Chapter 6 - Someone Wanted Her Gone
Marina carried the note straight to Dante.
He read it twice.
“Did the boys write this?”
“Look at the handwriting.”
He did.
Then he called his security chief.
“Nico.
Check who entered the staff hallway.”
Beatrice appeared before Nico did.
“Is something wrong?”
Marina watched her face.
“Yes.”
She held up the note.
Beatrice’s expression hardened.
“How ugly.”
“Do you recognize it?”
“Should I?”
Dante handed the paper to Nico.
“Find out.”
That night, Marina drove Sofia back to their apartment herself.
Her daughter sat quietly until they stopped at a red light.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Did that lady not want me there?”
Marina tightened her hands on the wheel.
“Some people make their bad mood everybody else’s problem.”
“Like when you can’t find your keys?”
Despite herself, Marina laughed.
“Exactly like that, but with nicer shoes.”
Sofia smiled, then turned serious again.
“Mom.
You shook when the smoke detector beeped last week.”
Marina said nothing.
“Did something happen at work?”
“The boys played a prank.
It scared me.”
“Like the old apartment?”
“Yes.”
Sofia reached across the seat and rested her hand on Marina’s wrist.
For a second, Marina wanted to quit so badly she could taste it.
Then she remembered Miguel asking whether she would die.
The next morning, she returned.
Not because Dante needed her.
Because three children had mistaken fear for control, and someone was helping them keep that mistake alive.
At the mansion, Nico had news.
“No camera inside the staff corridor.
The outside one went offline for eleven minutes.”
“Broken?” Marina asked.
“Disconnected.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Before he could speak, Gabriel appeared at the office door.
“Marina?
Can you come?”
In the playroom, Miguel sat beside a toy truck with a broken wheel.
Rafael stood over him.
“It just came off.”
Miguel whispered, “Everything breaks when I touch it.”
Marina knelt.
“Then we’ll fix what we can.”
She turned the truck over.
Taped underneath was an old plastic key tag.
WEST SERVICE DOOR.
Miguel snatched it from her.
“Mom said keep it.”
Dante, who had followed them, went completely still.
“Your mother gave you that?”
Miguel nodded.
“The night she got hurt.”
Dante reached for the tag, then stopped himself.
“Where’s the key?”
Miguel looked toward the doorway.
May you like
At Beatrice.
“I’m not supposed to tell.”
