’s name.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two days before her death.”
My throat tightened.
“Why?”
“To protect it.”
“From who?”
Robert looked at Julian.
Then Luca.
“Antonio.”
Julian laughed.
“You told me Vincent.”
Robert’s jaw tightened.
“I told you what you needed.”
“Exactly.”
Luca’s voice sharpened.
“Stop.”
Everyone went quiet.
He looked at Robert.
“Who was Anna protecting the money from?”
Robert met his eyes.
“Your father.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Luca looked at me.
“Claire.”
“No.”
I did not know Antonio.
But every answer could not always be the dead man.
Robert continued:
“Antonio created the reserve with legitimate emergency funds. Later he began using it privately.”
“For what?”
“Influence.”
“Bribes.”
“Yes.”
“Payoffs.”
“Yes.”
“Murders?”
Robert paused.
That pause answered too much.
Vanessa looked sick.
“Dad.”
Robert continued.
“Anna discovered payments after Antonio was poisoned.”
“Payments to who?”
“People connected to several disappearances.”
Luca’s face became stone.
“Names.”
“Two union leaders. A prosecutor. A shipping auditor.”
“Were they killed?”
“I don’t know.”
Julian laughed.
“You always know enough when it helps.”
Robert glared.
I asked:
“My mother took the money because she thought it was criminal proceeds.”
“Yes.”
“And put it in my name.”
“Yes.”
“Why not go to police?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
“Her contact disappeared.”
My stomach turned.
“Who?”
“Detective Samuel Price.”
Marco’s face changed.
“I know that name.”
Luca looked at him.
“How?”
“Retired NYPD. Missing person case from twenty years ago.”
“Found?”
“No.”
Robert continued.
“Anna panicked.”
“So she hid the money.”
“Yes.”
“And then she died.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Robert looked away.
I stood despite the pain.
“How did my mother die?”
“Car accident.”
“No.”
Julian stared at him.
“You told me Antonio ordered it.”
Robert’s face tightened.
“That was what I believed then.”
“You lie like breathing.”
Vanessa whispered.
Robert finally looked ashamed.
Only slightly.
Luca stepped closer.
“Who killed Anna Mason?”
Robert’s eyes moved toward the dark driveway.
“I think the same person who poisoned Antonio.”
Silence.
“Name.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Guess.”
Robert looked toward me.
Then Luca.
“Celeste.”
Julian stopped breathing.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You wanted truth.”
Julian’s face twisted.
“Not garbage.”
Robert continued.
“Celeste had access to St. Dominic’s. She knew Antonio’s medication. She knew Anna copied the toxicology.”
Vanessa stared.
“Why would Aunt Celeste kill Antonio?”
Robert looked at her.
“Because he planned to take Julian away.”
Silence.
Julian stepped forward.
“That is not true.”
“He planned to acknowledge you publicly.”
“Yes.”
“And petition for custody.”
Julian froze.
“What?”
“You were seventeen.”
“My mother never told me.”
“She did not intend to.”
Julian looked sick.
Robert continued:
“Celeste believed Antonio would destroy her life.”
“So she poisoned him?”
“I believe so.”
“You believe.”
“Yes.”
“And Anna?”
“She knew.”
“She was going to expose Celeste.”
“Yes.”
Julian shook his head.
“No.”
Robert’s voice softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Julian laughed.
“You are never sorry.”
He turned away.
For the first time since arriving, he looked young.
Not threatening.
Not clever.
A son hearing his mother might be a murderer.
I understood that feeling now.
Luca did too.
He did not comfort Julian.
But he did not attack him either.
“Where is Celeste?”
Luca asked.
Robert swallowed.
“Alive.”
Vanessa gasped.
“I thought she died six years ago.”
“No.”
Julian turned.
“You told me she died.”
“She asked us to.”
“You let me bury her.”
Robert said nothing.
Julian crossed the distance.
Security moved.
Luca raised one hand.
“Let him.”
Julian stopped inches from Robert.
“You let me bury my mother.”
Robert’s expression finally cracked.
“She was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of Antonio.”
“Antonio was dead.”
“Not then.”
Julian stared.
The fake death.
Again.
Celeste disappeared after learning Antonio survived.
Maybe because he knew.
