Chapter 4 - What Beatrice Remembered

For two years, Beatrice had told herself that memory was not evidence.

Memory was a shadow. A smell. A broken image arriving at the wrong hour.

Memory was the sound of rain striking glass while she carried folded linens down the service corridor on the night Sofia Rossi died.

Now Leo stood six feet away holding a note that proved somebody else remembered her being there.

“What did you see?” he asked.

Beatrice looked at the bedroom door.

“Not here.”

Leo’s face hardened. “Why?”

“Because Dominic Sarto controls the security system.”

Mateo nodded immediately. “She’s right.”

Leo’s gaze moved to him.

“If Dominic is involved, assume every private room has been compromised until we prove otherwise,” Mateo said.

The three of them left Sofia’s room without touching anything else.

Mateo took them to an old wine storage room beneath the garage. It had no network connection, no smart controls, and no reason for anyone to monitor it. He checked the walls himself before closing the door.

Leo remained standing.

Beatrice sat on a wooden crate because her knees felt unreliable.

“Start at the beginning,” he said.

She stared at the concrete floor.

“The night of the bombing, I was still new.”

“How new?” Mateo asked.

“Six weeks.”

Leo remembered. “You worked evenings.”

“Yes. Mostly laundry and kitchen cleanup.”

Beatrice rubbed her splinted fingers together.

“Sofia had hosted a small dinner. Eight people, maybe ten. Victoria was there with her father.”

Leo’s jaw tightened.

“I left before dessert,” he said. “There was a problem at the South Harbor warehouse.”

“I know.”

“How?”

“Everyone knew. You left angry enough that three waiters stopped talking until the front door closed.”

Mateo almost smiled.

Leo did not.

“Continue.”

“After the guests left, Sofia asked me to bring blankets from the laundry room to Lily’s nursery because the heat upstairs wasn’t working properly.”

Beatrice closed her eyes.

“I heard voices in the service hall near the side entrance.”

“Whose?”

“Victoria’s.”

Leo went still.

“And a man.”

“Alistair?” Mateo asked.

“I don’t know. I never saw his face.”

“What did they say?”

Beatrice swallowed.

“Victoria said, ‘She copied everything.’ The man said, ‘Then you know what has to happen.’”

Leo’s expression became unreadable.

“Why did you never tell me?”

“I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

“You heard my future fiancée discuss something happening to my wife on the night my wife died.”

“She was not your future fiancée then. She was a guest I barely knew.”

Leo’s mouth closed.

Beatrice continued.

“I took the blankets upstairs. Ten minutes later I smelled smoke.”

The room seemed to shrink.

“The explosion happened at the rear gate,” Leo said.

“Yes.”

Sofia’s car had detonated as it approached the gatehouse. The blast had torn open the vehicle and set part of the stone wall on fire. Leo had been told she died almost instantly.

Beatrice shook her head.

“That’s not all.”

Mateo leaned forward.

“What else?”

“I ran outside with two kitchen staff. The guards were shouting. There was fire everywhere.”

Her voice weakened.

“I saw Sofia.”

Leo stopped breathing.

Beatrice looked at him.

“She was alive.”

His face drained of color.

“No.”

“She was alive, Leo.”

It was the first time she had ever used his name without thinking.

He did not notice.

“She was trapped,” Beatrice continued. “One side of the car was crushed. But she was moving. I heard her coughing.”

Mateo whispered, “The medical report said she had no survivable injuries.”

“I know what the report said.”

Leo’s hand went to the wall.

“How long?”

“I don’t know. Minutes.”

“And then?”

“Dr. Vale arrived.”

Mateo swore.

Leo looked at her.

“Marcus Vale was at the estate?”

“Yes.”

“He was not listed among the responders.”

“I remember because he pushed me back and said he was a doctor.”

Beatrice’s throat tightened.

“He climbed into the back seat from the other side. I couldn’t see exactly what he did.”

“What did you see?” Leo demanded.

“A syringe.”

Silence.

“He injected her?”

“I saw something in his hand. That is all I can swear to.”

Leo closed his eyes.

“Then what?”

“Victoria came outside.”

Mateo said, “After the explosion?”

“Yes.”

“She had already left,” Leo said.

“That is what the guest log showed.”

Beatrice shook her head.

“She was there.”

Leo stared at her.

“She stood near the gate wearing a red scarf. She asked Dr. Vale, ‘Is it done?’”

Mateo’s expression went cold.

“What did he say?”

“‘It is now.’”

Leo turned away.

For a moment Beatrice thought he might strike the wall.

Instead, he pressed both hands against it and lowered his head.

“I buried her believing she never knew what happened.”

Beatrice stood slowly.

“Leo.”

He did not turn.

“She may not have known.”

“You just told me she was alive.”

“Yes.”

“Do not make it kinder than it was.”

“I’m not.”

His shoulders shook once.

Beatrice had never seen him cry. She was not sure he was crying now. He simply stood there with grief moving through him like a current too strong for his body to hide.

