Chapter 10 - THE BEST FRIEND'S SECRET
Janevra called Lena herself.
No accusation.
No warning.
Just:
"Come over."
Lena arrived forty minutes later wearing jeans, no makeup, and an expression that changed the instant she saw Elio's security surrounding the sitting room.
"What happened?"
Janevra placed the listening device on the table.
Lena turned pale.
"Where did you find that?"
"The library."
"Oh God."
Janevra's stomach dropped.
"You've seen it before."
Lena sat down.
Then she began crying.
Her father had ordered her to bring a wedding gift into Elio's library the morning after the ceremony.
A carved antique box.
She hadn't known it contained surveillance equipment until weeks later.
"When I confronted him, he threatened my mother."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I thought it was business surveillance. Then your mother came up."
Janevra froze.
Lena reached into her bag and produced an old envelope.
"My father kept this locked in his office."
It was addressed to Lucia Moretti.
Inside was a photograph showing Lucia beside Lena's father and Daario.
On the back Lucia had written:
THEY THINK I DON'T KNOW.
Lena's father had been part of the conspiracy.
But Lena hadn't come merely to confess.
She had stolen his phone before leaving home.
One text thread mattered more than everything else.
Daario had scheduled a meeting for midnight at a warehouse along the river.
The message mentioned "the original ledger."
Elio immediately began planning.
Janevra shook her head.
"No."
He looked at her.
"If Daario knows Lena came here, he'll move it."
"We don't know that."
"Then we make him think she didn't."
Janevra proposed using the surveillance device against them.
Feed false information.
Make Daario believe Janevra would be alone.
Elio hated the plan.
Which was precisely why it might work.
Then Lena noticed something else on her father's phone.
A photograph sent ten minutes earlier.
Bruno's missing brother Matteo was alive.
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He was tied to a chair inside the warehouse.
And standing beside him was Victoriao Moretti.
