Chapter 2 - The Sinking FoundationVivian forced a shaky laugh, though her manicured nails were digging deep into the plaster of the pillar. “Alessandro, are you out of your mind? You’re interrogating me over a child’s rag doll? In front of all our guests?”
“Answer the question,” Alessandro commanded.
Don Ricci cleared his throat, his ancient voice cutting through the tension. “Moretti, we respect your house, but accusing your own future wife of treason because of a thrift-store jacket is a heavy claim. Let’s not let a domestic squabble disrupt our alliance.”
“Domestic squabble?” Alessandro turned his head slowly, locking his terrifying gaze onto the old don. “The Corvo Syndicate has cost us forty million euros in lost cargo and three made men this month. The traitor uses this exact crest to authenticate internal communications. And this woman,” he pointed a leather-gloved finger at Vivian, “was seen meeting with the federal prosecutor last Tuesday.”
Gasps echoed through the hall. The wives of the crime bosses clutched their pearls. Vivian’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
“It’s a lie! She planted it!” Vivian shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at me. “She’s a penniless maid! A spy hired by our rivals to ruin me!”
I stepped back, my blood running cold. “I don’t even know what the Corvo Syndicate is! I clean houses to buy milk for my daughter!”
“Silence,” Alessandro snapped, his voice silencing both of us instantly. He signaled to his chief enforcer, a hulking giant named Marco. “Take Vivian to the lower vault. Search her private quarters, her phone, her offshore accounts. If she’s clean, she’ll be back for dinner. If she’s not…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
Four armed guards grabbed Vivian by her designer gown. Her screams bounced off the crystal chandeliers as they dragged her down the long corridor, her diamond heels clicking uselessly against the stone floor until the heavy iron cellar doors slammed shut.
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Alessandro turned back to me. The raw, terrifying fury in his eyes softened just a fraction as he looked at Emma, who was still clutching the blue rabbit and sucking her thumb.
“Mrs. Bennett,” Alessandro said quietly. “You are no longer a housekeeper at Villa Moretti.”
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