Chapter 6 - THE LIE THAT BROKE THEMBy the time Adrian and Evelyn returned to the mansion, the front gates were burning.
Cars blocked the driveway. Men in black suits moved through the gardens. Security lights swept across the walls.
Adrian pushed Evelyn behind him.
“Stay close.”
“I can protect myself.”
“I know. Stay close anyway.”
Gunfire erupted near the east wing.
Adrian fired toward the shadows while Marcus led them through a side entrance.
Inside, the mansion had been torn apart. Glass covered the floor. Paintings hung crookedly. A guard lay unconscious near the staircase.
Evelyn saw blood on the marble.
“Where is Bianca?” Adrian asked.
“Missing,” Marcus said.
“Stefano?”
“Also missing.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
A phone on the floor began to ring.
Evelyn picked it up.
The screen displayed an unknown number.
She answered.
Stefano’s voice came through.
“You found the letter.”
Adrian took the phone from her hand.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your guards cannot reach.”
“If you touch Bianca—”
“Bianca is irrelevant.”
The words chilled Evelyn.
Stefano continued, “The girl is the problem. Send Evelyn to the old chapel by midnight, or I will release evidence proving you killed Thomas Hart.”
Adrian looked at Evelyn.
“What evidence?” he demanded.
“A recording. Your voice. Your father’s voice. The order to burn the car.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
The call ended.
Adrian stood motionless.
Evelyn watched him carefully. “Do you believe him?”
“No.”
“You looked at me.”
“I was thinking.”
“You were thinking about whether I killed your family.”
His eyes hardened. “Don’t twist this.”
“You just found a letter proving my father was innocent. Now your uncle claims he has a recording that makes you guilty.”
“I am not guilty.”
“Then say it.”
“I am not guilty.”
“Say you never knew.”
“I never knew.”
“Say you never helped.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Evelyn’s voice broke. “Did you?”
“No.”
The answer came too late.
She stepped back.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“You hesitated.”
“Because I remembered something.”
“Tell me.”
Adrian looked toward the shattered windows.
“When I was seventeen, my father told me to deliver a package to the harbor.”
Evelyn felt cold.
“What package?”
“I don’t know. It was sealed.”
“Did you deliver it?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night before the fire.”
Her breath caught.
“Did you see my father?”
“No.”
“Did you see Stefano?”
“Yes.”
“Was he alone?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Who was with him?”
“Your father.”
The room went silent.
Evelyn took another step back.
“My father was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You saw him.”
“I saw him from a distance.”
“And you never told anyone?”
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“You knew his name.”
“I was seventeen. I followed orders.”
“You helped them.”
Adrian’s face tightened. “I carried a package. I didn’t know what was inside.”
“You carried the weapon that killed him.”
“I did not know.”
“But you did it.”
“I was a child.”
“You were old enough to choose.”
He flinched.
Evelyn’s eyes burned.
She had entered the mansion to find proof. Now she had found something worse than proof.
She had found a connection between Adrian and the night her father died.
“Leave,” Adrian said.
“What?”
“Leave before I say something unforgivable.”
“You already did.”
“No. I haven’t.”
“You’re right. You haven’t said the truth.”
He stepped toward her.
“I have spent years protecting people who lied to me. My father, my uncle, every man who told me the family needed me. If you think I would knowingly help kill your father, then you know nothing about me.”
“I know you are still a Bellini.”
“And you are still hiding things.”
The accusation struck her.
Evelyn touched the locket.
Adrian’s eyes followed the movement.
“What is inside it?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“You’ve been wearing it for ten years.”
“It was my father’s.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust you.”
“Then why did you kiss me?”
She could not answer.
His voice grew colder. “You came here with secrets. You searched my house. You used my name for access. You let me believe this marriage was becoming real while you planned to destroy everything I own.”
“I never lied about wanting revenge.”
“You never told me your father left evidence inside a locket.”
Evelyn froze.
Adrian saw it.
“What is inside?”
She stepped back.
“Who told you?”
“I’m asking you.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then open it.”
“No.”
Adrian reached for the locket.
Evelyn slapped his hand away.
The sound echoed through the damaged room.
Adrian stared at her.
“I will never be forced to surrender my father’s last secret,” she said.
“You are standing in my house accusing my family of murder while refusing to show me the truth.”
“Because every time I trust a Bellini, someone dies.”
Pain flashed across his face.
Then the mask returned.
“Go.”
Evelyn lifted her chin. “Gladly.”
She turned toward the door.
Adrian said nothing as she walked away.
Outside, rain poured over the driveway.
Evelyn reached the gate before a black car stopped beside her.
Marcus stepped out.
“Miss Hart, I’m taking you somewhere safe.”
“I don’t need—”
“Adrian ordered it.”
She looked back at the mansion.
A silhouette stood in the broken window.
Adrian.
He was watching her leave.
Evelyn entered the car.
The moment the gates closed behind her, she opened the locket.
Inside was a tiny photograph of her father beside Elena Bellini.
Behind the photograph was a microfilm strip.
Her father had hidden the evidence in plain sight.
The strip contained transaction numbers and a short handwritten message.
The person who carried the package did not know what he carried. Find the woman with the red scarf. She saw everything.
Evelyn read it twice.
Adrian had not known.
The package had contained the ledger, not the weapon.
He had unknowingly delivered the evidence to Stefano.
She closed the locket.
For the first time since she met Adrian, she felt the full weight of what she had done.
She had hurt him because she was afraid.
But fear did not make her wrong.
It only made the truth harder to reach.
At a safe house across the city, Evelyn copied the microfilm onto a computer.
The transactions led to a private clinic in Brooklyn.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Bianca Moretti.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Bianca had not been merely Adrian’s abandoned fiancée.
She had been part of Stefano’s operation.
The door behind Evelyn opened.
She turned.
May you like
Bianca stood there with a gun.
“You should have opened the locket earlier,” Bianca said.
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