Chapter 4 - The Sister Who Never Stopped Watching

The conservatory doors were unlocked.

Matteo hit them so hard that one glass panel shuddered in its frame.

Warm, damp air met them. Citrus trees grew in enormous stone pots beneath the vaulted ceiling. Moonlight silvered the glass overhead. Somewhere water dripped at a slow, steady rhythm.

“Nico.”

Matteo’s voice carried through the plants.

No answer.

Liana heard a rustle near the far wall.

She moved toward it before Matteo could stop her.

A woman stepped from behind a lemon tree holding Nico against her shoulder.

Liana stopped.

For five years she had imagined Elena older, thinner, changed beyond recognition.

She was wrong.

Her twin looked exactly like the face Liana saw in the mirror after a sleepless night: the same dark eyes, the same curve of cheek and mouth, the same small scar beneath the right eyebrow. Her hair was shorter, cut bluntly at her shoulders. A pale line crossed one wrist.

Nico was calm in her arms.

Completely calm.

Matteo raised a gun.

Elena did not flinch.

“Put that away,” she said. “You’ll wake him.”

Liana almost laughed from shock.

“Elena.”

Her sister looked at her.

Everything in Elena’s face changed.

“Li.”

The childhood nickname hit harder than any explanation.

Liana crossed the distance between them and slapped her.

The sound cracked through the conservatory.

Nico startled.

Elena closed her eyes.

“I deserved that.”

“You disappeared.”

“I know.”

“You let me think you were dead.”

“I know.”

“My son died three weeks ago.”

Elena’s eyes opened.

Pain moved across her face so quickly Liana nearly missed it.

“I know.”

That hurt worse.

“You knew?”

“I was at the funeral.”

Liana stepped back.

“What?”

“Behind the chapel. I couldn’t come closer.”

“You watched me bury Caleb?”

Elena’s voice broke.

“Yes.”

Liana raised her hand again but could not strike her.

All the anger in her body suddenly had nowhere to go.

Matteo lowered the gun a few inches.

“Why is my son with you?”

Elena looked at him.

“Because someone drugged the woman watching him.”

“You?”

“No.”

“Convenient.”

“Check Maria’s left arm. Needle mark above the elbow. Whoever did it knew the cameras in Rosa’s room were disabled.”

Matteo’s expression changed.

“There are no cameras in Rosa’s room.”

“Exactly.”

Nico shifted and reached toward Liana.

Elena handed him over.

The transfer was natural. Familiar.

Nico looked from one twin to the other and made a soft, confused sound.

Matteo stared.

Elena noticed.

“That’s why he went quiet for her.”

Liana held Nico tighter.

“You cared for him.”

“For four months.”

“Why didn’t Matteo know?”

“Because Sofia didn’t trust his security.”

Matteo’s jaw flexed.

Elena continued before he could interrupt.

“She hired me under Mom’s maiden name. At first it was because she’d found us.”

“Us?” Liana asked.

Elena looked at her.

“Sofia knew she was our sister.”

The words still felt impossible even after the photographs.

“How?”

“Mom left papers in the old storage locker. I found them after Aunt Teresa died. Sofia’s adoption agreement. Letters Mom never sent. I contacted Sofia.”

“And not me.”

“I was going to.”

“When?”

Elena had no answer.

Liana laughed once without humor.

“Five years wasn’t enough time?”

Elena looked down.

“Dominic saw me leaving Sofia’s apartment.”

Matteo’s attention sharpened.

“When?”

“Four years and ten months ago. Before Sofia married you.”

Elena met his eyes.

“He had me followed. Two days later, a photograph of Liana was pushed under my door. On the back was her work address.”

Liana felt cold.

Elena continued.

“No threat. No sentence. He didn’t need one.”

“So you vanished,” Matteo said.

“I changed my name, moved twice, worked through private agencies. Sofia and I stayed in contact through Rosa.”

Rosa.

Liana suddenly understood why the housekeeper had looked guilty.

“She knew you were alive.”

“Only sometimes. Enough to pass messages.”

“Did she know you came here three weeks ago?”

“No.”

Matteo stepped closer.

“What happened that night?”

Elena’s gaze moved toward Nico.

“I received a message from Sofia’s old attorney. Someone had requested copies of Nico’s guardianship trust.”

Matteo frowned.

“That trust is sealed.”

“Not if the request comes from estate security with your authorization code.”

“I authorized nothing.”

“I know.”

“Dominic?”

