第3章

Mara crawled into the west wing through the laundry chute. Nails had torn her uniform and left her elbows bleeding. She rushed to my bedside and checked my breathing. Tears filled her eyes.

"An ambulance can't get in. Enzo sealed off the west wing, and Luca jammed all emergency communications."

"Don't cry." Every word sent fresh pain through the wound under my ribs. "Do three things for me."

First, upload my injury report, the time the phone line was cut, and the recording of my father's orders to the medical terminal.

Second, encode the GPS backup number using the rose stones.

Third, after I died, enter Alessandra's emergency code on the transfer order. "Send me to Saint Brigid. Don't let my father take my body."

Mara shook her head. "You're not going to die. The doctor is in the east wing. I'll drag him here myself."

"They'll stop you. Nobody in this house cares if we live or die."

"Then I'll scream until every guest hears me."

She stood, but footsteps sounded outside. I pressed the stones into her palm and kept the last rose stone for myself.

Gianna entered with two guards. A thin strip of gauze covered her shoulder. Compared to me, she looked perfectly fine.

"Search her."

The guards pinned Mara down. The rose-stone necklace fell to the floor. Gianna picked it up and rolled the stones between her fingers.

"Alessandra was always leaving you these useless little things."

"You killed my children, didn't you?"

Her fingers froze.

I slipped the old recorder under the covers. My daughters used to practice singing with it. Its screen had broken years ago, but a tiny red light still blinked.

"Even if you find the truth, what can you change?" Gianna leaned close. "I buckled Sofia and Louise into their car seats myself. I left the car on the tidal ramp and waited nineteen minutes for the tide to come in. Then I climbed out through the sunroof, handed my phone to the man waiting onshore, and watched the car sink."

I dug my nails into my palm to keep from screaming.

"They cried the whole time. The younger one kept calling for Mommy."

While my daughters cried for me in that freezing water, Vincent kept me locked in the dining room. My father told me a rival family had attacked them.

"Dad altered the GPS records. Vincent refused an independent recovery. Luca shut down every question you raised." Gianna's smile widened. "I didn't kill them on my own. The people closest to you chose to let them die."

Mara lunged at her. As the guards dragged her out, her arm brushed the bedside terminal. The recording had already finished uploading.

Gianna took the last stone from my hand. She didn't know a chip was hidden inside—the root key to my father's safe. The recorder had captured her entire confession.

Soon, my father, Luca, and Vincent arrived. Mara was outside, still screaming for someone to save me.

Dad summoned the family doctor. After a quick examination, the doctor lowered his voice.

"Hemorrhagic shock. Without surgery, she won't last the night."

Vincent went pale.

"I didn't know it was this serious. I thought you were just throwing a tantrum... Lily..."

He started forward to pick me up, and Luca blocked the door.

"If we take her to a hospital, the police will investigate her injuries. Tomorrow's induction ceremony, Alessandra's old case, and the Black Harbor Truce will all come out."

My father looked at the doctor. "Can she last until tomorrow's ceremony is over?"

The doctor avoided my eyes. "No."

Silence fell. Then my father made his choice.

"No hospital."

Vincent spun toward him.

"Record her death as a sedative overdose. Move the body to the private crematorium on Saint Brigid before dawn. No autopsy. We'll hold the memorial tomorrow with an empty casket."

I was still alive, but they had already planned my death and funeral.

Luca asked quietly, "What about Gianna's ceremony?"

"Nothing changes. The memorial comes first. Then she signs the succession charter."

I looked at Vincent.

"On our wedding day, you made a promise in front of Alessandra. Do you remember it?"

Of course he did. Alessandra had placed my hand in his. Vincent had promised to love and protect me for the rest of his life. He'd sworn my life mattered as much as his own.

He looked away. "But this is where we are now. I can't change what happened to you or the girls. Lily, I have to save myself." He walked out.

Mara was allowed back in to give me the sedative. Under the camera, she filled a syringe and slid the needle into my skin. But she gave me only half the dose and hid the rest up her sleeve.

Downstairs, people were discussing how many white flowers they needed for my empty casket.

At 2:13 a.m., my heart monitor flatlined. There was no terrible pain. My consciousness simply slipped from my body, and I found myself floating beside the bed. Mara collapsed over me, sobbing. She put the medical chart, half-full syringe, and rose stones into the body bag, then wrote a string of numbers on the tag.

It was Alessandra's emergency code: Identity mismatch. Do not cremate. Transfer to primary beneficiary for verification.

An invisible thread kept my spirit tied to my body. When the casket left San Marro, it dragged me across the long seawall with it.

Before dawn, we reached Saint Brigid Island. The emergency code stopped my cremation, and my body was taken to a cold room. When the door opened, a scarred hand pulled back the sheet and touched my bruised face.

I hadn't cried when I died. But now, the tears came.

Alessandra, you're alive.