Chapter 2 - The Ballroom Without Music
No one moved while the telephone rang.
The sound came from the corridor beyond the ballroom, faint but unmistakable. Alessandro had kept Elena’s old study exactly as she had left it, including the ivory telephone on her desk.
The line had not worked in eighteen months.
Yet it rang six times.
Then stopped.
Alessandro looked at Tomas.
“Check the study.”
Tomas left with two guards.
Vanessa recovered enough to raise her voice.
“This has gone far enough. The pillow proves nothing.”
A murmur passed through the guests.
Vanessa gripped the fabric over her stomach.
“Pregnant women use support pillows. Emma must have seen it before I put on the gown.”
“The pillow has straps,” Rosa said quietly. “It is designed to be worn.”
Vanessa turned on her.
“You placed it there.”
Rosa’s expression hardened.
“I have never entered that storage room.”
“You have access to every room in this mansion.”
“I lost access three weeks ago, when you ordered the locks changed.”
Vanessa glanced at Alessandro.
“I was protecting my privacy.”
“From a three-year-old child?” he asked.
“From servants who report everything I do.”
Rosa lowered Emma to the floor but kept one hand on the child’s shoulder.
“I report anything that threatens Emma.”
Vanessa laughed, though there was no humor in it.
“There. She admits it. She has been spying on me.”
Alessandro turned toward his guests.
“The celebration is over. No one leaves until my security team verifies what happened.”
Several guests protested, but the objections ended when Tomas returned.
He carried Elena’s ivory telephone.
The wire had been cut.
“This wasn’t connected to the wall,” Tomas said. “Someone placed a battery transmitter inside it.”
“Who called it?”
“We’re tracing the signal.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Another trick from the maid.”
Tomas looked at Alessandro.
“There’s more.”
He handed over a tablet displaying security footage from the previous night.
At 2:14 in the morning, the camera outside the storage room had recorded Vanessa walking down the corridor. She carried the flower-covered box in both hands.
The footage was clear.
Vanessa stopped denying that the box belonged to her.
“I was storing personal items.”
Alessandro touched the screen.
“You told me you spent last night at your apartment.”
“I arrived early to prepare for the celebration.”
“You entered at two in the morning without alerting security.”
“I know the code.”
“That code was changed after Elena died.”
Vanessa’s lips parted.
She had no answer.
Tomas advanced the footage.
Vanessa placed the box inside the storage room. She remained there for seven minutes. When she came out, she was no longer alone.
A second figure followed her.
The woman’s face was hidden beneath a wide hat and a dark veil, but she wore a pale coat Alessandro recognized immediately.
Elena had worn that coat in the family portrait.
Alessandro turned toward the wall.
The coat in the painting had a distinctive embroidered collar. Elena had designed it herself, adding tiny white flowers around the neck.
The same flowers appeared in the footage.
“That coat was buried with my wife,” Alessandro said.
The guests stopped whispering.
Even Vanessa seemed shaken.
“She told me it was a copy,” she said before she could stop herself.
Alessandro looked at her.
“Who told you?”
Vanessa realized her mistake.
“No one. I meant that it must be a copy.”
Rosa drew Emma closer.
The little girl was staring at the frozen image of the veiled woman.
“Emma?” Rosa whispered.
Emma raised one trembling finger toward the screen.
“That’s the lady who came to my room.”
Alessandro crouched beside her again.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“What did she say?”
Emma looked toward Vanessa.
“She said when the new baby comes, I have to go away.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
Alessandro stood slowly.
Vanessa stepped back as he approached.
“You will remove that pillow,” he said, “and you will tell me who entered my daughter’s room.”
Vanessa’s expression became cold.
“I’m not undressing in front of a ballroom full of people.”
“You can use the adjoining room. Rosa and a female security officer will accompany you.”
“No.”
“Then a doctor will examine you here.”
Vanessa’s hand moved instinctively across her stomach.
Before she could respond, the ballroom lights flickered.
For one second, everything went dark.
A woman screamed.
May you like
When the lights returned, the flower-covered box was gone.
And so was the receipt signed by Elena.
