Chapter 3 - Isabella Had Once Fired Marco From the Greenhouse
Marco and Claudia were not random guests.
That made everything worse.
Years earlier, Marco’s small landscaping company had handled seasonal grounds maintenance for the Ventresca estate.
Isabella originally recommended him.
She loved the greenhouse but hated managing irrigation repairs, soil deliveries, pruning schedules, and outside contractors.
Marco was efficient.
Friendly.
Affordable.
Claudia helped with billing.
Their daughter Evelyn sometimes played in the garden with Ruby when both families visited.
For nearly four years, the arrangement worked.
Then, six months before Isabella died, Marco stopped working inside the greenhouse.
Alessio had always believed Marco left that part of the contract voluntarily.
Isabella told him only:
“Marco and I disagree about how the garden should be maintained.”
She was already undergoing cancer treatment.
Alessio did not push.
He had far more frightening things to think about.
Now he requested Isabella’s old estate emails.
One message changed everything.
Sent eight months before her death.
From Isabella to Marco:
Effective immediately, you are not authorized to apply, store, transport, or purchase chemical treatments for my greenhouse or memorial beds. Do not remove anything from the greenhouse until I complete the independent soil review.
Alessio read it again.
Independent soil review.
He had never known about one.
Another email followed two days later.
Marco wrote:
You’re overreacting to ordinary commercial products.
Isabella replied:
Then you should have no objection to testing.
There were no later emails.
Whatever Isabella discovered had happened while she was sick.
And somehow, after she died, Marco and Claudia had been allowed back onto the estate as if nothing significant had occurred.
Alessio himself had allowed it.
May you like
Because Claudia told him the disagreement had been about flowers.
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