Chapter 8 - Belladonna
The greenhouse had been sealed since Carlo died.
Miriam avoided it.
Alessia had simply never had the heart to reopen it.
Now mother and daughter stepped inside together.
Dust covered the glass tables.
Clay pots sat exactly where Carlo left them.
His gardening gloves hung beside the door.
Miriam’s eyes filled.
“He used to come here when he couldn’t sleep.”
Alessia remembered.
As a child she would find her father watering plants before sunrise.
“Some things only tell you what they need when the house is quiet,” Carlo used to say.
They searched for two hours.
Nothing.
No files.
No safe.
No hidden drawer.
Then Alessia noticed something strange.
One irrigation line ran behind an empty section of wall.
No plants.
Nothing to water.
“Mom.”
Miriam followed her gaze.
They called Marcus.
He removed the wooden panel.
Behind it was a waterproof metal box.
Inside:
A flash drive.
A handwritten notebook.
And a letter addressed to Alessia.
She opened the letter first.
My beautiful girl,
If you found Belladonna, then either I worried too much, or I did not worry enough.
Do not confuse love with access.
A person who loves you may know your weaknesses. A person who intends to use you studies them.
If Garrett is innocent, destroy what I collected and apologize for me.
If he is not, do not let shame make you protect him.
You were deceived. That is his failure, not yours.
—Dad
Alessia stopped reading.
Miriam touched her shoulder.
For the first time since the ballroom, Alessia cried.
Not loudly.
Just enough to let fourteen months of guilt leave her body.
Then they opened the flash drive.
Carlo had recorded everything.
Private investigators followed Garrett before the wedding.
Corporate searches linked Evelyn to Victor Shaw.
Nathan’s confidential leaks.
Payments.
Photographs.
Emails.
And one audio recording from three months before Carlo’s surgery.
Garrett’s voice.
“If Alessia signs after Carlo dies, Evelyn gets her money and I get control.”
Another man asked:
“What if Carlo changes the structure?”
Garrett answered:
“Then we wait until Alessia trusts me more than she trusted him.”
Alessia stared at the screen.
But the worst file was dated four days before Carlo entered the hospital.
Security video.
Garrett inside Carlo’s study.
Opening a locked drawer.
Photographing medical documents.
Then calling someone.
“He’s weaker than he’s telling Alessia.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“No. We don’t need to do anything. We just need to be ready when nature does it for us.”
Alessia exhaled.
At least they had not caused her father’s death.
But they had been waiting for it.
Planning around it.
Building a future on the moment she lost him.
Then Miriam opened Carlo’s notebook.
One name appeared repeatedly beside Garrett and Evelyn.
May you like
Judge Thomas Hale.
Garrett’s uncle.
