Chapter 11 - THE OFFER
“No,” Lorenzo said.
Elena folded her arms.
“You don't get the only vote.”
“He ordered my child killed.”
“And he's already threatening me. Hiding hasn't made me invisible.”
Bell stepped between them.
“This happens only if we can control it. You can change your mind at any point.”
They began with a message, not a meeting.
Using the number on the card Vittorio had left with his envelope, Elena wrote that she had kept something belonging to the family. She wanted enough money to disappear before Lorenzo decided she was part of the kidnapping.
Vittorio called within four minutes.
Bell listened beside her. Lorenzo waited across the room, forced for once to trust someone else's judgment.
“What exactly do you have?” Vittorio asked.
“The lion.”
“Lorenzo told me it was missing.”
“He scares me.”
“That makes you sensible.”
Elena stared at the hospital blanket over her knees.
“He offered me money. You did, too. Maybe I should have taken it.”
“How much?”
“Enough for a place nobody can throw me out of.”
He paused, calculating the cost of her fear.
“Did you open it?”
Elena looked at Bell.
“Open what?”
“The pendant. Sometimes the backing comes loose.”
“No. Should I?”
“No.”
The word cracked like a slap.
Then his voice softened.
“Absolutely not. It's delicate.”
He wanted to meet at the Chatzsworth the next afternoon. A private lounge used for business negotiations, away from the lobby cameras.
Bell let Elena agree while her team assessed the location and arranged coverage. The hotel was cooperating through its owners now that Vale was in custody.
After the call, Lorenzo stood with his back to the window.
“You sounded afraid of me.”
“I have been.”
He nodded slowly.
“What can I do?”
“Be somebody I don't have to lie about.”
That night, Lucia drank from her bottle without struggling. Rosa, discharged with her wrist in a brace, sat beside the crib and cried so hard she had to hand the bottle to Elena.
“I let them take her.”
“You fought,” Elena said. “They hurt you. That's what happened.”
Rosa looked at her.
“And you came back for her.”
Elena remembered starting to walk away in the alley.
She held Lucia closer.
The next morning, Bell showed her the necklace they would use. The original pendant, emptied and carefully closed, with its evidence already secured elsewhere.
“You still want to do this?”
Elena touched the lion's cold face.
“Yes.”
Then her phone rang.
May you like
Vittorio had changed one condition.
“Come in your uniform,” he said. “People notice a maid less.”
