Alessandro looked him directly in the eyes.
"If anything happens to Sofia, there will be nowhere in this world you can hide."
Marco nodded.
"I understand."
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
***
Sofia was in her bedroom when the shooting began.
Mrs. Bellini had just finished reading her a story.
The little girl sat beneath the covers, holding a stuffed rabbit.
When the first gunshot sounded, the governess dropped the book.
Sofia sat up.
"What's that?"
"Nothing, sweetheart."
Another shot.
The window trembled.
Mrs. Bellini moved toward the door.
"Stay here."
But Sofia was already climbing out of bed.
She had heard her father's voice in the hallway.
"Daddy!"
The governess grabbed her.
"No!"
Sofia struggled.
"Let me go!"
A man appeared at the end of the corridor.
He wore dark clothing and held a weapon.
Mrs. Bellini immediately pushed Sofia behind her.
"Stay back."
The man raised his gun.
Before he could move, a guard emerged from the stairwell and struck him from behind.
The weapon fell.
A struggle followed.
Mrs. Bellini pulled Sofia into the bedroom and locked the door.
The little girl was crying now.
"Where's Daddy?"
"He's coming."
"Promise?"
The governess held her tightly.
"I promise."
But she had no idea whether Alessandro was alive.
***
The attack lasted eleven minutes.
Eleven minutes in which the Moretti estate became a battlefield.
By the time the security team regained control of the main entrance, three intruders had been captured and two had escaped.
One guard was wounded.
Another was dead.
Alessandro emerged from the safe room with blood on his shirt, though none of it was his.
He went directly upstairs.
Sofia was waiting in the corridor.
The moment she saw him, she ran.
"Daddy!"
He dropped to one knee and caught her.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
"I thought you were gone."
"I'm here."
"Don't leave."
"I won't."
He held her for a long time.
Then he checked her face, her arms, and her hands.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
"Did you see anyone?"
"Bad men."
"Where?"
"Outside my room."
Alessandro closed his eyes briefly.
Then he looked at Mrs. Bellini.
"Take her to the private apartment. Two guards outside the door. Nobody enters without my permission."
"Yes, sir."
Sofia clung to his jacket.
"Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"Grandma was right."
He looked at her.
"About what?"
"She said the bad men would come back."
Alessandro's face hardened.
He kissed her forehead.
"Not again."
***
At 2:15 in the morning, Marco returned.
His shirt was torn.
There was blood on his sleeve.
Alessandro stood in the library, waiting.
"Where were you?"
Marco placed a small object on the table.
A silver cufflink.
Alessandro recognized the Vescari family crest.
"One of the intruders had this."
"Did you question him?"
"He refused to speak."
"Where is he?"
"Dead."
Alessandro looked at him.
"How?"
"He tried to take a guard's weapon."
"Convenient."
Marco said nothing.
Alessandro picked up the cufflink.
"Adrian sent them?"
"Probably."
"Probably isn't an answer."
"I believe he wanted the notebook."
Alessandro opened the leather cover.
"The notebook isn't here."
Marco's eyes moved toward the desk.
It was empty.
The photographs were gone.
The cassette recorder remained.
Alessandro looked at the table.
"Who took it?"
Marco shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You were the last person in the room."
"I was with the security team."
"Who had access?"
"Only you, me, and Elena."
Alessandro turned.
Elena was standing near the doorway.
Her face was pale.
"Alessandro..."
He looked at her.
"Where were you?"
"In the west wing."
"Did you take the notebook?"
"No."
"Did anyone enter your room?"
"No."
Marco moved toward the doorway.
"Boss, we need to secure the estate."
Alessandro did not look away from Elena.
"Go."
Marco hesitated.
"Boss—"
"Leave."
When the door closed, Alessandro sat down.
He was exhausted.
He looked at the recorder.
Then he noticed something.
A small red light was blinking beneath the device.
He picked it up.
There was a second cassette inside.
One he had not seen before.
He pressed play.
This time, the voice was not his mother's.
It was Vittorio.
His father.
"Salvatore, listen carefully. Isabella must not know what happened at the docks."
A second voice answered.
Salvatore.
"She already knows."
"Then you should have stopped her."
"I tried."
"Did you?"
There was a long silence.
Then Vittorio spoke again.
"I will not allow you to touch my son."
Salvatore laughed quietly.
"Your son is the only reason I have not touched you."
The recording ended.
Alessandro sat motionless.
His father had known.
He had known that Isabella was in danger.
And he had done nothing.
But there was another detail.
The recording had been made after midnight on the night Isabella died.
Alessandro replayed it.
Then he heard something faint in the background.
A door opening.
Footsteps.
A woman's voice.
"Vittorio?"
His mother.
Then a gun being cocked.
The recording stopped.
Alessandro stared at the device.
He had spent eighteen years believing that his mother had died from a medical emergency.
Now he understood that someone had stood in that room with a weapon.