Chapter 23
LANEY
"W hy the secrecy of this meeting, Aldo? I would have welcomed you with tea in the warmth of our boardroom, like old times. Or, you know, a phone call?”
“There has been a situation. I feared my presence on the estate would escalate it further if what happened to my family is a sign of anything. The fire came from inside the house, I needed to be sure of my audience.” His words were vague, and he kept glancing at me as he directed his words at Father. “Rich.”
But before Father could respond, I began. “Sir, don’t be disrespectful.”
“Logan tells me you're feeble and like to run. You can’t run your mouth with this.”
“Your son’s ego is bruised, mine isn’t. Have you seen his hand recently?” I rolled my eyes. “What’s this really about?”
“My mother was assassinated.”
I gasped. “How?”
Flavia Novelli was the true matriarch of the Novelli dynasty. Without her, the structural integrity of the Novelli family business crumbled into dust. They’ve been fighting to determine their successor for decades, Flavia was a young mother, she had time.
He shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Start from the beginning…” Father prompted.
“There was a girl. She swindled her way into my trusted liaisons and took what was most dear to us.”
I found myself resting on a fallen tree as he relayed the story. The nettle stings spread across the back of my legs from where I leaned into a cluster of those leaves beside the tree. I didn’t even notice.
“We met her at a party near Christmas time. She approached us and told a convincing story about how she was once acquainted with us. An old family friend or something, and she never clarified. Her beauty was incredible, and we all fell for her charms.”
I shook his head as he didn’t believe it himself. A memory detached from him. His face was blank when he went on. “Flavia was most taken by the girl. Fawning over her dark black dress and piercing brown eyes. There was admiration there. I smiled along. In her older age, she needed company desperately. I was so naive.”
The words sunk slowly down my body to form a pit in my stomach.
“Mother needed live in care but there wasn't a long list of people we could enlist for the role. Until her. In fact, she volunteered. It was perfect. But Flavia became suddenly ill soon after she arrived at our home. Disappeared for hours on end.”
“I entrusted this woman with a duty of care she did not deserve. Mother became worse by the day, but her symptoms were nothing natural. Fainting and lethargy. It was so very strange. The only one with access to her medications was this girl.”
“As time wore on, her symptoms worsened. She became bedridden and we moved to be near the estate’s chapel, praying for salvation and longevity of life.”
“The girl was too busy hooking up with the housekeeper. Twice we found them in the security office, hands up where they shouldn’t be. And twice we thought she was just subordinate but then she just disappeared. We realised too late.”
I took a deep breath, shaking my head, it couldn’t be.
“It took until the autopsy to have a diagnosis.” Aldo dropped his head. “It was a new controlled substance, called Hilianiphame. Sickly in small doses, but lethal with prolonged exposure. It’s enthused with tea tree oil. Makes it look like death from natural causes.”
“It was sabotage,” I whispered. Please, don’t let this be true.
“The only ones with access to illicit substances such as those were the Karsteins. I’ve seen nothing of the sort since they burned. But it was real. After we cleared the girl’s room of her belongings, we found the substance that killed Flavia. It was inscribed with a…”
“KK.” I finished for him. It hadn’t dawned on Father like it had on me. If I was lucky, I would keep it that way, but the danger was much more deep seated than I realised.
Aldo looked at my father and only once he nodded did he continue. “I wanted to warn you to not let any strangers in your home. And also, to advise you that we’ll be taking a step back from operations. This incident has exposed internal weakness we need modified.”
“What about our agreement, Aldo?” Father questioned, drawing close to him.
“Our mourning time ends in five days. Novelli security guards will not be at the funeral either. We’re going dark.”
Tension hung in the air. He was being too coy, too obtuse, to make sense and it made me want to reach for my knives. Bastard.
My chest constricted and I forced out a cough.
“Are you sick, Laney?” Father placed a hand on my back.
Aldo leaned down, getting too close. “Pale complexion. Dilated pupils…” He trailed his words. “It’s too late.”
