Chapter 5 - The Dead Man’s Shadow
Enzo crossed the room before anyone realized he had moved.
His hand closed around Charles Ashford’s shirt.
Marco looked away.
Camilla screamed.
Adeline did not.
“Where is he?” Enzo asked.
Charles struggled to breathe.
“Enzo.”
“Where is Vittorio?”
“I don’t know.”
Enzo pushed him against the wall.
“Wrong answer.”
“I don’t know where he lives.”
“Then where do you meet him?”
Charles glanced at Camilla.
That was enough.
Enzo released him.
He turned toward his former fiancée.
“You knew.”
Camilla’s defiance faltered.
“I knew there was a man.”
“You said his name.”
“I learned it tonight.”
Enzo stared at her.
She looked away.
“Camilla.”
Her lips tightened.
“All right.”
She folded her arms.
“I knew.”
Adeline watched Enzo carefully.
Not because she feared him.
Because she saw the betrayal landing piece by piece.
“How long?” Enzo asked.
“Three years.”
“And you still agreed to marry me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Camilla looked almost offended by the question.
“Because I love you.”
Enzo laughed once.
It contained no humor.
“You met with the man who may have murdered my father.”
“I met with the man who made sure my father stayed politically useful.”
“And you thought that was compatible with loving me?”
“He said you would never understand.”
Enzo’s face hardened.
“I’m beginning to understand perfectly.”
Camilla stepped toward him.
“You think Adeline appearing in this house is an accident?”
Adeline’s expression did not change.
Enzo noticed.
Camilla pointed at her.
“She applied for this job using false references.”
Enzo turned to Adeline.
“Is that true?”
Adeline hesitated.
“Yes.”
The room changed again.
Camilla smiled.
“There.”
“She targeted this house.”
Enzo looked at Adeline.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find Room 417.”
Enzo waited.
Adeline continued.
“My father left a journal with my mother.”
“Most of it was ordinary.”
“Names.”
“Dates.”
“Fragments.”
“But near the end, he wrote that if anything happened to him, the key to the truth would remain inside the Marchetti house.”
Enzo frowned.
“This house was built eight years after he died.”
“I know.”
“Then what did he mean?”
“I didn’t know.”
“So you came here.”
“Yes.”
Camilla laughed.
“She manipulated you.”
Adeline looked at her.
“I had not spoken more than twenty words to Enzo before tonight.”
“You arranged the glass.”
“No.”
“You wanted him to see you being punished.”
Adeline’s eyes turned cold.
“I did not ask you to hit me.”
Camilla looked away.
Enzo remained focused on Adeline.
“You should have told me.”
“Would you have hired me?”
“No.”
“That is why.”
A strange silence settled between them.
Not anger.
Something more difficult.
Enzo understood why she had lied.
That did not mean he liked it.
“What exactly were you looking for?”
“A brass key.”
Enzo’s expression shifted.
Adeline noticed.
“You know it.”
He walked to his desk.
From the bottom drawer, he removed a small wooden box.
He opened it.
Inside lay an old brass key.
Adeline stopped breathing.
“My mother gave me this three days before she died.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
“She placed it in my hand and closed my fingers around it.”
Adeline stepped closer.
A number had been engraved into the metal.
417.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“That is it.”
Enzo stared at the key.
Eighteen years.
The same number.
The same dead men.
The same hidden connection.
Camilla moved toward the door.
Marco blocked her.
“Move.”
“No, ma’am.”
“I am leaving.”
“No one leaves.”
Enzo closed the box.
Camilla turned on him.
“You have no right to hold me here.”
Enzo’s expression became almost indifferent.
“You are correct.”
For one instant, hope returned to her face.
Then Enzo looked at Marco.
“Call the police.”
Camilla froze.
“Tell them Miss Ashford assaulted one of my employees in front of two hundred witnesses.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I just did.”
Her face collapsed.
Charles Ashford stepped forward.
“Enzo, think carefully.”
“I am.”
“If Camilla is arrested, the press will come.”
“Good.”
“They will ask questions.”
“Better.”
“Then Vittorio will know.”
Enzo looked at the brass key.
He closed his hand around it.
“Charles.”
“Yes?”
“I hope he does.”
His eyes lifted.
May you like
“I have spent twenty-three years believing my father’s murderer was already dead.”
“If Vittorio is alive, I want him to know I finally learned his name.”
