Chapter 4 - SALVATORE DEMARCO
Salvatore DeMarco entered Belladonna House as if he still owned part of it.
He wore a black cashmere coat.
Snow had turned his silver hair wet at the temples.
Two attorneys walked behind him.
Six security men remained outside.
The others waited inside the vestibule.
Vincent met him at the bottom of the staircase.
I remained halfway up.
Vivian stood several feet behind me.
Salvatore looked at his daughter first.
Then Vincent.
Then me.
He did not look surprised.
That frightened me more than anything else.
“Well.”
His voice was calm.
“So Teresa finally managed to send her ghost home.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“You knew she was alive.”
Salvatore removed his gloves.
“I suspected.”
“For twenty-eight years?”
“Yes.”
“You helped my father convince us she was dead.”
Salvatore looked bored.
“Antonio convinced himself of many things.”
“Answer me.”
“I did what was necessary at the time.”
I stepped down another stair.
“Did you follow my mother?”
His attention shifted to me.
Those pale gray eyes studied my face.
For one terrible second I knew exactly what Vivian had inherited from him.
The ability to make another human being feel like an object under examination.
“You look more like Daniel.”
My chest tightened.
“You knew my father?”
Salvatore smiled faintly.
“Unfortunately.”
“Where is he?”
The smile vanished.
Vincent noticed.
“So he’s alive.”
Salvatore looked toward him.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Vivian suddenly descended the stairs.
“Dad, stop.”
Salvatore looked at her.
“What have you told them?”
“Enough.”
His face darkened.
“You foolish girl.”
Vivian stiffened.
Vincent stepped between them.
“Do not speak to her like that.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
Vivian had degraded me for months.
Yet Vincent still refused to let her father degrade her.
Salvatore noticed too.
“You still think you’re the gentleman.”
“No.”
Vincent’s voice was quiet.
“I simply know what men like you sound like when they’re losing control.”
Salvatore’s jaw tightened.
One of the lawyers leaned toward him.
He waved the man away.
“I came because my daughter called.”
Vivian stared.
“I didn’t call you.”
Silence.
Salvatore turned slowly.
Everyone looked at Vivian.
She shook her head.
“I swear.”
Vincent looked toward Luca.
“Who called him?”
Luca pulled out his phone.
“I’ll check.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You’re already too late.”
“For what?”
“The truth.”
I held my mother’s envelope against my chest.
“You mean the truth you spent twenty-eight years hiding?”
His eyes dropped to the envelope.
For the first time, genuine alarm entered his expression.
“Where did you get that?”
I looked at Vincent.
He saw it too.
Salvatore stepped toward the staircase.
“Give it to me.”
Vincent moved between us.
“No.”
“That doesn’t belong to her.”
“My name is on it.”
Salvatore’s eyes returned to me.
“That is precisely why you should hand it over.”
I almost smiled.
“My mother warned me never to trust a DeMarco.”
Vivian flinched.
Salvatore stared at her.
“She told you about the ledger?”
Vincent stepped forward.
“So you know what it is.”
Salvatore realized his mistake.
I felt a surge of satisfaction.
Vivian whispered.
“You always said it was a myth.”
“It is.”
“Then why are you here?”
His attention snapped toward her.
“Because you are my daughter.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“You came because Isabella found the locket.”
Salvatore remained silent.
Vivian’s eyes filled with disbelief.
“All these years, you told me Teresa was dangerous.”
“She was.”
“You told me she tried to destroy our family.”
“She did.”
“You told me Isabella had to be watched because she might come looking for revenge.”
“She might.”
Vivian looked at me.
I saw something new in her face.
Not kindness.
Not yet.
But uncertainty.
Her father had built part of her hatred for me before she ever met me.
Vincent spoke.
“What is the red ledger?”
Salvatore smiled.
“You’re asking about fairy tales.”
Vincent nodded toward Luca.
“Search his cars.”
Salvatore’s attorneys immediately protested.
“You have no authority—”
Vincent cut them off.
“They are parked on my property.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
“Touch my vehicles and you will regret it.”
Vincent stared at him.
“Your daughter hid an employee’s belongings in her room.”
“She admitted your instruction was to identify Alessandra’s locket.”
“You entered a sealed part of this house four days ago.”
“And now you show up after midnight without being called.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“You are in no position to threaten me.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
Then he looked at me.
“Your mother made the same mistake.”
I stopped breathing.
Vincent’s face changed instantly.
“What did you say?”
Salvatore knew he had gone too far.
I descended the final stairs.
“What mistake?”
He ignored me.
