Chapter 3: The Man in the Black Sedan
The rain had turned the driveway into a silver blur.
Leo reached the front steps just as Mateo shouted from beyond the gates.
“Call an ambulance!”
One of the security guards was already speaking into his radio.
Another was struggling to force open the twisted gate.
The black sedan had crashed sideways into the stone pillar.
Its front end was crushed.
Steam poured from beneath the hood.
The windshield had shattered into a spiderweb of cracks.
Victoria stood several feet away, soaked and shaking.
She had not been inside the car.
She had stopped running the moment the crash happened.
Now she stared at the wreckage as though she had just watched part of her own plan die in front of her.
Mateo reached the driver’s side.
The door was jammed.
“There’s someone inside!”
Leo moved toward him.
“Alive?”
Mateo pressed two fingers against the driver’s neck through the broken window.
“Barely.”
Beatrice remained near the entrance with Lily behind her.
She wanted to take the child upstairs.
She wanted to close every curtain and protect her from the violence of the morning.
But Lily would not move.
Her small hand was wrapped tightly around Beatrice’s sleeve.
“Is he dead?”
“No,” Beatrice said quickly.
She did not know if it was true.
But she could not let Lily hear anything else.
Victoria suddenly stepped backward.
Mateo noticed.
“Don’t move.”
She looked at him.
Her face had gone pale.
“I need a phone.”
“You need to stay exactly where you are.”
“My lawyer—”
“Can wait.”
The sedan’s passenger door flew open from the inside.
A man stumbled out.
He was tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Dressed in a black suit that had been torn at the sleeve.
Blood ran down the side of his face.
For one second, everyone assumed he had been another passenger.
Then Mateo saw the gun in his hand.
“Down!”
He lunged toward Leo.
The first shot cracked through the rain.
The bullet struck the stone beside the front steps.
Beatrice pulled Lily against her chest and dropped behind a decorative wall.
The guards reached for their weapons.
The stranger fired again.
This time, the bullet shattered a lantern above the doorway.
Glass rained across the marble.
Victoria screamed.
But the gunman was not aiming at Leo.
He was aiming at her.
She realized it a second too late.
Her expression changed from outrage to terror.
“No!”
She turned to run.
Mateo tackled the man from the side.
The gun slid across the wet pavement.
One guard kicked it away.
Another pinned the stranger’s shoulders to the ground.
Leo grabbed Victoria by the arm before she could reach the road.
She fought him violently.
“Let me go!”
“That man tried to kill you.”
“I know!”
The answer came too quickly.
Leo tightened his grip.
Victoria froze.
Mateo looked up from the ground.
“You know him?”
“No.”
“You just said you knew.”
“I meant I knew he was shooting at me.”
The gunman laughed.
It was a low, broken sound.
Rainwater mixed with blood across his face.
“You always were a terrible liar, Victoria.”
Every eye turned toward him.
Victoria stopped struggling.
The color drained from her face.
“Shut up.”
The man smiled.
“Now you remember me.”
Mateo pulled him upright.
“Who are you?”
The stranger did not answer him.
He stared only at Victoria.
“You promised me a clean exit.”
Victoria’s mouth opened.
No sound came out.
“You said Rossi would blame the maid.”
“You said the child would be too frightened to speak.”
Beatrice felt Lily’s fingers tighten painfully around her arm.
Leo heard it too.
He stepped toward the man.
“What did she pay you to do?”
The stranger’s smile disappeared.
“I didn’t sign up to hurt a kid.”
Victoria suddenly found her voice.
“He’s lying.”
“You have no idea who this man is.”
The stranger laughed again.
“Tell them, Victoria.”
“Tell them who put the bracelet in the room.”
“Tell them who disabled the hallway camera.”
“Tell them who locked the cellar door.”
The rain seemed to vanish.
The entire world narrowed to those words.
Beatrice stared at him.
“You locked Lily inside?”
The man looked at her.
For the first time, shame entered his expression.
“I was told the room had ventilation.”
“It did,” Victoria snapped.
“Until you ordered the vent sealed,” he replied.
Leo released Victoria so suddenly she nearly fell.
He walked toward her.
Not fast.
Not violently.
But there was something in his face that made even Mateo tense.
