Chapter 2
Carmine stares at Rosa.
For several seconds, he cannot make himself speak.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Rosa flinches.
Carmine immediately lowers his voice.
“I’m sorry. Just tell me exactly what you heard.”
Rosa nods.
“It was about three weeks ago. Mrs. Bellini was in the breakfast room. She thought everyone had left.”
“Who was she talking to?”
“I couldn’t hear the other person.”
“What else did she say?”
Rosa closes her eyes, trying to remember.
“She said the papers were almost ready.”
Carmine’s pulse changes.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“She mentioned Leo?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Rosa swallows.
“She said, ‘Once Carmine signs, the boy is gone.’”
Leo grips Carmine’s sleeve.
“Gone where?”
Carmine forces himself to remain calm.
“Nowhere.”
He looks at Rosa.
“Anything else?”
“She said something about a school.”
Leo’s face drains of color.
“No.”
Carmine turns.
“What?”
Leo slides off the stool.
“She showed me pictures.”
“Pictures of what?”
“A school.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
Helena had said nothing about a school.
Carmine kneels.
“What kind of school?”
Leo’s voice shakes.
“It had fences.”
Carmine’s anger goes cold.
“She said bad boys live there. She said if I didn’t stop making trouble, you were sending me after your business trip.”
“I would never do that.”
“She had papers.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“She made me practice writing my name.”
Carmine looks at Rosa.
Rosa looks horrified.
He pulls out his phone.
“Daniel.”
The security chief answers immediately.
“Yes, sir?”
“Helena does not leave this property.”
A pause.
“Understood.”
“If she tries, stop her. Do not touch her unless necessary. Call me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And get my attorney here.”
“At this hour?”
“Now.”
Carmine ends the call.
Leo looks frightened.
“Is Helena in trouble?”
Carmine chooses his words carefully.
“She has questions to answer.”
“Will she be mad at me?”
“She will not come near you.”
Leo studies his face.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
That promise feels heavier than any business contract Carmine has ever signed.
He failed once.
He will not fail again.
Rosa brings Carmine’s laptop.
He plugs in the flash drive.
Twenty-three video files appear.
Each labeled with a date.
Carmine opens the first.
Helena stands in the upstairs hallway.
Leo is in pajamas.
She takes a plate from his hands and dumps the food into a trash can.
The video has no sound.
Leo reaches for the plate.
Helena points toward his bedroom.
He goes.
Carmine closes the file.
He cannot watch another with Leo in the room.
“Rosa, take Leo to my study.”
Leo panics.
“No.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Carmine takes the laptop.
They move to the study.
He seats Leo on the leather sofa.
“Pick a movie.”
“I’m not tired.”
“You don’t have to sleep.”
“Are you leaving?”
“No.”
Carmine sits at the desk ten feet away.
Rosa stays beside Leo.
Then Carmine puts in headphones.
He watches.
File two.
Helena forcing Leo to scrub the patio while rain falls.
File three.
Helena taking away his jacket before sending him outside.
File four.
Leo standing with his face toward a wall while Helena sits behind him drinking wine.
File five.
The pantry.
Carmine almost stops there.
He watches Helena push Leo inside.
The boy turns.
The door closes.
Helena locks it.
Four minutes pass.
Ten.
Twenty.
The video jumps because Rosa edited the empty time.
Three hours later, Helena unlocks it.
Leo walks out holding his stomach.
Carmine removes the headphones.
His hands are trembling.
He wants to go upstairs.
He wants to demand answers.
Instead, he forces himself to continue.
Because anger without facts is how people make mistakes.
And Helena is counting on him to make one.
File twelve changes everything.
Helena is in Carmine’s office.
She should never be there alone.
She opens his desk.
Photographs documents.
Then she removes a folder.
Carmine recognizes it.
Leo’s trust paperwork.
His late wife Sofia’s father created the trust when Leo was born.
It holds shares in Bellini Development, investments, and several properties.
Leo cannot control it until adulthood.
Carmine is trustee.
No transfer should happen without his signature.
Helena photographs every page.
