Chapter 3 - A BUTTON FROM THE WRONG MAN
Vittorio Vieri arrived for breakfast the following morning dressed in his usual charcoal suit, his silver hair perfectly combed and his expression full of concern.
“Alessandro, I heard about the disturbance,” he said. “I hope the staff haven't exaggerated a misunderstanding.”
Alessandro placed the gold button on the table between them.
His uncle stopped reaching for his coffee.
“Where did you get that?”
“A little girl found it outside Serena's suite.”
Vittorio examined it without touching it. “Interesting. I lost a button last week.”
“Were you in Serena's room?”
“Certainly not.”
The answer came too quickly.
Alessandro leaned back, studying the man who had been his closest remaining family since childhood. He wanted to believe there was an innocent explanation. Wanting something, however, had never made it true.
Vittorio sighed.
“Serena is under enormous pressure. The wedding arrangements have been complicated, and the staff are becoming careless. Don't let a frightened child destroy your future.”
At the word child, Mia appeared in the doorway.
She had overheard enough to recognize the name.
“You're the man who told the pretty lady that Mama needed to disappear,” she blurted.
Silence swallowed the room.
Chiara hurried toward her daughter, but Mia continued.
“You said the hospital would take me away, and then nobody would believe Mama.”
Vittorio's expression hardened for just a fraction of a second.
Then he smiled.
“This child is confused. Perhaps we should have a social worker assess her.”
Alessandro stood.
“Get out of my house, Vittorio.”
His uncle's mask slipped.
“You have no idea what you're doing.”
“Then explain it.”
Vittorio straightened his cuffs and walked to the door. Before leaving, he turned back with a look Alessandro had never seen on his face before.
“You should ask Serena why she chose you. It wasn't your money, nephew.”
After he departed, Alessandro ordered Nico to investigate every document connected to the upcoming wedding.
Within an hour, Nico returned with a photograph of Serena meeting an unidentified man outside a private law office.
Alessandro recognized the man immediately.
May you like
He was the attorney who had declared his father's final will valid.
And according to the official records, that attorney had died twelve years ago.
