CHAP 8 — WHO PAID FOR THE FIRE
Adeline did not tell Enzo immediately.
That was her first mistake.
She told Sofia.
Sofia spent the night searching twenty-one-year-old insurance records, payment transfers, and property documents connected to Lucia’s apartment building.
At 4:12 a.m., she found a payment.
The shell company that owned Lucia’s building received $180,000 three days before the fire.
The money came from Marchetti Development.
Authorized by Carlo Marchetti.
Adeline stared at the record.
Enzo’s father.
Not Alden.
Carlo.
By sunrise, the story she had carried for twenty-one years had collapsed.
She had believed Alden Ashford ordered her mother’s death.
Perhaps he still had.
But Carlo Marchetti had sent money to the building owner.
Enzo found Adeline inside the old servants’ dining room.
She had packed a suitcase.
“Where are you going?”
“Away.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Did your father kill my mother?”
Enzo went still.
“What?”
She showed him the transfer.
He read it.
His face changed.
“I’ve never seen this.”
“I believe you.”
“Then why are you leaving?”
“Because your house is built on secrets.”
“So is every house.”
“That doesn’t make it safe.”
He looked at the suitcase.
“You came here intentionally.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted answers.”
“Yes.”
“And now that we’re close, you’re leaving?”
Her eyes flashed.
“Close to what? Finding out which Marchetti arranged the fire?”
“Adeline—”
“Your father helped Ashford steal city money.”
“He tried to stop.”
“After he helped begin it.”
Enzo had no answer.
She continued.
“You keep acting like this is about whether Marco betrayed Carlo or Ashford betrayed Marco.”
“My mother died.”
“I know.”
“No. You inherited stories about these people. I inherited a funeral.”
The words struck him silent.
Adeline picked up the suitcase.
Enzo stepped aside.
He did not order her to stay.
That mattered.
She stopped at the doorway.
“Why aren’t you stopping me?”
“Because if I have to imprison someone to keep them beside me, then I’m exactly the man people say I am.”
She looked back.
For the first time, she saw the distance between Enzo and the legend around him.
Then Gabriel appeared.
“We have a problem.”
Enzo sighed.
“What?”
“Marco’s gone.”
The room changed.
“When?”
“Security lost him an hour ago.”
“Lost?”
“He left through the garage before dawn.”
“Where did he go?”
“We don’t know.”
Adeline almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Gabriel handed Enzo a package.
“He left this.”
Inside was a handwritten note.
Carlo paid for the fire.
But not for Lucia.
Ask why he bought the building.
Beneath the note was a deed.
Carlo Marchetti had purchased Lucia’s apartment building through a shell company the week of her death.
The $180,000 had not been a payment to kill her.
It had been the down payment.
Why?
Sofia searched older records.
The answer emerged an hour later.
Carlo had planned to move Lucia and every tenant out.
A structural engineer had found dangerous gas lines in the building.
Carlo secretly purchased the property because Alden Ashford controlled the landlord and had refused to make repairs.
The fire was supposed to happen after evacuation.
Except the evacuation never occurred.
Someone accelerated the timetable.
Someone wanted Lucia inside.
Adeline sat down.
Carlo had been trying to save her.
Maybe.
Then Sofia found the engineering report.
Attached to it was a handwritten instruction.
MOVE CROFT FIRST.
Signed:
M.M.
Adeline looked toward Enzo.
“Marco.”
He nodded.
For twenty-one years, Marco had carried proof that he tried to save her mother.
So why had he disappeared now?
Enzo’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Marco’s voice.
“Do not trace this.”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere Alden can’t reach.”
“Alden is in federal custody.”
Marco laughed softly.
“That means nothing.”
“Come home.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the person who killed Lucia is still inside your house.”
Enzo looked across the room.
At Sofia.
At Gabriel.
At Adeline.
At the servants passing beyond the doorway.
His voice lowered.
“Who?”
Marco answered.
“I told you twenty-one years ago without knowing it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father’s right hand.”
The line disconnected.
Enzo slowly turned.
For most of Carlo’s life, Marco sat at his right hand.
But during the last five years before Lucia’s death, Marco had not.
There had been another man.
Carlo’s security chief.
May you like
Gabriel Ross’s father.
Thomas Ross.
