Chapter 3 - The Rabbit's Seam

They did not view the memory card at the hospital.

Mateo insisted on a secured computer disconnected from every network, and Leo did not argue. By noon, Lily was cleared to leave under strict observation. Leo took her back to the mansion only after replacing half the security staff with people Mateo trusted personally.

Beatrice hated returning.

The iron cellar door was closed.

Her stomach tightened the moment she saw it.

Lily’s hand slipped into hers.

“Bee?”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re squeezing.”

Beatrice looked down and realized she was gripping Lily’s fingers too tightly.

“I’m sorry.”

Lily squeezed back. “You can squeeze a little.”

Leo, walking behind them, heard.

His expression changed, but he said nothing.

Victoria was no longer in the house. Her lawyers had arrived before sunrise, accompanied by two city detectives and a private security detail sent by her father. Because Lily had been too ill to give an immediate formal statement and because no officer had witnessed the assault, Victoria had been taken to a downtown hotel under what the detectives called voluntary supervision.

Mateo called it political theater.

Leo called it proof that Alistair Kensington owned more doors than anyone had admitted.

Beatrice called it terrifying.

“She can just leave?” she asked as they entered the study.

“For now,” Mateo said.

“She locked a child in a cellar.”

“I know.”

“She took her inhaler.”

“I know.”

“And she attacked me.”

“I have photographs of your injuries and the paramedic report.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

Mateo’s jaw tightened. “Her father’s attorneys are arguing that the staff assaulted her and that Lily’s attack caused confusion.”

Beatrice stared at him.

“That is disgusting.”

“Yes.”

Leo stood by the fireplace.

“This is why we need evidence that cannot be bought, frightened, or reinterpreted.”

Mateo placed the memory card into a small reader.

Lily sat on the sofa with Bunny. Beatrice had restitched the ear and paw with white thread.

Leo crouched in front of his daughter.

“Princess, what we’re about to watch might be something Mommy recorded.”

Lily’s eyes widened.

“Mommy?”

“Maybe.”

“Can I see?”

Leo looked at Beatrice.

She understood the question.

“Not until we know what it is.”

Lily frowned. “I’m not a baby.”

“No,” Beatrice said. “But grown-ups are allowed to check scary things first.”

Lily considered this.

“Fine. But don’t lie to me after.”

Leo’s face tightened.

“I won’t.”

Mateo took Lily to the adjoining library with two trusted guards.

When the door closed, Leo nodded.

Mateo clicked the only file on the card.

Sofia Rossi appeared on the screen.

Beatrice knew her mostly from photographs: dark hair, warm brown eyes, elegant without the cold perfection Victoria worked so hard to create.

In the video, Sofia wore a gray sweater and no makeup. She looked exhausted.

“If you are watching this,” she said, “then one of two things has happened. Either I finally became brave enough to give this to you, Leo, or I ran out of time.”

Leo gripped the back of a chair.

Sofia looked away from the camera.

“I need you to listen before you get angry.”

Mateo whispered, “That sounds like her.”

Leo did not answer.

“I found discrepancies in the foundation shipments. At first I thought it was theft. Medical equipment listed as delivered to clinics that never received it. Oxygen concentrators, portable monitors, pediatric ventilators.”

Beatrice looked at Mateo.

“The Kensington Foundation?”

He nodded.

Sofia continued.

“The paperwork leads through Rossi Logistics. That is why I was afraid to tell you. I thought someone in your company was helping them.”

Leo’s face hardened.

“I checked manifests for six months. The same routing codes appear on shipments that disappear. K-17. Blue Finch. Sometimes both.”

Mateo began writing.

“I asked Marcus Vale about three clinics. He lied to me. I know he lied because one of those clinics closed a year before the delivery date.”

Beatrice whispered, “Dr. Vale.”

Sofia’s eyes filled with tears on the screen.

“Leo, I don’t know what they are moving. I know it is not only money. I heard Alistair Kensington tell someone that the lake route was clean because ‘Rossi never checks charity cargo.’”

Leo swore under his breath.

Sofia inhaled slowly.

“I also know someone inside this house is giving Victoria information about your schedule.”

Beatrice turned sharply.

“Victoria?”

Mateo paused the video.

Leo looked sick.

“She knew Victoria before I did.”

“How?”

“Charity boards. Sofia disliked her.”

Mateo said, “Sofia told me once that Victoria asked too many questions about security.”

Leo looked at him. “You never told me.”

“I thought she meant social gossip.”

“Play it.”

The video resumed.

“I do not know if Victoria understands what her father is doing, but she is involved in something. I saw her copy the guest list for the winter summit. I saw her photograph the key cabinet. When I confronted her, she laughed and told me I was becoming paranoid.”

Sofia looked directly into the camera.

“She said something else.”

A pause.

“She said men like you always believe the beautiful woman who tells them what they want to hear.”

