Chapter 5 - The Girl They Were WatchingMaya was removed from school the next morning.
Elena objected immediately.
“She needs normal.”
“She needs protection.”
“She’s eight years old, Luca.”
“That’s why I’m not gambling with her safety.”
Their argument ended only when Maya appeared in the doorway.
“I can hear both of you.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Luca almost smiled.
Maya walked into the study.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Then why can’t I go to school?”
Luca hesitated.
Because someone had watched her since infancy.
Because men had monitored her mother’s apartment.
Because she had unknowingly become part of a financial war before she could read.
Instead, he said.
“We’re fixing a security problem.”
Maya looked unconvinced.
“That sounds like grown-up lying.”
Elena folded her arms.
Luca looked at her.
“She definitely got that from you.”
Maya remained on the estate.
A tutor arrived.
Two guards stayed nearby.
Luca hated every second of it.
He had spent twelve years trapped.
Now fear was building a smaller cage around his daughter.
That afternoon, Maya disappeared.
Only for seven minutes.
But seven minutes was enough to send Luca’s entire security team into panic.
Marco found her inside the greenhouse.
She was speaking to Ernesto Ruiz, the estate’s oldest gardener.
Ernesto had worked for Luca’s father before Luca was born.
He was nearly eighty now.
When Marco brought Luca into the greenhouse, Ernesto looked nervous.
Maya did not.
“He knows something.”
Luca looked at Ernesto.
“About what?”
“The doctor.”
Ernesto’s face changed.
Luca dismissed everyone except Marco, Elena, and Maya.
Then he asked quietly.
“What did you see?”
Ernesto looked toward the doors.
“Twelve years ago?”
“Yes.”
The old man sat down.
“The night before you collapsed, I was working late near the west garage.”
Luca waited.
“Dr. Vale came through the service entrance.”
“Vale wasn’t my physician then.”
“I know.”
That surprised Luca.
His physician at the time had been Dr. Samuel Keene.
Keene died six months after Luca’s collapse.
Officially from a heart condition.
Ernesto continued.
“Vale was carrying a medical case.”
“Who met him?”
Ernesto hesitated.
“Your uncle.”
Elena inhaled slowly.
Luca remained expressionless.
“Why did you never tell me?”
Ernesto looked ashamed.
“Because three days later, my son was arrested.”
Luca frowned.
“Diego?”
Ernesto nodded.
“He had done nothing.”
“But someone told me that if I talked about what I saw, Diego would remain in prison for twenty years.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“Who told you?”
“Jonathan Pierce.”
Luca’s attorney.
Another name joined the list.
Ernesto reached into his coat.
He removed an old key.
“I kept something.”
The key opened a maintenance locker beneath the west garage.
Inside was an ancient security tape Ernesto had hidden.
The footage was damaged.
But one sequence remained visible.
Vittorio entered the service corridor.
Dr. Vale followed him.
They carried a medical cooler.
Seven minutes later, another man appeared.
Jonathan Pierce.
Luca watched the grainy footage three times.
Then Maya pointed toward the screen.
“Who’s that?”
A fourth figure stood briefly at the far end of the corridor.
His face was impossible to see.
But he wore a distinctive ring.
Blue stone.
Silver setting.
Luca knew that ring.
His father had owned it.
Carlo Costello had been dead for seven years.
Luca stared at the frozen image.
For the first time, the conspiracy reached beyond Vittorio.
The poisoning had begun while Luca’s father was still alive.
And suddenly Luca had to consider an unbearable possibility.
May you like
The man who had stolen his future might not have been his uncle alone.
It might have started with his own father.
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