Then she places the folder back.
Carmine pauses the video.
The door opens.
Daniel enters with Carmine’s attorney, Samuel Price.
Samuel is sixty-two, gray-haired, patient, and almost impossible to surprise.
Tonight he looks surprised.
“Carmine.”
“Sit down.”
Samuel notices Leo.
“What happened?”
Carmine hands him headphones.
“Watch.”
Samuel watches the garage footage first.
Then the pantry video.
Then the office.
His expression hardens.
“Does Helena have power of attorney?”
“No.”
“Access to Leo’s trust?”
“No.”
“Have you signed anything related to a residential school?”
“No.”
Samuel takes off the headphones.
“Then we need to find out what she has been preparing.”
Carmine tells him what Rosa overheard.
Samuel leans back.
“Did she ever ask you to sign school documents recently?”
Carmine thinks.
Then remembers.
A week ago.
Helena had placed a stack of papers beside his coffee.
Insurance renewals.
Household vendor contracts.
A charity authorization.
He had signed them between phone calls.
His stomach turns.
“There was a stack.”
Samuel’s eyes sharpen.
“Did you read every page?”
Carmine does not answer.
He does not need to.
Samuel stands.
“We need copies of everything you signed.”
Daniel says, “Mr. Bellini, there’s another issue.”
“What?”
“Mrs. Bellini is refusing to pack.”
Carmine almost laughs.
“That is not an issue.”
“She locked herself in the bedroom.”
“Fine.”
“She’s also on the phone with someone.”
Carmine stands.
“Can you hear?”
“No.”
“Can IT identify the number?”
“We’re working on it.”
Samuel raises a hand.
“Do not interfere with the call illegally.”
Carmine looks at him.
“I know.”
Samuel gives him a look suggesting Carmine occasionally needs reminders.
Leo speaks from the sofa.
“Daddy?”
Carmine turns instantly.
“Yes?”
“Helena has another phone.”
The room goes quiet.
“What?”
“A little black one.”
“Where?”
“She hides it.”
“Where?”
Leo looks at Rosa.
Rosa shakes her head.
“I didn’t know.”
Leo stands.
“In Mommy Sofia’s room.”
Carmine’s chest tightens.
Sofia’s room.
Not her bedroom.
After she died, Carmine converted the small sunroom beside the library into a quiet memorial space.
Photographs.
A few books.
Her favorite piano.
Leo sometimes sits there.
Helena hates the room.
Carmine thought it was jealousy.
Now something else clicks.
“Show me.”
Leo leads them downstairs.
At the sunroom, Carmine stops him.
“You stay outside with Rosa.”
“But I know where.”
“Tell me.”
Leo points at the old piano.
“Under the bench.”
Carmine lifts the cushion.
Nothing.
Leo shakes his head.
“Not there.”
He crouches.
Touches the underside of the wooden bench.
“There.”
A small magnetic box is attached underneath.
Carmine pulls it free.
Inside is a cheap black phone.
Samuel exhales.
“Well.”
The phone is locked.
Daniel says, “We can preserve it.”
“Do that.”
Carmine hands it over.
Leo looks nervous.
“How did you know about it?” Carmine asks.
“I saw her.”
“When?”
“A lot.”
“She came in here?”
Leo nods.
“What did she do?”
“Talked on the phone.”
“About what?”
“I wasn’t supposed to hear.”
“Leo.”
The boy looks toward Sofia’s portrait.
“She said she was going to be rich.”
Carmine glances at Samuel.
“She already is.”
Leo continues.
“She said you were stupid because you sign things when you’re busy.”
Samuel closes his eyes.
Carmine’s stomach drops.
“What else?”
“She said Uncle Adrian would take care of everything.”
Carmine goes still.
“Adrian?”
Leo nods.
Adrian Bellini.
Carmine’s cousin.
Chief financial officer of Bellini Development.
A man Carmine has known his entire life.
A man who sat beside him at Sofia’s funeral.
A man who toasted his marriage to Helena.
Samuel says quietly, “We need to assume this is larger than the household.”
