CHAPTER 10 #2
Someone powerful enough to manipulate records, destroy reputations, and make Matteo Vesperi disappear.
And Serafina knew more than she was willing to admit.
Elara turned toward the ballroom.
She would get the rest of the answers tonight.
One way or another.
When Elara returned to the ballroom, Serafina was speaking with several guests near the grand staircase.
Elara watched her.
Something caught the light at Serafina's throat.
A silver pendant.
Elara stopped.
She knew that symbol.
The same mark had been found on the object connected to her father's hidden records.
She moved closer.
"Where did you get that?"
Serafina touched the pendant.
"This?"
"Yes."
"A family heirloom."
Elara studied it.
"I've seen it before."
"I'm sure you have."
Luca appeared beside Elara.
"What did you find?"
She nodded toward the pendant.
Luca looked.
His relaxed expression disappeared.
"That's not simply a Valcieri symbol."
"What is it?"
"An older mark."
Alessandro approached.
His gaze settled on the pendant.
"It belonged to the original alliance."
Elara looked at Serafina.
"Then why are you wearing it?"
Serafina's smile remained perfectly composed.
"Some symbols survive because people forget what they once meant."
"And what did this one mean?"
"That depends on which history you believe."
Dante joined them.
"That's convenient."
Serafina looked at him.
"Truth often is."
Before Dante could respond, a young man approached Elara.
"May I have this dance?"
Elara glanced at Alessandro.
Then Dante.
Then Luca.
All three men had very different expressions.
She smiled.
"I can handle one dance."
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
Dante muttered, "That's what worries me."
Luca laughed.
Elara took the man's offered hand.
The music carried them toward the center of the ballroom.
She moved easily, but her attention remained elsewhere.
The stranger danced well.
Too well.
His eyes kept moving beyond her shoulder.
Elara followed his gaze.
Serafina.
He wasn't interested in her.
He was watching Serafina.
"You're distracted," he said.
"So are you."
His smile vanished.
"Your father should have stayed away."
Elara's pulse jumped.
"What did you say?"
But the music turned them.
By the time she looked again, the man had disappeared into the crowd.
Elara returned to the edge of the ballroom.
Luca was waiting.
"Who was he?"
"I don't know."
"What did he say?"
She hesitated.
"That my father should have stayed away."
Alessandro's expression hardened.
"Did he touch you?"
"No."
Dante scanned the room.
"Find him."
Two guards moved immediately.
Elara looked toward Serafina.
The older woman was watching her.
Their eyes met.
Serafina gave the smallest smile.
Then she turned away.
Elara touched the silver seal at her own memory's center.
Everything was connecting.
Her father.
The old alliance.
Serafina.
The three families.
And now Alessandro.
There was one question she could no longer ignore.
She needed to know what happened the night Matteo died.
Elara found Alessandro in a quiet corridor overlooking the ballroom.
The music was softer here.
The crowd seemed distant.
She stopped in front of him.
"She knew my father."
Alessandro didn't ask who she meant.
"I know."
Elara stared at him.
"You knew?"
"I knew they had met."
"How?"
He hesitated.
That was enough.
"What happened the night my father died?"
Alessandro looked toward the ballroom.
"Not here."
"Then where?"
"Somewhere private."
She stepped closer.
"Tell me."
His pale gray eyes met hers.
"I was there."
Her breath caught.
"At my father's death?"
"At the meeting before it."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know what you would do with the truth."
"Maybe you should have trusted me."
"I should have."
The admission stripped away her anger for a moment.
He looked toward the dark windows.
"I was seventeen."
Elara said nothing.
"Your father came to meet my father, Marcello, and Enzo. He was frightened."
"My father?"
"Yes."
"Of whom?"
"We never found out."
"What did he say?"
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
"He said someone was manipulating the three families. Changing records. Turning people against one another."
Elara's heart beat faster.
"Did he know who?"
"He said he had a name."
"Whose?"
"We never heard it."
"Why?"
"The meeting was interrupted."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
She looked at him.
"And then?"
"Your father disappeared."
"Was he killed?"
"I don't know."
Elara's eyes filled with frustration.
"You all keep giving me half an answer."
"Because half is all we have."
"No."
She shook her head.
"You're afraid of the other half."
Alessandro didn't deny it.
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Serafina stood at the end of the corridor.
Her gaze moved from Elara to Alessandro.
"Some truths are dangerous when spoken too soon."
Elara turned toward her.
"Then I'll ask again tomorrow."
Serafina smiled.
"Perhaps."
She walked away.
Elara watched her disappear.
Then she faced Alessandro again.
"What happened that night?"
He looked at her for several seconds.
This time, he did not retreat behind silence.
"Your father asked me to protect you."
Everything inside Elara seemed to stop.
"My father knew you."
"Yes."
"He trusted you."
"I don't know if I deserved that trust."
"From whom?"
Alessandro's face hardened.
"That's what we never found out."
The music continued behind them.
People laughed.
Glasses clinked.
But Elara heard none of it.
Her father had known these men long before they took her.
He had trusted them with something precious.
Her.
And somewhere in Bellacorte, someone had spent years making sure that trust died with him.
Elara looked back toward the ballroom.
The silver seal around Serafina's neck flashed once beneath the chandelier.
Then disappeared into the crowd.
Whatever had happened to Matteo Vesperi had never truly ended.
It had only been waiting for his daughter to return.