Chapter 2 - THE VOICE INSIDE THE VENT
Ada ordered Alessandro to remain seated while she administered controlled treatment from her medical case.
He did not recover instantly.
His breaths remained shallow, and each sentence cost him effort.
Enzo stood near the door with his hands visible.
Sofia remained beside Emma.
Nobody touched the contaminated inhaler again.
Ada sealed Sofia’s entire cleaning bag inside a clear evidence container.
“The chemical odor resembles industrial chlorinated solvent,” she said. “I cannot identify it fully without a laboratory.”
“Could it kill him?” Sofia asked.
“It could cause severe respiratory distress, particularly in someone with Alessandro’s condition.”
Enzo looked toward her.
“You know a great deal about respiratory medication for a housekeeper.”
“My daughter has asthma.”
“That gives you access to inhalers.”
Sofia’s fear became anger.
“My daughter used her medicine to save him.”
“She also entered a forbidden room.”
Emma lowered her eyes.
Sofia positioned herself between Enzo and the child.
“She heard someone choking through the vent.”
Alessandro looked toward Emma.
“What else did you hear?”
Emma pressed her cheek against Sofia’s arm.
“Two men.”
Enzo gave a humorless smile.
“The child is frightened.”
Alessandro ignored him.
“Emma, you are not in trouble.”
She slowly looked up.
“One man said to wait until the sun touched the water.”
The warm sunset light reflected across the harbor windows.
“What did the other man say?” Alessandro asked.
Emma swallowed.
“He said Mama’s cleaner would make people believe her.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Enzo moved toward the child.
“That is enough.”
Alessandro’s voice cut through the room.
“Take one more step and you will never command another man in this house.”
Enzo stopped.
Emma continued.
“The second man said you would use your medicine after the phone call.”
Alessandro looked toward the private telephone on his desk.
He had received an urgent call twenty minutes earlier regarding a missing harbor payment.
The caller claimed a trusted captain had stolen from him.
The accusation made him angry.
Stress tightened his chest.
He opened the drawer, removed the dark inhaler, and used it without checking.
Someone knew his routine.
Someone arranged the call to trigger the attack.
Ada examined the private telephone.
A small transmitter had been attached beneath the base.
“This did not come from the mansion system.”
Enzo answered too quickly.
“I will have security trace it.”
“You are security,” Alessandro said.
The words settled heavily.
Ada turned toward the camera above the doorway.
“The recording light is disabled.”
Enzo’s confidence returned.
“Then there is no proof of what anyone claims to have seen.”
Emma pointed toward the crystal decanter.
“He put the black medicine in Mama’s bag.”
Enzo stared at her.
“You saw a reflection?”
She nodded.
Children did not always understand what adults believed they could dismiss.
Alessandro did.
He instructed Sofia to place the decanter untouched on the desk.
The curved crystal might have captured Enzo’s movement through the secondary analog surveillance system built into the room.
Alessandro’s father distrusted digital cameras.
Years earlier, he installed a concealed photographic mechanism behind the liquor cabinet. It recorded brief still images whenever the study door opened.
Only three people knew it existed.
Alessandro.
His father.
Enzo.
Enzo’s eyes moved toward the cabinet.
That movement confirmed more than words.
Alessandro told Ada where to find the release panel.
Inside the wall, she discovered a narrow film cartridge.
Enzo reached for it.
Sofia stepped into his path.
She was smaller than him and visibly afraid.
She did not move.
“You will not touch that.”
Enzo looked down at her.
“You have no idea who you are challenging.”
Sofia held Emma’s hand.
“I know exactly who I am protecting.”
Ada removed the cartridge and locked it inside her medical case.
Alessandro watched Sofia carefully.
A poor employee was standing against the most dangerous security chief in New York because her daughter remained behind her.
He had spent his life surrounded by men who claimed courage while protected by weapons, money, and reputation.
Sofia possessed none of those things.
She still did not move.
Enzo looked toward Alessandro.
“You are trusting a maid who smuggled a child into your home.”
Sofia flinched.
Alessandro noticed.
“Why was Emma here?”
“The babysitter cancelled.”
“So you brought her into Blackwater House.”
“I hid her in the basement laundry room. I know I broke the rules.”
“Why did you not call out?”
“Because missing one shift means missing rent.”
Enzo smiled coldly.
“A desperate employee with debt, chemicals, and unauthorized access. The explanation writes itself.”
Sofia’s face changed.
He had said too much.
Alessandro heard it too.
“You already prepared the explanation.”
Enzo remained silent.
Ada examined the duplicate key from the medicine drawer.
A faint layer of black wax remained inside the grooves.
“This was recently cast from an original.”
Alessandro looked toward Enzo.
“Who opened my father’s coffin?”
“No one.”
“The key says otherwise.”
“The crest can be copied.”
“Not the internal cut.”
Alessandro’s father had placed the key around his own neck before burial. Enzo supervised the private funeral and controlled the mausoleum security.
He was the only living person besides Alessandro who knew it existed.
Ada’s phone received the first images from the analog film scanner.
One frame showed Sofia entering the study after Emma.
Another showed Enzo kneeling beside Alessandro.
The third captured his gloved hand above the open cleaning bag.
The dark inhaler was visible between his fingers.
Enzo’s expression became empty.
Then the final frame loaded.
It had been recorded twenty minutes before Alessandro collapsed.
A man stood beside the locked medicine drawer.
Only his hand and part of his jacket were visible.
On his finger was a gold ring shaped like a crowned wolf.
Alessandro recognized it.
May you like
The ring belonged to Luca Moretti, his younger cousin and designated successor.
Continue to the next part: Alessandro learns that the man who would inherit his empire entered the locked study before the attack, while Sofia discovers her work assignment was altered specifically to make her the perfect suspect.