“I couldn’t prove it. But I knew Sofia had hidden the brass key somewhere near Nico because she told me once that if she died before we finished the audit, the key would stay with the person she trusted most.”

Liana looked at the baby.

“Nico.”

Elena nodded.

“I entered through a staff access route I used years ago. I got to the nursery. The key wasn’t where Sofia originally hid it, so I moved it into the lining.”

“Why not take it?”

“Because Dominic was already coming down the hall.”

Matteo went still.

“The footage shows you alone.”

“The footage you saw was edited.”

Elena’s mouth tightened.

“I heard him outside. I hid behind the curtains. He came in, searched the crib, and picked Nico up when he started crying.”

Liana looked down at the baby.

“What did he do?”

“He held him too tightly. Nico screamed. I stepped out. Dominic dropped him back into the crib and came at me.”

Matteo’s face emptied.

“He touched my son.”

“Yes.”

“And you escaped?”

“I cut the corridor power and ran.”

“Why didn’t the cameras show Dominic?”

“Because Dominic controls the cameras.”

It was so obvious that nobody spoke for several seconds.

Matteo holstered the gun.

“You could have come to me.”

Elena looked at him with exhausted disbelief.

“Sofia tried.”

That landed.

Matteo looked away.

Liana knew almost nothing about his marriage, but she saw the wound in that sentence.

Elena stepped toward the conservatory bench.

“I came back tonight because I saw Dominic leave the east wing right before Maria collapsed. I got Nico out before whoever he sent returned.”

“How did you get into the estate?”

“I never left.”

Matteo turned.

“What?”

“There’s an unused gardener’s apartment behind the greenhouse. I’ve been there for six days.”

Liana stared at her sister.

“You’ve been fifty yards from me all day?”

Elena’s face crumpled.

“I saw your employment paperwork after Rosa hired you. I almost left.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I wanted to see you.”

“From a window?”

“I didn’t know how to walk up and explain five years.”

“You start with hello.”

Elena nodded, tears gathering.

“I know.”

For the first time, Liana saw not the sister who had abandoned her but a woman who had spent years living inside fear and calling it protection.

It did not erase anything.

But it changed the shape of her anger.

Matteo’s phone vibrated.

He looked at it.

“Estate gates are sealed. Dominic says no one has exited.”

Elena gave a humorless smile.

“Of course he does.”

“Can you prove he altered the footage?”

“Maybe.”

She crossed to an old potting bench and pulled a small black device from beneath a folded tarp.

“A network recorder.”

Matteo took it.

“Sofia had the nursery cameras mirrored to a private backup after she became suspicious. Dominic found the main backup after she died. He never found the secondary receiver because it was hidden in the conservatory irrigation controls.”

“You have the original footage?”

“Not all of it. The receiver started failing months ago. But it may have captured audio.”

Matteo looked at the device, then at Elena.

“Why didn’t you take it before?”

“Because I couldn’t risk connecting it to a network. Dominic monitors traffic.”

Liana shifted Nico higher on her hip.

The baby touched her necklace.

Then he reached toward Elena’s throat, where no matching pendant remained.

Elena watched him.

“I left my half for you,” she said.

“For me?”

“I thought if I didn’t get out, Matteo might find it. Or you might someday.”

Liana’s anger rose again.

“You built an entire plan around dying without talking to me.”

“I built it around keeping you alive.”

“Stop deciding what I can survive.”

Elena flinched.

Liana continued, quieter.

“Mom did that. You did that. Sofia did it. Everybody keeps protecting me by removing my choices.”

Matteo looked at her.

Something in his expression suggested the words had found more than one target.

Liana faced him.

“You too.”

He did not argue.

Outside the conservatory, a security light swept across the lawn.

Elena’s head snapped toward the glass.

“That’s not the normal pattern.”

Matteo checked his phone.

No alert.

The light passed again.

Then the entire east side of the mansion went dark.

A second later, Matteo’s phone lost signal.

Elena looked at him.

“He knows you found something.”

From the direction of the main house came the muffled crack of breaking glass.

Matteo reached for his gun.

Liana tightened both arms around Nico.

Elena picked up a pruning knife from the bench, then looked at Liana.

“Take him through the greenhouse tunnel. It comes out behind the chapel.”

“No.”

“Liana—”

“No more disappearing.”

Matteo looked between them.

Then he made a decision.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

“We stay together.”

For once, neither sister argued. The decision did not make them safe, but it made them a unit, and after years of being divided by other people’s choices, that mattered.