The family schedule.
The private medical records.
And eventually, the one thing he had protected more carefully than his money.
Daniel.
Three years passed.
The Moretti estate became more beautiful under Isabella's supervision. New paintings appeared in the hallways. The gardens were redesigned. The dining room was renovated with Italian marble and custom chandeliers.
She organized charity dinners and established relationships with influential families.
People liked her.
More importantly, people believed she was good for Lorenzo.
His associates noticed that he smiled more often. His brother Marco said he seemed less angry. Even the old family lawyer admitted that the marriage had brought some stability to the household.
But Daniel had stopped calling Isabella by her name.
He called her Mrs. Moretti.
And whenever she entered a room, he became quiet.
Lorenzo assumed the boy was still struggling with the loss of his mother.
He was wrong.
The first warning had come six months after the wedding.
Daniel had been playing in the garden when he suddenly refused to go inside.
Rosa found him sitting beneath the oak tree, holding a small silver bracelet.
It belonged to Elena.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?"
Daniel looked toward the house.
"She said Mommy was bad."
Rosa knelt beside him.
"Who said that?"
"Mrs. Isabella."
Rosa felt her stomach tighten.
"What else did she say?"
Daniel looked down at the bracelet.
"She said Daddy would be happier if Mommy never came back."
Rosa immediately took him inside.
But before she could confront Isabella, the younger woman appeared in the hallway.
"What happened?"
"Nothing," Rosa replied.
Isabella looked at Daniel.
"Sweetheart, did you tell Rosa one of your stories?"
Daniel hid behind the housekeeper.
Isabella smiled.
"Children have such wonderful imaginations."
That evening, she told Lorenzo that Daniel had become increasingly difficult.
"He has nightmares. He talks about Elena constantly. I think he needs professional help."
Lorenzo arranged for a child psychologist.
The doctor found that Daniel was experiencing unresolved grief and recommended a stable routine, patience, and a safe environment in which to express his feelings.
Isabella agreed enthusiastically.
She attended the first two appointments.
Then she began finding reasons not to go.
Business meetings.
Charity events.
A headache.
A sudden trip to Boston.
Lorenzo did not notice the pattern.
He was too busy fighting a war against the Caruso family.
The Carusos controlled several important businesses along the waterfront. Their leader, Salvatore Caruso, had been trying to expand into territory traditionally controlled by the Morettis.
Negotiations failed.
Threats followed.
Then a Moretti warehouse burned.
Two men disappeared.
A city councilman withdrew his support for a development project.
Lorenzo spent nearly every night in his private office.
Isabella took advantage of his absence.
She changed the household staff schedule.
She dismissed two nannies.
She instructed the security team that Daniel's movements were to be reported directly to her.
And she began telling the boy that his father was too busy to care about him.
At first, Daniel believed her.
Then he learned that she was lying.
One afternoon, he overheard Isabella speaking on the telephone in the conservatory.
He had been looking for a book.
The door was slightly open.
"Everything is under control," she said.
A pause.
"No. Lorenzo suspects nothing."
Another pause.
"The boy is becoming a problem."
Daniel froze.
He did not understand the entire conversation.
But he recognized the word boy.
Then Isabella said something that made him forget why he had entered the room.
"His mother should have stayed dead."
Daniel ran upstairs.
He hid inside his mother's old dressing room and remained there until Rosa found him.
He did not tell her what he had heard.
He was afraid.
Because Isabella had once told him that children who invented stories could be sent away to special schools where their parents would never visit.
The threat was absurd.
But to a seven-year-old child, it sounded like a sentence.
And Daniel had already lost one mother.
He could not bear the possibility of losing his father too.
The truth might have remained buried forever if Isabella had not made one final mistake.
Three weeks before the dinner, Daniel found a small box inside her dressing room.
It was hidden behind several perfume bottles.
He had entered the room looking for a pencil because Isabella had taken away his drawing supplies.
The box was unlocked.
Inside were photographs.
Old photographs.
One showed Elena standing beside her car outside a restaurant.
Another showed the same car parked near a garage.
A third showed Isabella speaking to a man Daniel recognized.
His name was Adrian Voss.
He had visited the estate several times during the first year of Lorenzo and Isabella's marriage.
He was introduced as an insurance consultant.
Daniel remembered him because he had once given him a toy airplane.
The photograph showed Adrian standing beside Elena's car on the afternoon of the accident.
There was a handwritten date on the back.
Daniel could not understand why Isabella had kept it.
Then he found a folded piece of paper.
It contained several lines of writing.
He recognized his mother's name.