Chương 5
"Maria?" Daniel said.
She looked at him.
"Did that mean something?"
She forced herself to look back at Lily.
"Maybe."
It was not the answer anyone wanted.
But it was the only honest one.
Outside, a car engine started.
Maria moved toward the window.
A black SUV was leaving the driveway.
Vincent was not inside.
Neither was Marco.
Thomas stepped beside her.
"Who owns that vehicle?"
Maria watched until it disappeared behind the gates.
"I don't know."
That was the problem.
For the first time in years, Maria Bellandi was surrounded by people she knew and information she did not have.
And the person who had started all of this was not asking her to protect the family.
They were asking her to decide whether the family was worth protecting at all.
The next morning, Maria woke before the alarm on her nightstand because she had spent most of the night listening for sounds that never came.
The Bellandi house had always been full of noises.
Pipes shifting.
Wood settling.
Cars arriving late.
People arguing in rooms where they believed nobody could hear them.
But that night the silence felt deliberate.
She sat at the edge of the bed and looked at the empty side of the mattress.
Luca had been gone seven years, but there were still mornings when her hand moved toward the space beside her before reality caught up.
She hated that grief could become a habit.
Not because she wanted to forget him.
Because she did not want his absence to become the easiest explanation for every difficult decision she made.
On the dresser sat a photograph from their twenty-fifth anniversary.
Luca was smiling directly at the camera.
Maria was looking at him instead.
People often told her that photograph showed how much he loved her.
They rarely noticed how much she trusted him.
That was the part she had never fully recovered from losing.
Trusting someone enough to not question every shadow behind them.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
It was Thomas.
Maria answered immediately.
"What did you find?"
A pause followed.
Not a long one.
Just long enough to tell her he had been hoping she would not ask.
"Good morning to you too."
"Thomas."
He sighed.
"I reviewed the documents."
"And?"
"They are legitimate."
Maria stood.
"What does that mean?"
"It means they came from real records."
"That was not my question."
Another pause.
"I know."
She walked to the window.
The property stretched out below her.
The backyard where Lily had stood.
The tables where people had eaten.
The same place where a family celebration had turned into something else.
"Tell me what they show."
Thomas lowered his voice.
"Payments."
"To who?"
"I do not know yet."
"Then why are you calling?"
"Because one of the accounts is connected to a company that was created six months after Luca died."
Maria stopped moving.
"Who owns it?"
"On paper, nobody."
She frowned.
"That is impossible."
"No."
Thomas's voice became careful.
"It is complicated."
She disliked that word.
Complicated was often what people said when simple truths were inconvenient.
"Who has access?"
"Maria."
"What?"
"I need you to understand something."
"No, I need you to answer."
Thomas breathed out.
"Someone was moving money after Luca's death."
The words landed without drama.
That made them worse.
Maria sat down on the edge of the chair near the window.
"How much?"
"Enough that I am uncomfortable."
She closed her eyes.
Thomas had never been a person who became uncomfortable easily.
"Are you saying Luca was involved?"
"I am saying I do not know."
The answer should have relieved her.
It did not.
Because uncertainty left room for everything.
Including things she did not want to imagine.
"Who else knows?"
"I told nobody."
"Good."
"Maria."
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"Do not tell me to be careful."
"I was going to tell you that you are going to need help."
She looked down at the phone.
"From who?"
Thomas did not answer quickly.
That was enough.
"Absolutely not."
"You do not even know what I was going to say."
"I know."
"Your brother's old associates are not the only people who can help."
Maria looked toward the hallway.
The house was waking up.
Employees moving quietly.
Coffee being made.
A normal morning trying to exist.
"Who?"
Thomas finally said the name.
"Anthony Bellandi."
Maria felt the old anger arrive before the memories did.
Anthony had been Luca's younger brother.
The one with the black stone ring.
The one who had disappeared after accusing Luca of betrayal.
The one everyone stopped mentioning because mentioning him created problems.
"He is gone," Maria said.
"No."
Thomas corrected her.
"He left."
"Same thing."
"No."
Thomas's voice was firm.
"Those are different things."
Maria sat silently.
She remembered the night Anthony left.
Not clearly.
Not completely.
She remembered voices through a closed office door.
She remembered Luca telling her to stay upstairs.
She remembered breaking that rule.
She remembered Anthony standing in the driveway with a suitcase and an expression she had never forgotten.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Something closer to disappointment.
"What does he have to do with this?" she asked.
"I do not know."
"Then why mention him?"
"Because the ring Lily described matches his."
Maria looked at the floor.
The information did not fit.
That was what scared her.
A lie usually had a shape.
The truth was often just a collection of things that refused to make sense.
"Find him," she said.
Thomas was quiet.
"Maria."
"Find him."
"You should consider that he may not want to be found."
"Everyone wants something."
She ended the call before he could answer.
She found Daniel downstairs twenty minutes later.
He was sitting at the kitchen table with Lily.
The girl was eating cereal slowly while Daniel checked messages on his phone.
When Maria entered, both looked up.
"I need to ask you something," Maria said.
Daniel immediately put the phone down.
"Okay."
"Lily stays here today."
May you like
His eyebrows lifted.
"Here?"
