Chapter 5 - ELENA’S NUMBERS
Emma lasted until midnight before telling him the rest.
She found Vittorio alone at the dining table, surrounded by invoices and cold coffee.
“I lied earlier.”
He looked up.
She flinched before he said anything.
That alone made him ashamed.
“About what?”
“I did see the red notebook.”
Vittorio stood.
Emma immediately stepped backward.
He stopped himself.
Then he sat again.
“Where?”
“Six months ago. Marcus had left it on the desk.”
She had entered Elena’s study to dust. The notebook was open beside Marcus’s briefcase.
Emma had recognized Elena’s handwriting because Elena used to leave household instructions for her.
The pages contained dates, company names, invoice amounts, and short questions in the margins.
WHY DOUBLE SECURITY?
WHO IS M.H. PAYING?
ASK V.
Emma had photographed three pages.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Marcus came back while I was standing there.”
Her voice thinned.
“He asked what I’d seen.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“And he believed you?”
“No.”
After that, Marcus had started treating Emma differently. He checked which rooms she cleaned. Bianca asked strange questions about whether Emma ever looked through family belongings.
Two weeks later, Bianca began accusing Lucy of telling lies.
Emma unlocked a private folder on her phone.
The photographs were still there.
Vittorio enlarged one image.
Elena had circled a company called Harlow Protective Services.
The same company David could not verify.
At the bottom of the page Elena had written:
MARCUS SAYS V APPROVED. V SAYS HE DOESN’T REMEMBER.
Vittorio leaned back.
Elena had noticed the discrepancy while she was dying.
And he had dismissed her concern.
A memory returned with humiliating clarity.
Elena in bed, thin beneath a gray blanket.
“Marcus is moving money too fast,” she had said.
Vittorio had kissed her forehead.
“Let me handle Marcus.”
He never had.
Emma wiped her palms against her apron.
“There’s one more thing.”
She showed him a fourth photograph.
It was blurry, taken quickly.
Beside Elena’s handwriting was a note in different ink.
Not Marcus’s.
Vittorio recognized it because he had seen the same sharp handwriting on dozens of engagement-planning lists.
Bianca’s.
May you like
Find the original before he sells.
Bianca had known about Elena’s notebook before she ever put Lucy beside that dog bowl.
