Chapter 2 - The Last Morning With Elena
Twenty-four hours earlier, my wife Elena had kissed Mia's forehead before leaving the house.
It should have been an ordinary morning.
It wasn't.
I remembered the smallest details afterward.
The way Elena stood beside Mia's breakfast chair.
The way she brushed a strand of brown hair away from our daughter's face.
The way she looked at me when she thought I wasn't watching.
She had been nervous.
I noticed.
But when I asked what was wrong, she smiled.
“Nothing.”
I hated that answer.
Elena had never been good at pretending.
“Are you sure?”
She reached up and straightened my collar.
“You worry too much.”
“Occupational hazard.”
She smiled.
Then she kissed me.
At the time, I didn't know it would be the last kiss I would receive from her.
At 10:17 that morning, Elena left the estate.
She told the housekeeper she was going to meet a friend.
At 10:42, her phone stopped answering.
At 11:05, her driver called me.
She had never arrived.
I sent men to every location I could think of.
Hospitals.
Hotels.
Restaurants.
Private garages.
Nothing.
By sunset, I had become convinced someone had taken her.
But I didn't know who.
That was what frightened me.
I trusted almost nobody.
Yet Vittorio was different.
He had been beside me for twelve years.
He knew my routes.
He knew my security system.
He knew which men guarded the house.
He knew Elena.
Most importantly, he knew where the cameras were.
And when I asked him where he had been that morning, he told me he had spent the entire day at the docks.
I believed him.
Until Mia spoke.
Now I stood inside my study with the USB hidden against my palm.
Vittorio was watching me.
I looked at the rabbit.
Then at him.
“What did Elena know?”
His expression tightened.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
Mia whimpered behind me.
I crouched beside her.
“Sweetheart, did Mommy give Bunny to you?”
She nodded.
“Did she tell you to keep it safe?”
Another nod.
“What did she say?”
Mia squeezed the rabbit.
“She said Daddy would know.”
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
Elena had known she was in danger.
And she had prepared for it.
The USB wasn't an accident.
It was a message.
And Vittorio had just walked directly into the room where that message was waiting.
I stood.
“Lock the door.”
Vittorio's face went pale.
He knew I wasn't speaking to him.
I was speaking to the security system.
The heavy study door clicked shut.
May you like
For the first time, Vittorio had nowhere to go.
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