“You sealed the vent?”
Victoria backed away.
“It wasn’t supposed to be dangerous.”
“You locked a six-year-old child underground.”
“She needed to learn that Beatrice couldn’t always save her.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Everyone heard.
Lily buried her face against Beatrice.
Leo looked at his daughter.
Then back at Victoria.
The silence that followed was worse than shouting.
Victoria seemed to realize it too.
She raised both hands.
“Leo, listen to me.”
“I was trying to break the unhealthy attachment.”
“She depends on Beatrice for everything.”
“You refuse to see it.”
“She doesn’t need a servant.”
“She needs a mother.”
“And you thought that would be you?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“I could have been.”
“Not anymore.”
The police sirens grew louder beyond the estate road.
The gunman lowered his head.
Mateo searched his jacket.
He found a second phone.
A wallet.
A folded sheet of paper.
And a small metal key.
Mateo opened the wallet.
“Daniel Cross.”
The man gave a bitter smile.
“That’s one of the names.”
“One of them?”
“I work for people who don’t like real names.”
Leo looked at the paper in Mateo’s hand.
“What is that?”
Mateo unfolded it.
His expression changed.
It was not a payment receipt.
It was a floor plan of the Rossi estate.
Several rooms had been marked in red.
Lily’s bedroom.
Leo’s study.
The security control room.
The cellar.
And Beatrice’s room.
At the bottom of the page, someone had written a time.
2:00 a.m.
Tonight.
Mateo handed the paper to Leo.
“This wasn’t just about framing Beatrice.”
Leo studied the markings.
“No.”
Daniel Cross shifted against the guard holding him.
“It was supposed to happen tonight.”
Victoria glared at him.
“You’re dead.”
He smiled faintly.
“Maybe.”
“But not before I tell them everything.”
The police vehicles entered through the damaged gate.
Officers spread across the driveway.
An ambulance followed.
Paramedics rushed toward the crushed sedan.
They pulled the driver out first.
He was older than Daniel.
His gray hair was stained with blood.
One paramedic examined him.
“He has a pulse.”
Victoria looked away too quickly.
Leo noticed.
“You know the driver too.”
She said nothing.
Daniel answered for her.
“That’s her father’s security chief.”
Leo turned.
Victoria’s eyes sharpened.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know he was sent to clean this up.”
Daniel nodded toward the gun.
“He wasn’t coming to rescue you.”
“He was coming to kill both of us.”
A police officer placed handcuffs around Daniel’s wrists.
Another moved toward Victoria.
She immediately stepped back.
“You cannot arrest me.”
“You don’t have evidence.”
Leo held up Lily’s recording device.
“We have your voice.”
Mateo held up the estate map.
“We have your plan.”
Daniel lifted his bloody face.
“And they have me.”
Victoria stared at him with pure hatred.
“You think they’ll protect you?”
“No.”
“I think Rossi will.”
Leo’s expression remained cold.
“Don’t assume anything.”
Daniel looked toward Beatrice.
“Then protect her.”
Beatrice stiffened.
“Why?”
“Because tonight’s plan has another page.”
Mateo searched his pockets again.
Nothing.
Daniel shook his head.
“Not on me.”
“Where is it?” Leo asked.
“In the car.”
The officers moved toward the sedan.
One opened the rear door.
Inside, beneath a black leather bag, they found a sealed envelope.
Leo’s name was written across the front.
Mateo handed it to him.
Victoria watched.
For the first time that morning, she seemed more afraid of the envelope than the police.
Leo tore it open.
Inside was a photograph.
He stared at it.
Then slowly looked at Beatrice.
She could not read his expression.
“What is it?”
Leo said nothing.
He turned the photograph around.
It had been taken years earlier.
A hospital room.
A newborn child.
A younger Beatrice sitting beside the bed.
And Sofia Rossi, pale but smiling, holding the baby in her arms.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written four words.
Beatrice was there first.
Beatrice’s face went completely still.
Leo stepped closer.
“You knew Sofia?”
The police placed handcuffs around Victoria’s wrists.
She smiled.
Not with relief.
With cruelty.
“Oh, she knew Sofia.”
Leo looked at Beatrice.
May you like
Victoria’s smile widened.
“She just never told you how well.”
