THE MIRROR THAT HEARD TOO MUCH — THE CASTELLANO BETRAYAL

“Don't touch the papers,” Luca said.

Marco froze beside the desk. The drawer stood open by less than an inch, just enough to reveal the corner of a blue legal folder.

Emma remembered polishing that desk in the morning. Luca had turned the key himself before leaving for a meeting.

“Is anything missing?” Marco asked.

Luca checked without moving the other documents. The revised prenuptial agreement was still there. So was his will. But a sealed envelope prepared by his attorney had been opened and put back beneath the folder.

“Someone wanted to know what I'd changed,” he said.

Emma's eyes moved to the brass lamp.

“The woman who brought the new shade,” she said, “wasn't a decorator. Belini introduced her as one, but she didn't have any tools.”

“Describe her.”

“Forties. Blond hair. A blue stone ring. She carried a narrow leather case.”

Luca and Marco exchanged a look.

“What?” Emma asked.

Marco showed her a photograph. “Is this the woman?”

Emma nodded immediately.

“Adriana Russo,” Marco said. “Belini's cousin. Corporate security consultant.”

“Why would a security consultant need a lamp?” Emma asked.

“She wouldn't,” Luca replied.

He asked Marco to put Emma in a guest suite near the medical wing with a guard outside, not to confine her but to keep anyone from reaching her while he investigated. Emma objected until he promised her mother could be contacted and that her wages would continue.

Before leaving, she noticed a tiny crescent of red wax on the opened envelope. The same wax had been on a stack of wedding invitations she'd carried upstairs earlier.

“Belini's stationery,” she said.

Luca looked at the mark. “Then she knew exactly what she was searching for.”

He did not say what was inside the envelope. Emma didn't ask.

At midnight, Marco obtained the secure corridor footage. Adriana had entered the study with Belini last Thursday. The two women left twenty minutes later, carrying the old lampshade in a box. Yesterday, Adriana returned alone for eight minutes. Her visitor pass had been approved using Luca's own authorization code.

“That code was retired last month,” Luca said.

“Someone reinstated it through your office,” Marco replied.

“Who has the necessary privileges?”

“Three people. You, me, and your chief financial officer.”

“Daniel Voss.”

Daniel had handled the Castellano trusts for six years. Quiet, exact, and relentlessly punctual, he'd stood beside Luca at his father's funeral. He was also the first person Luca had informed of his decision to revise the will.

“Bring him in,” Luca said.

Daniel arrived at half past midnight, composed in a slate-gray suit. He listened without interrupting while Luca described the devices.

“You believe someone is stealing information about the trusts,” Daniel said.

“I know someone is.”

“Belini?”

“I haven't decided.”

Daniel's expression barely changed. “Then you should reconsider Saturday's wedding.”

Luca looked at him. “Interesting advice from the man who helped plan the financial settlement.”

“I planned to protect you.”

“Show Marco every login you made this week.”

Daniel inclined his head. “Of course.”

After he left, Marco brought Luca a second set of access records. They showed that someone had entered the estate's document server at 4:12 p.m., minutes after Emma was injured.

The login had copied only one file.

Not Luca's will.

Not the prenuptial agreement.