Carmine calls Adrian.
No answer.
He calls again.
Straight to voicemail.
Daniel checks his own phone.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“Mr. Adrian left the office at 4:10 this afternoon.”
“Where did he go?”
“We don’t track executives.”
“Start tonight.”
Samuel says, “Carefully.”
Carmine ignores him.
Leo suddenly pulls on Carmine’s sleeve.
“There’s something else.”
Carmine kneels.
“What?”
“When Helena talked to Uncle Adrian, she called him something.”
“What?”
Leo looks embarrassed.
“Baby.”
Silence.
Rosa’s mouth falls open.
Daniel looks away.
Carmine feels as though the floor shifts beneath him.
“Are you sure?”
Leo nods.
“She said, ‘Baby, he signed it.’”
Carmine stands.
For the first time tonight, the betrayal becomes personal in a different way.
His wife.
His cousin.
His son’s trust.
The punishments.
The secret phone.
The documents.
Pieces begin fitting together.
Not all of them.
But enough.
Samuel speaks first.
“We need the signed papers immediately.”
Carmine calls his executive assistant.
No answer.
He calls again.
She picks up, sleepy.
“Mr. Bellini?”
“Rachel, I need every document I signed in the last thirty days. Scan them and send them to Samuel and me.”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“I know.”
She hears his tone.
“I’ll do it.”
“Also tell me whether Adrian requested any documents involving my family trust.”
A pause.
“Actually…”
Carmine looks at Samuel.
“What?”
“Mr. Adrian asked me for copies of several trust schedules two weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“He said you authorized it.”
“I didn’t.”
Silence.
Rachel’s voice becomes nervous.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Send everything.”
Carmine hangs up.
Upstairs, something crashes.
Everyone looks toward the ceiling.
Daniel touches his earpiece.
Then his face changes.
“What?”
“Mrs. Bellini broke the bedroom window.”
Carmine is already moving.
“Is she hurt?”
“No. She climbed onto the balcony.”
“Why?”
Daniel listens.
“She’s trying to reach the east stairwell.”
Carmine runs.
When he reaches the second floor, Helena is at the end of the hall in bare feet, holding her purse.
Two guards block the stairs.
“Move!” she screams.
Carmine stops twenty feet away.
“Where are you going?”
She turns.
Her hair is loose.
Her face is wild.
“You cannot imprison me.”
“No one is imprisoning you.”
“You ordered guards to stop me.”
“Because you may have committed crimes involving my son.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Where is Adrian?”
Her expression betrays her.
Just slightly.
Carmine sees it.
“You know.”
Helena lifts her chin.
“This is paranoia.”
“Did you sleep with my cousin?”
She laughs.
“That’s what this is about now?”
“Answer me.”
“No.”
“Did you use a secret phone to contact him?”
Her face changes again.
Carmine steps closer.
“We found it.”
For the first time, Helena looks truly afraid.
Then Carmine’s phone vibrates.
An email from Rachel.
SUBJECT: DOCUMENTS SIGNED — URGENT.
Samuel opens it on his tablet.
He scrolls.
Stops.
His face drains.
“Carmine.”
“What?”
Samuel looks up slowly.
“You signed a petition.”
Carmine feels the blood leave his face.
“What petition?”
Samuel reads.
“A petition requesting temporary placement of Leo Bellini at Westbridge Residential Behavioral Academy.”
Leo appears at the top of the stairs behind Rosa.
“No.”
Carmine turns.
His son is staring at him.
“You signed it,” Leo whispers.
Carmine shakes his head.
“I didn’t know.”
“You signed it.”
“Leo, listen to me.”
But Leo backs away.
Helena smiles.
A tiny, victorious smile.
Then Samuel keeps reading.
His expression darkens further.
“There’s more.”
Carmine looks at him.
Samuel lowers the tablet.
“The petition states that Leo is violent, unstable, and a danger to Helena.”
Carmine’s eyes move to his wife.
She says nothing.
May you like
Samuel continues.
“And attached to it is a sworn statement signed by Helena claiming Leo threatened to kill her.”
