"Why not?"
"Because I don't yet know what happened."
She looked toward Luca.
"Can he leave?"
Alessandro's eyebrows moved slightly.
Luca almost smiled.
"She's frightened," the doctor said.
"I can see that."
Alessandro moved toward the foot of the bed.
"Listen to me. Nobody is going to hurt you in this house."
Sofia looked directly at him.
"That's what they said before."
The words landed heavily.
Alessandro's expression hardened.
"Who?"
She hesitated.
"People who work for Vittorio Bellandi."
The room became quiet.
Luca stopped writing.
Alessandro did not move.
"What did you say?"
"Vittorio Bellandi."
"Why would his men attack you?"
Sofia looked at him for a long moment.
Then she whispered something that changed the entire evening.
"Because they think I know where your father's secrets are buried."
Alessandro stared at her.
For the first time in many years, he felt as though someone had opened a door he had spent his entire life trying to keep closed.
"My father has been dead for seventeen years."
"I know."
"Then explain."
Sofia swallowed.
"My father worked for the Bellandi family. He was an accountant. Before he disappeared, he discovered financial records connecting Vittorio to a series of murders, illegal payments, and secret agreements with men inside your father's organization."
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
"Your father's name?"
"Enzo Romano."
He repeated it silently.
Then he looked toward Luca.
"Find Matteo."
Luca left.
Sofia watched Alessandro carefully.
"You knew my father?"
"No."
"Did your father?"
Alessandro said nothing.
She understood the answer was not as simple as she had hoped.
"Please," she said. "I only want to find out what happened to him."
Alessandro pulled a chair beside the bed.
"Then tell me everything."
***
At midnight, the Moretti estate had become a fortress.
The remaining guests had been escorted from the property. Security officers checked every vehicle leaving the grounds. Matteo supervised the staff while Alessandro questioned the men assigned to the east corridor.
Nobody admitted seeing Sofia enter Vittorio's private room.
Nobody admitted hearing the argument.
But one camera had recorded something.
A security technician brought the footage to Alessandro's office.
The video showed Sofia walking toward the east corridor with a tray.
Three minutes later, Raffaele Conti emerged.
He looked toward the camera.
Then he removed a small device from his pocket and pointed it toward the lens.
The footage went black.
Alessandro watched the recording twice.
"Where is Conti?"
Matteo leaned against the desk.
"He left twenty minutes ago."
"With Vittorio?"
"Yes."
Alessandro looked at him.
"Why didn't you stop them?"
"Because Vittorio is still technically our guest."
"Not anymore."
Matteo exhaled.
"You are making this personal."
Alessandro stood.
"Someone attacked a young woman inside my home."
"She might be lying."
The words came too quickly.
Alessandro turned slowly.
"Why would she?"
"I don't know. Perhaps she's connected to the Bellandis. Perhaps this entire thing is an attempt to make us fight."
"Then why did their man disable my security camera?"
Matteo had no immediate answer.
Alessandro walked toward the window.
Beyond the glass, the gardens were dark. Security lights illuminated the fountain, the stone statues, and the long driveway leading to the gates.
"Find Conti," he said.
"And Vittorio?"
"Leave him to me."
***
At 2:30 a.m., Sofia finally told Alessandro about the key.
She described the old photograph, the black rose engraved on the handle, and the message her father had left.
When she finished, Alessandro remained silent.
"Do you know what it opens?" she asked.
He looked at the desk.
"Possibly."
"What?"
"My father's private archive."
Sofia sat up slightly.
"Where?"
"Beneath the old chapel."
Her eyes widened.
"You know about it?"
"I was told it had been sealed after his death."
"Can we go there?"
"Not tonight."
"Why?"
"Because if Vittorio knows you have the key, he knows what it opens. He will already be watching the chapel."
Sofia looked down.
"I waited three years for this."
"I understand."
"No, you don't."
Alessandro studied her.
She was exhausted, injured, and clearly frightened. Yet there was something stubborn in her expression.
"My father didn't abandon me," she said. "I know that now. I just need proof."
Alessandro leaned back.
"My father used to say that every family has a room nobody enters."
"Why?"
"Because that room contains the truth."
He paused.
"Sometimes the truth is the only thing that can destroy a family."
Sofia met his eyes.
"Then perhaps your family deserves to know it."
For the first time that night, Alessandro almost smiled.
***
The old chapel stood at the northern edge of the estate.
It had not been used for religious services in almost two decades. Ivy covered the exterior walls, and several stained-glass windows had been replaced with dark wooden panels.
Lorenzo Moretti had commissioned its restoration shortly before his death.
Then, without explanation, he had ordered it sealed.
Alessandro remembered the day.
He had been nineteen.
His father had called him into the library and handed him a small black envelope.
"One day, someone will come looking for what I have hidden."
Alessandro had opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of the chapel.
"What is this?"
"Something you must never open unless you know who deserves to see it."
"What is inside?"
Lorenzo had looked at him for a long time.
"Evidence."
"Against whom?"
His father had not answered.
Two weeks later, Lorenzo Moretti was dead.
The official report described a heart attack.
Alessandro had never believed it.
Now, seventeen years later, he stood outside the chapel with Sofia beside him.