Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN CREAMThe emergency lights came on red.
Bella heard Lucia inhale sharply beside her.
"Stay here."
"Absolutely not."
"Mama—"
"I have been ordered around enough this week."
Under any other circumstances, Bella might have smiled.
Instead she shoved the documents into her bag, took Lucia's arm, and moved toward the vault corridor.
A security alarm began shrieking.
Then someone pounded on the locked door.
"Bella!"
Tomas.
She released the lock.
He entered with blood on his sleeve.
"Are you hurt?"
"Not mine."
"What happened?"
"Two men came through the service entrance."
"Who?"
"Gone."
Lucia held up the flash drive.
"They wanted this."
Tomas looked at it.
"We need Adriano."
Bella hesitated.
Then nodded.
Twenty-seven minutes later, Adriano entered an underground parking garage beneath a medical office building owned by a Valente holding company.
He saw his mother first.
Then Bella.
Everything else disappeared.
Her hair was tied carelessly behind her head. She wore yesterday's dress beneath her coat. Exhaustion shadowed her eyes.
She had never looked more unreachable.
Adriano stopped several feet away.
He wanted to cross the distance.
He didn't.
"Are you both all right?"
"Yes," Bella said.
His eyes dropped toward her stomach before returning to her face.
"The baby?"
"Fine."
He nodded.
Only then did Bella notice his hands.
They were trembling.
Barely.
But Adriano Valente's hands did not tremble.
Lucia crossed the garage and slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Tomas looked fascinated by the concrete wall.
Adriano didn't move.
"You foolish boy," Lucia whispered.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
She shoved Vittorio's envelope against his chest.
"Your father died trying to protect you, and I spent nine years thinking silence would do the same."
Adriano opened it.
Bella watched his face change as he reached the photographs.
"My father knew Marco was stealing?"
"Not exactly."
Lucia pointed to the account records.
"Vittorio suspected Carlo Riccai and Paolo were laundering money through family construction companies. Marco discovered it."
"Then why is Marco in the photograph?"
"He was helping your father."
Adriano looked up.
The assumption they had all made collapsed.
"Marco wasn't betraying us."
"No."
"Then where is he?"
Nobody answered.
Tomas inserted the flash drive into an isolated laptop.
Files appeared.
Transfers.
Audio recordings.
Scanned contracts.
And one video.
Vittorio Valente appeared on screen.
Nine years younger.
Alive.
Adriano stopped breathing.
"If you're watching this," Vittorio said, "then I failed to finish what I started."
Adriano sat down.
Bella had never seen him do anything so slowly.
Vittorio continued.
"Carlo Riccai has been using Valente routes to move money without my authorization. Paolo Neri has helped him. Marco discovered it and brought it to me."
Adriano looked at Lucia.
Marco had been innocent.
The video continued.
"I haven't told Adriano. My eldest son believes responsibility means carrying everything himself. If I give him this before I know the full network, he'll start a war."
Even Tomas glanced at Adriano.
Vittorio almost smiled on screen.
"Yes, son. I know you."
Something broke behind Adriano's eyes.
Bella looked away to give him privacy.
Then Vittorio said the name none of them expected.
"Bianca knows."
Adriano's head snapped up.
"Carlo used his daughter to carry documents when she was young. I don't know whether she understood what they were. I hope she didn't."
The video ended.
Silence.
Bella finally asked, "When did Carlo die?"
"Seven years ago," Adriano said.
"Then who continued the scheme?"
Tomas began searching the files.
A phone rang.
Not Adriano's.
Lucia's.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"Hello?"
A man's voice came through.
"Mama."
Marco.
Lucia nearly collapsed.
"Where are you?"
"Don't ask."
"Marco—"
"I'm alive."
Adriano took the phone.
"Where the hell are you?"
"Good to hear you too."
"Marco."
"I'm hiding because Paolo tried to kill me."
Everyone looked at Tomas.
Marco continued rapidly.
"I found the forged document in Bianca's portfolio yesterday afternoon. I confronted Paolo because his authorization code appeared in the metadata."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know whether Bianca was involved."
Adriano looked toward the screen.
"Where is she?"
"With me."
Bella's eyebrows lifted.
Adriano's voice became dangerous.
"Explain."
"She saved my life."
Silence.
Marco told them what happened.
After dinner preparations began, he had confronted Bianca privately. She had been horrified by the forged signature. Before they could reach Adriano, Paolo intercepted them in the underground garage.
Bianca recognized one of Paolo's men.
She drove Marco out through a service exit.
They had been hiding ever since.
"So Bianca isn't working with Paolo?" Bella asked.
Marco heard her.
"Bella?"
"Yes."
"No. She came back because she suspected Paolo was using Villa Serena."
Bianca's voice appeared faintly in the background.
"Give me the phone."
Then she was there.
"Bella."
Bella waited.
"I owe you an apology."
"For which part?"
A pause.
"Several."
Bella almost admired the answer.
Bianca continued.
"Villa Serena isn't only a residence. Carlo Riccai was an investor before he died. Paolo controls a shell company that still owns twelve percent."
Adriano stood.
"You recommended a facility connected to your father?"
"I recommended it because I wanted to see who would react."
"You used my mother as bait?"
"No. I expected you to inspect the place, discover irregularities, and ask questions."
"You could have told me."
"I didn't know if Paolo had compromised your inner circle."
Bella looked at Adriano.
The irony was almost painful.
Everyone had withheld information from everyone else in the name of protection.
And every secret had made them weaker.
Bianca's voice softened.
"I never wanted Lucia moved there."
Bella asked the question nobody else had.
"Then why didn't you tell her that?"
Silence.
Finally Bianca said, "Because I thought the outcome mattered more than how frightened she became."
Lucia closed her eyes.
Bella looked at Adriano.
He looked back.
They understood the same thing.
Different intentions.
Same arrogance.
Adriano spoke quietly.
"Where are you?"
Marco gave an address.
Tomas gathered the computer.
"We move now."
But Bella suddenly gripped the edge of the table.
Adriano saw it.
"Bella?"
She inhaled sharply.
"I'm fine."
Then came another tightening.
Harder.
Adriano crossed half the distance before stopping himself.
"Is that a contraction?"
"It's too early."
Lucia's face changed.
"Bella."
A third pain folded Bella forward.
Adriano forgot every boundary in the world.
May you like
He caught her before she hit the floor.
And when Bella looked down, a dark stain was spreading across the hem of her dress.
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