Chapter 3: The Bottle with the Wrong Name
“Changing it how?” I asked.
Vivien folded her hands.
“Your mother is confused.
Her doctor adjusted the dosage.”
“My tablets were white,” Isabella said.
“The ones Vivien brings me are blue.”
Vivien gave a patient smile.
“You told me the white ones upset your stomach.”
“I told you they helped me sleep.”
Elena moved beside Isabella and supported her arm.
Vivien pointed at her.
“She’s been filling your head with nonsense.”
“Elena didn’t say anything,” Isabella replied.
“Mia did.”
The smile vanished from Vivien’s face.
I pulled out a chair.
“Sit down, Vivien.”
“Don’t speak to me like one of your employees.”
“Then answer like the woman who expected to become my wife.
Why did you touch my mother’s medicine?”
“I was helping her.”
“Without telling me?”
“You’re never here, Lorenzo.
Someone had to care for her.”
Isabella struck the table with her palm.
“Care for me?
You took my telephone every night and told the staff I was sleeping.”
Vivien turned to me.
“Listen to her.
She’s becoming paranoid.”
Rocco entered carrying a small paper bag.
“Mr.
Duca.”
Vivien’s eyes moved to the bag.
“This is a family conversation.”
“So is theft from my mother’s trust,” I said.
“Put it down, Rocco.”
He placed two medicine bottles on the table.
“The first came from Mrs.
Duca’s bathroom.
The second is what her doctor prescribed.”
I compared the labels.
The names matched, but the tablets did not.
Rocco slid a receipt toward me.
“The blue tablets were purchased in cash under the name V.
Moretti.”
Vivien laughed once.
“Anyone could use an initial.”
“The pharmacy camera shows you,” Rocco said.
Her chair scraped backward.
“You followed me?”
“No,” I said.
“I followed the money.”
Vivien lifted her chin.
“Your mother asked me to keep her condition private.”
“What condition?” Isabella demanded.
Vivien stared at her.
“The one that makes you forget what you say.”
Isabella swayed.
“Mother?”
Her fingers slipped from Elena’s shoulder, and I caught her before she reached the floor.
“Call Dr.
Malik,” Elena said.
“Now.”
Rocco reached for his phone while Vivien stepped toward the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To get her medical file.”
“Rocco will get it.”
Vivien stopped.
“You don’t trust me.”
“I trusted you yesterday.”
Mia appeared in the doorway clutching something silver.
“Uncle Lorenzo?”
Elena knelt.
“Sweetheart, you should be upstairs.”
Mia opened her palm.
A small key rested inside it.
“Where did you find that?” Vivien asked sharply.
Mia hid behind Elena.
I crouched.
“You can tell me.”
“In pretty lady’s coat.”
Vivien reached for her.
“Children take things.
Give it back.”
I moved between them.
“Don’t touch her.”
Mia pointed toward the corridor.
“Pretty lady puts blue papers behind the angel.”
The angel stood in the family chapel at the end of the west hall.
Rocco looked at me.
“There’s no safe marked on the house plans.”
“There is now.”
We reached the chapel and moved the marble statue.
A narrow keyhole waited behind its stone wing.
The silver key turned.
May you like
Inside the hidden compartment were Isabella’s original medicine, six transfer forms bearing Elena’s name—and a sealed envelope addressed to me in my late father’s handwriting.
Vivien whispered behind us, “Lorenzo, don’t open that.”