“Did you receive any visitors recently? Is anyone getting too close?”
My cheeks burned and I prayed they didn’t notice.
“Laney,” Aldo implored in a small voice. “You know who it is? You have to tell us.”
“It’s the Kars–” I tried to say but I was distracted by Father.
He had his hands on his face, a cruel sneer across his face and as he turned to face me, I knew he could read the guilt spreading across my face. Still, he denied it. “It’s not possible.”
Aldo kept his attention on me. He repeated my name a few times, but my attention was drawn to the man pacing behind him. It seemed to irritate Father who was clearing a path through the dirt and leaves a couple strides away from where I sat. Muttering to himself a string of “blazed” and “all of them” and “aflame.” to himself.
Frustration grew loud and the words broke out my chest. “How are you so certain that no one walked out of the fire?”
“Because I watched it, Laney!” He spat. “I watched it burn and crumble to dust. If there were survivors, I’d know!” This was more sickening than I had imagined.
I wished for a hole in the ground to swallow me and never let me out. Shame overcame me and I bowed my head. Why did I have to become attached to the first thing that came my way? If I weren’t so desperate for attention. Stupid stupid girl.
“We do know.” I conceded.
Tension filled the air until Father burst. “So, help me, God Laney, I warned you to get rid of her. In that painting? I hope she was some housemaid or distant cousin. Not this ? Fuck!”
Tears threatened to fall but I held strong, I turned to face him, standing so suddenly, I wobbled. “ This wouldn’t have happened if we had stayed in London. Hidden in plain sight. Grandfather didn’t want another war. It was you who let her in. Wasn’t me, was it?”
“I put you in charge of staff vetting. You said it was okay.” He waved a finger close to my face. “You swore it was just allergies, but look at you, fucking drugged up.”
“I’ll deal with it.” I pleaded.
“And to ever think I’d let you lead. You don’t even have control of your heart.”
“I will fix it, I promise.”
He laughed over my words. “How can you? You were under her thumb.” When his eyes found mine, his anger had morphed into a sick kind of humour and arrogance. “Don’t worry,” he promised. “I’ve fixed it for you.”
All the breath in my lungs left me. The last time he’d fixed something I was forced to slash the limbs right off a body. The only thing that remained was echoing whispers of Father manipulating me into killing Dylan. It gutted me.
Did he…? Like I had to ‘fix’ the Dylan issue? I needed to run. The only obstacle in the way was Father, I froze as I thought through my next steps.
He sensed my stillness as defeat. “See, Aldo, this is what happens when you trust little girls. They disappoint. Too consumed with the whims of feeling to really believe a girl would fall in love with he–”
“It’s not that easy! She cares about me.”
“No, you care!”
Aldo chose that moment to interject. “She has no remorse, Laney. She broke my family where it would hurt the most, she knew .”
“You’re wrong. You’re wrong. You’re wrong. She loves me. You’re wrong.”
“She doesn’t love you.” Father implored. “It was a trick, Laney, an obfuscation. I should have forbade her the minute I sensed you were getting close. I knew it.”
“Don’t pretend,” I spat out in disgust. “You were convinced by her too. You did this. Leaving me vulnerable and alone my entire life, I latched on. Yes, maybe too soon. But that’s on you. ”
“Stop it, child. When you’re in tears two weeks from now, and she leaves you in the dust, I won't be the one to wipe your cheeks.”
“You never have, Father, that’s your problem. When I was crying for her in secondary school, you didn’t see them then either. You won’t now.”
“Secondary school?”
“Yes, she was the girl I had a crush on even th–”
“This is bigger than I imagined.”
“She told me then to be aware of the assassin, she cares. ” I rambled on, not even noticing the look Aldo and Father exchanged. “She warned me. ”
Aldo huffed heavily. Father took a step back.
I don’t understand why he can’t just trust me with this. Time elapsed slower than usual as I processed his words more fully.
Oh my god, she is the assassin.