Chapter 10 - The False Peace
Three days later, the Rossi estate reopened its gates.
The security vehicles disappeared.
Staff returned.
Lights came back on in the ballroom.
And Chicago’s society pages received a curious piece of information.
The engagement between Leo Rossi and Victoria Kensington had not officially ended.
Sterling Kensington called his daughter within nine minutes.
Victoria took the call in the guest suite.
“What is he doing?”
Sterling sounded furious.
“I don’t know.”
“Has he questioned you?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I told him the maid attacked me.”
A silence.
“Does he believe you?”
“No.”
“Then why haven’t you been arrested?”
Victoria looked toward the closed door.
“Because Leo hates scandal.”
Sterling laughed.
“You still don’t understand him.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if he hasn’t moved, he’s planning something.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“They found something in the cellar.”
Sterling went quiet.
“The ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were supposed to find it.”
“I tried.”
“You locked a child in a cellar.”
“She saw me.”
“You lost control.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with anger.
“You told me Lily could never inherit Sofia’s shares.”
“Not if Leo remarries under the agreement we drafted.”
“You promised me the Rossi assets.”
“And you promised me access.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Neither of them knew the phone had been replaced.
Mateo listened from a van two blocks away.
Federal investigator Naomi Carter sat beside him wearing headphones.
She had spent fifteen years investigating financial crimes.
She had never expected the Rossi organization to voluntarily hand her evidence.
When Leo contacted her, she assumed it was a trap.
Then he gave her copies from Bluebird.
Now she understood.
“This gives us conspiracy,” she said.
“Not the bombing.”
“Not yet.”
Mateo looked toward the estate on the monitor.
“Leo wants Sterling to say it.”
Naomi removed one headphone.
“And if Sterling doesn’t?”
Mateo’s expression hardened.
“Then we use everything else.”
Inside the mansion, Beatrice hated the plan.
“You’re letting Victoria stay here.”
Leo stood beside the kitchen island.
“She is being watched every second.”
“She almost killed your daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then why is she drinking coffee in your breakfast room?”
“Because Sterling needs to believe she still has access.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“This house feels wrong with her here.”
Leo studied her.
“Lily feels the same.”
“Then listen to Lily.”
“I am.”
Beatrice folded her arms.
“You’re using your daughter’s fear as bait.”
The accusation hit him harder than she intended.
Leo’s face changed.
Beatrice immediately regretted it.
But she did not take it back.
After a long silence, Leo nodded.
“You’re right.”
She blinked.
“I am?”
“I told myself keeping Victoria here was strategy.”
He looked toward the ceiling.
“But Lily shouldn’t have to sleep under the same roof as the woman who hurt her.”
That evening, Leo moved Lily and Beatrice to a secured penthouse overlooking Lake Michigan.
Leo went with them.
Victoria remained at the estate.
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And for the first time, Sterling Kensington believed Leo had abandoned his own house.
That was exactly what Leo wanted him to believe.
