Chapter 15 - The VisitCamilla Ashford looked smaller behind glass.
That was the first thing Adeline noticed.
Not sorry.
Not broken.
Just smaller.
The interview room was divided by a clear panel. Camilla sat on one side in a pale sweater, her hair pulled back, her beauty stripped of chandeliers and flattering light. Adeline sat on the other side with Detective Ellison behind her and Marisol near the door.
Enzo was not in the room.
Adeline had insisted.
He waited outside.
Camilla noticed immediately.
“How touching,” she said. “He lets you speak now?”
Adeline folded her hands on the table.
“He always did. You just weren’t listening.”
Camilla smiled.
There was still poison in it, but less confidence.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“No.”
“Liar.”
Adeline looked at her.
“I don’t enjoy rooms like this.”
Camilla’s smile faded.
For the first time, she seemed to remember where they were.
Adeline continued.
“You asked for me.”
Camilla leaned back.
“I asked because you’re the only one sentimental enough to believe me.”
“Then start.”
Camilla’s eyes moved to Marisol.
“No lawyers.”
Marisol laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
Camilla’s jaw tightened.
“I want immunity.”
Detective Ellison said, “You don’t get immunity from Miss Croft.”
Camilla ignored her and looked at Adeline.
“My mother will burn everyone before she goes down. Enzo, Lucia, you. Especially you.”
Adeline said nothing.
“You think public sympathy protects you? It doesn’t. People get bored. Hashtags die. My mother has judges who owe her favors and reporters who owe her careers.”
“Then why are you here?”
Camilla’s eyes flickered.
Because she was afraid.
Adeline saw it.
“Your mother cut you loose,” Adeline said.
Camilla’s face hardened.
“No.”
“She did.”
“You know nothing about my mother.”
“I know women like her don’t raise daughters. They train replacements.”
Camilla slapped her palm against the glass.
Detective Ellison stepped forward.
Adeline did not flinch.
That mattered.
Camilla saw it and slowly lowered her hand.
“You think you’re better than me because you bled in public?”
“No.”
“Because Enzo picked you?”
“He didn’t pick me.”
Camilla laughed bitterly.
“Please. He looks at you like you pulled him out of a grave.”
Adeline’s breath caught.
The line was cruel.
But not entirely false.
Camilla leaned closer.
“That’s what men like him do. They see a wounded girl and imagine she is redemption.”
Adeline held her gaze.
“And women like you see kindness and imagine it is weakness.”
For once, Camilla had no immediate answer.
Marisol’s eyes sharpened, impressed despite herself.
Camilla looked away first.
“My mother has a house in Lake Forest,” she said.
Marisol began writing.
“Address?”
Camilla gave it.
“There’s a wine cellar beneath the library. Not the public one. A private room behind the west rack. She keeps originals there. Sofia’s files. Helen’s copies. Things on judges, donors, board members.”
Detective Ellison asked, “Why tell us now?”
Camilla’s mouth trembled.
She forced it still.
“Because she told my attorney I acted alone.”
Adeline absorbed that.
There it was.
The wound beneath the venom.
Not morality.
Abandonment.
Camilla continued.
“She said I was unstable. Jealous. Under pressure. She said she tried to protect me from myself.”
Adeline almost laughed at the awful symmetry.
Beatrice had finally used the same language against Camilla that Camilla used against Adeline.
Unstable.
Emotional.
Difficult.
Camilla’s eyes filled.
“She made me what I am.”
Adeline’s voice stayed quiet.
“No.”
Camilla looked up sharply.
“No?”
“She taught you. She rewarded you. She protected you.”
Adeline leaned closer.
“But you chose the glass. You chose the crop. You chose to blame me.”
Camilla’s tears spilled now.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“You had a mother who loved you.”
Adeline went still.
Camilla’s voice cracked.
“My mother loved winning. Sometimes I was useful for that.”
For one second, Adeline saw the child in the recording.
Will she die?
Only if she makes it necessary.
A little girl raised beside that sentence.
A little girl who grew into a woman repeating it.
Pity rose in Adeline.
Then she remembered the corridor.
Pity did not erase accountability.
“I’m sorry you were raised by Beatrice,” Adeline said.
Camilla stared.
“But I am not sorry you were stopped.”
The tears dried in Camilla’s eyes.
Something like respect flickered there.
Tiny.
Unwelcome.
“You sound like your mother.”
Adeline’s heart tightened.
“You didn’t know my mother.”
Camilla looked down.
“I saw her once.”
Adeline stopped breathing.
“When?”
“I was sixteen. She came to the house. She begged my mother to retract the theft accusation.”
Adeline’s hands curled.
“Were you there?”
“In the hall.”
“What happened?”
Camilla looked through the glass.
“My mother told her no one would believe a bookkeeper over an Ashford.”
Adeline’s throat closed.
Camilla’s voice lowered.
“Helen said, ‘One day your daughter will know what you are.’”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Camilla smiled faintly, but there was no joy in it.
“I did know. That was the problem.”
Detective Ellison stepped closer.
“Camilla, are you willing to put the Lake Forest location in a sworn statement?”
Camilla nodded.
“For consideration.”
Marisol said, “Of course.”
Camilla looked at Adeline again.
“There’s something else.”
Adeline opened her eyes.
“What?”
“My mother knows who sent you the blocked messages.”
“Wasn’t it her?”
Camilla shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Camilla hesitated.
For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
“Someone from Enzo’s side.”
Adeline’s blood went cold.
Marisol stopped writing.
Detective Ellison said, “Name.”
Camilla looked toward the door.
“Bring Enzo in.”
Adeline said, “No.”
Camilla’s gaze snapped back.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t get to summon him anymore.”
Camilla’s face tightened.
Adeline continued.
“You tell me.”
Camilla looked at her for a long time.
Then she whispered a name.
Adeline did not recognize it.
But Marisol did.
Her pen froze.
“Repeat that.”
Camilla did.
“Dante Rinaldi.”
Outside the room, something crashed.
The door opened.
Enzo stood there.
His face was white with rage.
Dante Rinaldi was not just from Enzo’s side.
He was Enzo’s cousin.
His closest adviser.
The man managing Marchetti Holdings during the engagement negotiations.
Camilla smiled sadly.
“There he is.”
Enzo looked at her as if seeing a different monster now.
Camilla leaned back.
“My mother didn’t reach Belladonna alone, Enzo.”
May you like
Her voice softened.
“Your house was already open.”
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