[COMPLETED] The Maid's Daughter Heard the Secret That Could Destroy the Conti Empire

The security room smelled faintly of dust, hot circuitry, and black coffee.

Alessandro entered first. Nora came behind him because he had told her to, though every instinct she possessed urged her to stay upstairs with Mia. Dom had arranged for Rosa, one of the younger kitchen maids, to sit with the child in the breakfast room under Nero's watch.

Greta arrived last.

The footage showed the display gallery at 11:42 p.m. Three nights earlier. The antique gold clock sat behind glass beneath a portrait of Alessandro's grandfather.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then Greta entered.

Nora stopped breathing.

On-screen, the housekeeper unlocked the glass cabinet with a key hidden beneath her sleeve. She removed the clock, carried it across the gallery, and disappeared into the staff corridor.

Twenty minutes later she returned without it.

Dom changed cameras.

The second angle showed Greta opening Nora's locker.

The room seemed to lose all sound.

"No," Greta whispered.

Alessandro did not look at her. "No?"

"That footage is incomplete."

Dom folded his arms. "It is complete."

Greta's face tightened. "Then someone forced me."

That made Alessandro turn.

"Forced you."

She swallowed. For the first time in decades, the woman who controlled the mansion's staff with perfect posture and quieter cruelty looked small.

"I was told to place the clock there."

"By whom?"

Greta said nothing.

Nora stared at her in disbelief. "You were going to have me fired. You told everyone I was dishonest."

Greta's mouth opened, but Alessandro raised a hand.

"Dom. Search her office."

"Already started."

That answer produced the first crack in Greta's composure.

Alessandro noticed.

He noticed everything.

"Why Nora?" he asked.

Greta looked toward Nora, then away. "She was convenient."

Nora flinched at the word.

Alessandro stepped closer. "Wrong answer."

For a moment, something defiant returned to Greta's eyes. "You think because a child found her crying you understand what is happening in your own house?"

Dom's gaze sharpened.

Greta continued before fear could stop her.

"You have no idea who that woman is."

Nora went very still.

Alessandro's attention shifted.

Greta smiled weakly, as if she had found a weapon at last.

"Ask her why she changed her surname."

Nora's face drained.

Alessandro's voice dropped. "Did you?"

Nora looked at him, then at the monitors.

"My name is Bianchi."

"Now," Greta said.

Dom took one step toward her, but Alessandro stopped him.

"Explain."

Nora's fingers tightened around the seam of her apron.

"My father died when I was nineteen. After that, I used my mother's maiden name. Bianchi."

"What was your father's name?"

Nora hesitated.

"Emilio Varela."

Dom's expression changed first.

It was small, almost nothing, but Alessandro saw it.

"Dom."

Falco looked at Nora as though he were seeing someone from a photograph pulled out of a locked drawer.

"Emilio Varela worked for your father."

The sentence landed harder than a shout.

Alessandro remembered the name. Not well, but enough. Emilio Varela had been an accountant tied to the Conti shipping division. He had disappeared after an internal scandal nearly ten years earlier. Rumor said he stole money. Another rumor said he cooperated with federal investigators.

No body had ever been found.

Nora's eyes widened. "He didn't steal anything."

Greta laughed once, a brittle sound. "Of course you would say that."

Nora turned on her.

"My father came home terrified for six months before he vanished. He told my mother never to trust anyone from this house."

Alessandro's face became unreadable.

"And yet you took a job here."

"I needed work. I have a daughter. And because I wanted to know what happened."

Silence.

There it was.

Not an accident. Not desperation alone.

A search.

Alessandro respected the truth more when it hurt the person telling it.

Before he could respond, Dom's phone vibrated.

He answered, listened, then looked at Alessandro.

"We found a second phone in Greta's office."

"Who has she been calling?"

Dom's jaw tightened.

"Someone listed only as M."

Greta shut her eyes.

Dom continued.

"Last outgoing message was sent three hours ago."

He held up the phone.

The message contained only seven words.

THE VARELA GIRL FOUND THE HOUSE AGAIN.

Nora stared at the screen.

Alessandro stared at Greta.

Then the mansion lights went out.

The first emergency generator came online with a hard mechanical shudder somewhere below the house. A strip of white light returned above the security consoles.

For half a second everyone blinked.

Then Dom pointed toward the far camera.

"Movement."

A shadow crossed a lower service corridor.

Alessandro's attention snapped to the screen.

The figure wore a maintenance jacket and cap. No face visible. He passed the camera without hurry, like a man who knew exactly how long he had before the backup power restored the full system.

"That is not one of mine," Dom said.

Greta made a sound.

Tiny.

Almost swallowed.

Alessandro heard it.

"You recognize him?"

"No."

"You reacted."

"I reacted because there is an armed stranger in the house."

"Wrong again."

Greta's eyes filled with fear.

The camera switched to static.