Beatrice’s skin prickled.

Sofia gave a sad smile.

“I hope she is wrong.”

The screen flickered.

Then Sofia leaned closer.

“I put the key in Lily’s rabbit because no one takes anything from a grieving child. The key opens my silver box. The card is only the beginning. The box has copies.”

Leo whispered, “Copies of what?”

Sofia seemed almost to answer him across two years.

“Manifests. Bank transfers. Photographs. And one audio recording I do not understand yet.”

A noise sounded off camera.

Sofia turned.

“Someone is here.”

The image shook.

Then she looked back.

“One more thing. Mateo tried to help me.”

Mateo froze.

Leo’s eyes snapped toward him.

Sofia continued quickly.

“He told me not to confront anyone until he could verify the security breach. If he denies knowing, it means he is trying to protect you from something. Be angry later.”

The video cut to black.

Silence filled the study.

Leo turned to Mateo.

“You knew?”

“Some of it.”

“How much?”

“That Sofia thought Kensington shipments were dirty. That she thought someone in security was leaking schedules.”

“And you said nothing for two years.”

Mateo’s face hardened. “She died forty-eight hours after she came to me. I spent two years thinking that if I had taken her more seriously, she might still be alive.”

“That was not your choice to make.”

“I know.”

“No. You know now because a dead woman just told me.”

Beatrice stood.

“Stop.”

Both men looked at her.

“This is exactly what whoever did this wants.”

Leo’s eyes flashed. “Do not tell me how to feel about my wife.”

“I am not.”

“Then stay out of it.”

Beatrice felt the old instinct rise—the one that told her to apologize, lower her gaze, disappear.

She pushed it down.

“No.”

Mateo’s eyebrows lifted.

Leo took one step toward her.

Beatrice did not move.

“You want the truth?” she said. “Then stop punishing the people who are still standing in the room long enough to help you find it.”

Leo stared at her.

“Mateo should have told you. He knows that. But Sofia trusted him enough to put his name in the recording. That matters more than your anger right now.”

Mateo said softly, “Beatrice—”

“And you.” She turned on him. “Do not look relieved. You still have two years of explaining to do.”

Mateo actually smiled. “Understood.”

Leo’s anger shifted into something quieter.

“You are not afraid of me.”

Beatrice almost laughed.

“I am terrified of you.”

“That is not how terrified people usually speak to me.”

“I spent most of my life being afraid of taking up space. It turns out nearly watching a child die rearranges your priorities.”

For a second, nobody spoke.

Then Leo sat.

“Fine.”

Mateo exhaled.

Leo pointed at him. “You explain everything.”

“I will.”

“And we open Sofia’s box.”

Beatrice asked, “Where is it?”

Leo looked toward the ceiling, toward the closed room upstairs.

“In her dressing room.”

They found the silver box exactly where Lily said Victoria had left it: behind a row of shoe boxes in Sofia’s old wardrobe.

The small key fit.

Leo inserted it but stopped before turning.

His hand trembled.

Beatrice understood that the box was more than evidence. It was the last decision Sofia had made without him. A secret preserved through death.

“You can wait,” she said.

“No.”

“You’re allowed.”

“I already waited two years without knowing.”

He turned the key.

The lid opened.

Inside lay copies of shipping manifests, a ledger, four photographs, a flash drive, and a folded note in Sofia’s handwriting.

Leo opened the note first.

It contained one sentence.

If I am wrong, burn all of this and forgive me. If I am right, protect Lily from the people who will call my death an accident.

Beatrice’s breath caught.

Mateo lifted one photograph.

It showed Dr. Marcus Vale standing beside Alistair Kensington at a private freight hangar.

Another showed Victoria entering the same building.

The third showed a Rossi security vehicle parked outside.

The fourth made Mateo swear.

A man stood beside the vehicle, half turned away.

Only part of his face was visible.

But his signet ring was clear.

Mateo enlarged the image.

Leo went silent.

Beatrice leaned closer.

“Who is he?”

Mateo answered.

“Dominic Sarto.”

Leo’s chief of security.

The man who had personally hired Daniel Hurst.

A knock struck the bedroom door.

All three turned.

One of Mateo’s guards entered.

“Sir, we found Hurst.”

“Alive?” Mateo asked.

The guard hesitated.

“Yes.”

Leo stood. “Where?”

“In his car near the old lake road. He’s unconscious.”

“Drugged?”

“Looks like it.”

The guard swallowed.

“And there’s something else.”

“What?”

“He had a note taped to his chest.”

Mateo’s expression went cold.

“What did it say?”

The guard looked at Leo.

Ask the maid what she saw the night Sofia died.

Beatrice stopped breathing.

Leo turned toward her.

Mateo did too.

Beatrice stared at the note in the guard’s hand.

Two years ago, after the bombing, she had told everyone she remembered almost nothing.

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That had been a lie.

And someone had just proved they knew it.