Chapter 2 - The Reason Serafina Chose Him

Adrian did not raise his voice.

That made the room quieter.

“Serafina,” he said again. “Why did you come into my life?”

She looked at the ring on her hand.

Then at Dominic.

Then at me.

As if one of us might answer for her.

Nobody did.

Finally, she whispered, “Because my father asked me to.”

A woman near the champagne tower inhaled sharply.

Adrian’s face did not change.

“What exactly did Victor ask you to do?”

Serafina swallowed.

“Find out what you knew.”

“About him?”

“About your father.”

Adrian looked down at the white envelope.

Still unopened.

“For two years?”

“It wasn’t supposed to become two years.”

That sentence hurt him more than anything else.

I saw it.

Not anger.

Something smaller.

Sharper.

“You were supposed to meet me,” he said. “Get close. Ask questions.”

“Yes.”

“And then?”

“Leave.”

Adrian gave one quiet laugh.

There was no humor in it.

“Efficient.”

Serafina started crying harder.

“I didn’t know you.”

“No,” he said. “Apparently that was the point.”

Dominic shifted beside me.

Adrian noticed.

“You said her father told her where mine was.”

Dominic nodded.

“Victor contacted Serafina shortly before he died.”

Serafina wiped her face.

“My father was sick. He knew he didn’t have much time.”

“And he decided confession should become your inheritance?”

“He decided someone had to keep your father hidden.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed.

“Why?”

Serafina looked toward the letter in his hand.

“Because your father still had proof.”

“Proof of what?”

Dominic answered.

“Victor Bellandi didn’t move money alone.”

The room seemed to change.

Several older guests stopped looking at Serafina.

They started looking at one another.

Adrian saw that too.

“Who else?”

Dominic pointed toward the brass key.

“Storage 214.”

Serafina immediately said, “Don’t go there.”

Adrian turned toward her.

“Why?”

“Because my father said if Enzo ever sent you there, it meant he had stopped caring whether the truth destroyed both families.”

Adrian stared at her.

“Both?”

She nodded.

“My father wasn’t the only name in those records.”

Dominic’s expression hardened.

“Neither was Enzo.”

That surprised everyone.

Including Adrian.

“My father?”

Dominic shook his head.

“Not as a thief.”

“Then as what?”

“As the man who helped build the system before he understood what Victor was using it for.”

Adrian looked at the ballroom around him.

The Vescari family.

The Bellandi family.

Old men who suddenly found the floor interesting.

Women who had stopped touching their champagne.

The engagement party had disappeared.

This had become something else.

A trial without a judge.

Adrian finally broke the seal on the white envelope.

Serafina stepped forward.

“Please.”

He looked at her.

“You had two years.”

Then he unfolded the paper.

I couldn’t see the words.

Only his face.

His eyes moved slowly at first.

Then stopped.

Dominic lowered his head.

Adrian read one paragraph again.

“What does it say?” Serafina asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Adrian?”

He folded the letter once.

Carefully.

Then looked at Dominic.

“Where is he?”

Dominic hesitated.

That was the first time I saw fear in the old driver.

Not fear of Adrian.

Fear for him.

“North of here.”

“How far?”

“Three hours.”

“Alive?”

“Yes.”

“Safe?”

Dominic did not answer fast enough.

Adrian noticed.

“Safe?”

“Safer than he was three weeks ago.”

Serafina closed her eyes.

Adrian turned toward her.

“What happened three weeks ago?”

She whispered, “I found him.”

“I know.”

“No. You don’t.”

She looked at Dominic.

“My father left me an address. I waited until after the funeral to use it.”

“And then you went there with money.”

“Yes.”

“To keep him quiet.”

Her mouth trembled.

“At first.”

Adrian’s expression changed.

“At first?”

Serafina looked at the floor.

“When I saw him, he could barely stand.”

Dominic frowned.

“You never told me this.”

“He didn’t want you to know.”

“Know what?” Adrian asked.

She looked up.

“Someone had found him before I did.”

The room went still again.

Adrian took one slow step closer.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“That answer is becoming popular tonight.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“Start proving it.”

Serafina opened her clutch.

Not for money this time.

She removed a small black flash drive.

Dominic stared at it.

“What is that?”

“My father’s last insurance policy.”

Adrian held out his hand.

She didn’t give it to him.

“Storage 214 isn’t empty,” she said.

“I assumed that.”

“It also isn’t safe.”

Adrian’s voice lowered.

“Give me the drive.”

She looked at him for a long moment.

Then placed it in his palm.

“My father recorded the names of everyone who helped him.”

Adrian closed his fingers around it.

“And everyone who helped him hide Enzo?”

Serafina nodded.

“Yes.”

Dominic stepped closer.

“How many names?”

She looked at him.

“Enough that my father stopped trusting his own security.”

Adrian slid the drive into his pocket.

Then he removed the engagement ring from Serafina’s finger.

Not violently.

Not dramatically.

He simply took her hand.

Slid it off.

And placed it beside her champagne glass.

She stared at it.

“Adrian.”

“We’re not engaged tonight.”

Her face broke.

He looked toward the ballroom doors.

Then at Dominic.

“We’re going to my father.”

Dominic nodded.

I thought that was the end of my part.

Then Adrian looked at me.

“Mara.”

I straightened.

“Yes?”

“You opened the door tonight.”

I didn’t know what to say.

He glanced toward Serafina.

“Now I need someone in this house who still tells me what she sees.”

My stomach tightened.

“What do you need?”

He looked at the guests.

“Make sure nobody leaves with that folder.”

Several faces changed.

And that was when I understood.

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Adrian wasn’t only afraid of what waited three hours north.

He was afraid the truth was already standing inside his ballroom.