Maybe because she was guilty.
Maybe because someone framed her.
Nothing was clean.
I felt dizzy.
Luca noticed.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You are swaying.”
Diesel pressed against my thigh.
I sat.
Robert looked at the dog.
Then me.
“The account.”
I laughed.
“We are still doing that?”
“Yes.”
“You want twenty-seven million.”
“No.”
Everyone stared.
“What?”
I asked.
“I want the ledger attached to it.”
“What ledger?”
“Anna’s copy.”
“I don’t have it.”
“It is inside the account vault.”
Luca frowned.
“Physical vault?”
“Yes.”
“Claire’s account has a safe deposit component?”
“Yes.”
“Key?”
Robert looked at me.
“Your mother left it with you.”
“No.”
“You may not know what it is.”
I shook my head.
“I have nothing.”
He looked at Diesel.
Then smiled faintly.
“Not anymore.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Anna hid the key in Diesel’s first collar.”
Silence.
I stared at the dog.
“Diesel was not alive twenty-one years ago.”
Robert nodded.
“Correct.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Diesel belonged to someone before you.”
“No.”
“I adopted him as a puppy from the estate kennel.”
“Exactly.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you saying?”
Robert looked at him.
“The collar.”
Diesel wore a thick leather collar.
Black.
Brass plate.
MORETTI KENNELS.
Robert said:
“Anna hid the key in a Moretti kennel collar. The collar was preserved in storage.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because she knew Isabella managed the kennels.”
Luca went still.
“My mother knew Anna.”
“Yes.”
“More than casually.”
“Yes.”
“Did Isabella help her?”
Robert hesitated.
“Yes.”
Everything changed.
Luca’s mother.
Claire’s mother.
Working together.
Against Antonio?
Against Celeste?
Against Robert?
Maybe all of them.
Robert continued:
“Years later, when Diesel was issued to Claire, Isabella’s old inventory instructions automatically assigned that collar.”
“That sounds impossible.”
“It was intentional.”
“By who?”
Robert looked toward the house.
“Someone still inside the estate system.”
Marco’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Robert smiled without humor.
“That is the question.”
I reached for Diesel’s collar.
My fingers slid beneath the leather.
There.
Something rigid.
Tiny.
Sewn inside.
My heart started pounding.
Marco cut the inner seam carefully.
A small brass key fell into Luca’s palm.
Stamped:
27M.
Twenty-seven million.
I stopped breathing.
Robert looked at me.
“Anna’s key.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Then Diesel began barking violently toward the driveway.
Headlights appeared beyond the gate.
One car.
White.
Old.
A woman stepped out.
Long gray coat.
Dark hair streaked silver.
Julian stopped breathing.
“Mom.”
Before anyone moved toward Celeste, Julian looked at Robert again.
“You knew she was alive.”
Robert did not answer.
Julian laughed.
“You knew where she was.”
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“She moved.”
“You sent me flowers on the anniversary of her death.”
Robert’s face changed.
“I was trying to help.”
“No.”
Julian stepped closer.
“You were maintaining the lie.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Julian.”
He looked at her.
“You got birthdays. Christmas. Dad showing up.”
She flinched.
“Not really.”
“What?”
“Dad was never really there.”
Robert closed his eyes.
Vanessa continued.
“He funded things. Scheduled things. Corrected things.”
She laughed sadly.
“He didn’t know my favorite food until I was twenty-five.”
Julian stared at her.
For the first time, anger between them softened.
They had been raised differently.
But maybe by the same absence.
I watched Robert.
For a man who had spent decades controlling accounts and people, he looked strangely powerless in front of his children.
Maybe money could move almost anything.
Not this.
Celeste Bellini was alive.
Diesel moved between Celeste and Julian and sat.
Not beside me.
Between them.
Julian looked down.
“He remembers her?”
Celeste’s face softened.
“I trained his mother.”
I stared.
“Of course you did.”
She almost smiled.
“Moretti kennels were the one place nobody talked business.”
“That sounds impossible.”
“It was peaceful once.”
For one brief second, the courtyard felt like a place families had lived rather than hidden evidence.
Then Robert cleared his throat.
May you like
The moment ended.
And she walked toward us carrying a gun.