Mateo looked away to give him privacy.

Beatrice did not.

After a long minute, Leo turned back.

“Why did you lie?”

There was no accusation in the question now.

Only pain.

Beatrice answered with the truth.

“Because Dominic found me afterward.”

Mateo’s head snapped up.

“He pulled me into the service corridor. He told me I had been confused by the smoke.”

“What else?”

“He knew my mother was sick.”

Leo’s eyes narrowed.

“He knew where she lived. He knew which clinic I used. He said accidents happened to people who misunderstood powerful families.”

Mateo cursed under his breath.

“My mother died four months later from the illness she already had,” Beatrice said. “Nothing happened to her. But I spent those four months believing something might.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Leo asked.

She looked at him sadly.

“You barely knew my name.”

That landed harder than anger.

Leo sat down.

“No,” he said quietly. “I didn’t.”

Beatrice folded her hands.

“Sofia did.”

He looked up.

“She learned everyone’s name.”

A faint smile touched Beatrice’s face.

“She used to ask whether my mother was eating. She once sent soup home with me and pretended the kitchen had made too much.”

Leo’s eyes closed briefly.

“That was Sofia.”

“That is why I stayed after she died. I told myself Lily needed familiar people.”

“You stayed because of Lily.”

“Yes.”

“And Dominic knew you were a witness all this time.”

“I think he believed I was too scared to matter.”

Mateo looked at her. “Until last night.”

Beatrice nodded.

“Until I fought Victoria.”

Leo stood.

“Dominic is not coming back into this house.”

Mateo lifted a hand. “If we confront him now, he runs.”

“I don’t care.”

“You will when he takes the rest of the evidence with him.”

“He threatened Beatrice. He helped cover up Sofia’s murder.”

“Then we need him talking, not disappearing.”

Leo’s temper flared. “You want me to let him stand ten feet from Lily?”

“No.”

Beatrice interrupted. “Make him think he still has access.”

Both men looked at her.

She hated that her idea had arrived so clearly.

“Tell him Lily is staying at the hospital for another night. Let him believe the mansion is almost empty.”

Leo stared at her. “Absolutely not.”

“I did not say leave Lily here.”

“What are you suggesting?” Mateo asked.

“Move Lily somewhere Dominic doesn’t know about.”

Mateo considered it.

“Then announce a security audit at the mansion,” Beatrice continued. “If he thinks Sofia’s box or the rabbit might be discovered, he will either remove evidence or contact whoever he works for.”

Leo’s gaze narrowed.

“You have thought about this for thirty seconds.”

“I spent years cleaning up after people who thought I was too stupid to understand their conversations.”

Mateo smiled without humor. “I really wish we had promoted you sooner.”

“I don’t want a promotion.”

“What do you want?” Leo asked.

Beatrice looked toward the ceiling as if she could see Lily above them.

“I want that child to stop being used as a weapon in other people’s wars.”

Leo’s anger vanished.

“So do I.”

They moved Lily before dusk to a small lakeside house owned through a trust Mateo said even most of Leo’s organization did not know existed.

Beatrice went with her.

Leo intended to remain at the mansion.

Lily refused.

“No.”

Leo crouched beside her suitcase. “Princess—”

“No.”

“I have work.”

“You always have work.”

The words struck him.

Lily hugged Bunny.

“When Mommy died, you had work. When Victoria came, you had work. Yesterday you had work.”

Leo stared at her.

Lily’s voice grew smaller.

“I want you to have me.”

Beatrice looked away.

Leo slowly placed his phone on the table.

“You’re right.”

Lily sniffed.

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“That was fast.”

“I’m learning.”

She threw her arms around him.

Leo held her close.

Mateo left for the mansion to supervise the trap. Leo remained at the lake house with Lily and Beatrice.

For the first time since Beatrice had known him, he made dinner.

It was terrible.

Lily stared at the burned grilled cheese.

“Daddy.”

“Yes?”

“Bee makes it better.”

Beatrice covered her mouth.

Leo looked offended. “I manage companies on three continents.”

“You burned bread.”

“Bread is unpredictable.”

“Bread is bread.”

Lily giggled.

For a few minutes, the world became small enough to survive.

Then Mateo called.

Leo put the phone on speaker.

“Dominic took the bait,” Mateo said.

“Where is he?”

“In Sofia’s room.”

“What is he doing?”

“Searching the wardrobe.”

Beatrice’s stomach tightened.

Mateo continued.

“He just made a call.”

“To whom?”

“We don’t know yet. But we captured the audio.”

Leo stood.

“Play it.”

Static crackled.

Then Dominic Sarto’s voice came through the speaker.

“The box is gone.”

A second voice answered, distorted but recognizable.

Victoria.

“Then the maid has it.”

Dominic said, “What do you want me to do?”

A pause.

Victoria’s reply was quiet.

“The same thing your doctor did to Sofia.”

Lily was in the next room.

She did not hear.

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

Beatrice did.

And so did Leo.