Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW WHAT WAS IN THE GLASS
Dr. Enzo Ricci was seventy-eight when investigators found him outside Siena.
Retired.
Ill.
And apparently tired of protecting other people's secrets.
He agreed to give a statement through counsel.
My father hadn't gone to the clinic for treatment.
He'd gone because Carlo asked him to meet.
Ricci claimed Vittorio Moretti was there.
So was Carlo.
They wanted Paolo to stop investigating the shipping accounts.
He refused.
Then someone poured wine.
My hands turned cold.
Ricci admitted he later treated Paolo for dizziness and irregular heartbeat.
He suspected he'd been drugged.
But Carlo pressured him not to document it fully.
“Did the drug kill my father?” I asked Lucia.
“We don't know.”
That answer hurt.
But it was honest.
The medical evidence was old.
Incomplete.
There might never be absolute certainty.
Still, investigators now had financial records, recorded statements, and witness testimony supporting a larger conspiracy.
Then Bianca contacted us again.
She had remembered something.
The night before the Venice trip, Carlo met her father in Rome.
She overheard them discussing the watch.
One sentence stood out.
If Serena gives it to Alessandro, we're finished.
I stared.
“They knew I had it?”
Bianca nodded.
“How?”
“I told my father you said you'd found a wedding gift Alessandro had been searching for.”
My stomach twisted.
She looked ashamed.
“I didn't know what it contained.”
“But you told him.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Another choice.
Another consequence.
Then Bianca said:
“That's why they insisted Alessandro go to Venice.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“They needed him away from Rome while someone searched your apartment.”
My heart stopped.
I remembered returning from Venice.
Nothing looked disturbed.
But the watch had been with me.
The search would've failed.
“And the affair?”
Bianca's voice broke.
“My father told me if I kept Alessandro in Venice until the wedding morning, Carlo would have time to find another way to stop the marriage.”
I stared.
“So you knew they wanted him delayed.”
“Yes.”
“Did Alessandro know?”
“No.”
I believed her.
But it didn't excuse him.
He'd still chosen to stay.
Nine hours.
No conspiracy changed that.
Then Bianca added something else.
“Serena, Carlo didn't expect you to cancel the wedding.”
I frowned.
“What did he expect?”
“He expected you to forgive Alessandro.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because once you married him, Carlo planned to use the marriage clause to claim your shares were compromised by mafia influence.”
I stared.
“So either way, he wanted my inheritance.”
“Yes.”
Then she whispered the worst part.
“If that failed, there was another plan.”
My heart pounded.
“What plan?”
May you like
Bianca's eyes filled.
“To make you disappear during the honeymoon.”