I stepped closer.
“What mistake did my mother make?”
Salvatore turned toward Vincent.
“This girl is unstable.”
I laughed bitterly.
“She was stable enough when you ordered your daughter to hire me.”
He glared at Vivian.
She looked away.
I continued.
“She was stable enough when you watched me for years.”
No answer.
“Stable enough when you tracked my mother.”
No answer.
“But now that I’m asking questions, I’m unstable.”
Salvatore looked back at me.
“You know nothing about the people you are accusing.”
“Then teach me.”
“You couldn’t handle it.”
“Try.”
His gaze hardened.
“Your mother stole from the Morettis.”
Vincent immediately spoke.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
“She was the legal heir.”
“She stole documents.”
“Documents proving ownership aren’t theft.”
“She threatened Antonio.”
“With what?”
Salvatore smiled slowly.
“The truth.”
The foyer became silent.
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“What truth?”
Salvatore looked at him.
“That your father was not the man everyone thought he was.”
“That isn’t exactly a revelation.”
“You have no idea.”
Luca approached from the hallway.
He held a tablet.
“Boss.”
Vincent looked toward him.
“What?”
“We checked incoming calls.”
“And?”
“No call left this house to DeMarco.”
Vivian exhaled.
Salvatore showed no reaction.
Luca continued.
“But an encrypted message was sent eleven minutes after you entered Alessandra’s room.”
“From whose phone?”
“Not a phone.”
Luca looked toward the ceiling.
“From Belladonna House’s security network.”
Vincent became still.
“Someone inside the house notified him.”
“Yes.”
Everyone looked around.
Servants.
Guards.
Administrators.
Family staff.
Dozens of people had access to different sections of the estate.
Salvatore smiled.
“Perhaps you should spend less time interrogating me and more time wondering which of your own people actually work for you.”
Vincent’s attention hardened.
“Lock the property down.”
Luca nodded.
“No employee leaves.”
Salvatore started toward the entrance.
“You cannot hold me here.”
Vincent didn’t stop him.
“No.”
Salvatore paused.
“But before you leave, Isabella deserves one answer.”
Salvatore glanced toward me.
Vincent continued.
“Where is Daniel Caruso?”
Salvatore smiled without warmth.
“Ask Luca.”
Everyone turned.
Luca’s face became pale.
Vincent looked at him.
“You told us you didn’t know.”
Luca swallowed.
“I don’t.”
Salvatore laughed.
“That is technically true.”
My heart pounded.
“What does that mean?”
Salvatore opened the door.
Cold wind swept into the foyer.
He looked over his shoulder.
“It means Daniel stopped using the name Caruso twenty-seven years ago.”
I took a step toward him.
“What name does he use now?”
Salvatore smiled.
“You’ve already met him.”
Then he walked outside.
Vincent ordered the doors closed.
I stared at Luca.
“Who is my father?”
Luca looked genuinely shaken.
“I don’t know.”
“You knew he changed his name.”
“I suspected.”
“To what?”
“I never confirmed it.”
Vincent stepped toward him.
“Who did you suspect?”
Luca looked from Vincent to me.
Then toward the dark corridor leading to the household offices.
“There was one man who appeared six months after Alessandra vanished.”
My pulse accelerated.
“He had no documented history before 1999.”
“He rose through the organization unusually fast.”
“He knew things only Daniel could have known.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
“No.”
Luca nodded slowly.
I looked between them.
“Who?”
Neither answered.
“Who is it?”
Vincent spoke the name.
“Gabriel Vale.”
I knew that name.
Everyone at Belladonna House knew it.
Gabriel Vale was Vincent Moretti’s most trusted adviser.
He had handled the family’s finances for twenty-seven years.
He sat beside Vincent at every major meeting.
And earlier that evening, he had been standing ten feet away while Vivian ordered me to kneel.
I looked around the foyer.
“Where is he?”
Luca’s face tightened.
“He disappeared from the party twenty minutes before Vincent arrived.”
A guard rushed through the side hallway.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Vincent turned.
The guard held something wrapped in cloth.
“We searched Mr. Vale’s office.”
“What did you find?”
The guard unfolded the cloth.
Inside was an old silver wedding band.
The inscription read:
A.M. + D.C.
My mother’s initials.
My father’s initials.
My legs weakened.
Then the guard placed a second item beside it.
A recent photograph.
It showed Gabriel Vale standing outside St. Anne’s Hospice.
The date printed in the corner was six months earlier.
The day my mother died.
On the back, someone had written a sentence.
May you like
HE CAME TO SAY GOODBYE.
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