Chapter 4

At first, the image kept shaking.

Livia hid the camera on a bookshelf, adjusted the angle, and left. A few seconds later, my father and Viola entered the study.

“Someone has to take responsibility for the shortfall on the south shore,” my father said.

Viola sat down.

“Livia took more than two million.”

I looked at the confession on the edge of my desk, still wrinkled from seawater.

So even the amount was a lie.

On the screen, my father loosened his collar, his tone irritated.

“Get Elia’s signature first. She handled the accounts. The business partners will go after her.”

“What about Dario?”

“He’ll persuade her. I still control his father’s warehouses.”

I rewound the video a few seconds and listened again.

This was not simply another family humiliation.

From the moment they typed those charges onto the page, they intended to make me face real consequences for Livia.

Viola opened another document.

“We should cancel the engagement too. Her mother’s lawyers have contacted the estate recently. If she asks for an accounting of her assets before the wedding, some things won’t stay hidden.”

My father didn’t answer immediately.

After a while, he said, “I should have burned every last thing that woman left behind.”

My hand froze on the mouse.

“You still haven’t found where she hid the ledgers before she died,” Viola said. “Did you think getting rid of her driver meant no one could investigate the car?”

The study fell abruptly silent.

My father lifted his head and stared at her.

“You signed a statement about that accident too.”

I took off the headphones, and the sounds of the room rushed back.

Someone was trimming the hedges outside. Downstairs, a servant pushed a dining cart along the hall.

The year my mother died, my father told me her driver had been drunk and driven them both off the mountain road. The driver died in the car too. Afterward, everyone told me I needed to learn to accept an accident.

I didn’t cry immediately.

I simply opened the pocket watch and made sure my mother’s initials were still inside.

When I put the headphones back on, the video had reached its second half.

Viola took out the suite reservation.

“Have Dario rest after the gala. Put something in his drink. We only need photographs of him with Livia.”

My father asked, “Will he cooperate?”

“He doesn’t need to know. Once Elia sees the pictures, she’ll end the engagement herself. Press her over the accounts at the same time, and all she’ll want to do is leave.”

“Livia agrees?”

“She’s wanted to take her sister’s place for years.”

I stood so abruptly that my chair struck the wall.

In the bathroom, I gripped the sink and dry-heaved. The movement pulled painfully at the burn on my arm. Somehow, that pain helped keep me upright.

They intended to make Dario a prop in another scheme.

And he was still teaching me how to become a wife who pleased this family.

Ten minutes later, I returned to the desk and called the lawyer.

This time, I didn’t give him only a file number.

I told him my mother’s name, the year of the accident, and every line of the conversation I had heard.

After listening, he told me not to confront anyone alone.

“The old case needs to be reviewed. What you heard is important, but don’t treat an inference as an established fact.”

I agreed.

Then I gave him the original video’s location and contacted Rosa separately to tell her about the suite arrangements.

“Dario needs to be warned too,” I said.

Rosa was silent for a moment.

“Are you sure?”

“I won’t cover for him. But I won’t help them hurt him either.”

After the call, I reopened the editing window.

The gala copy could be edited; the original files had already been preserved separately. I removed irrelevant footage and arranged the dock recordings and study conversations chronologically.

I added no music.

At dusk, Viola brought my dress.

She smoothed the skirt and asked with a smile, “How is everything coming along?”

“Almost finished.”

My father happened to pass the doorway.

I looked at him.

“Do you remember what you told me the day Mom died?”

His expression faltered for an instant.

“This isn’t the time to bring up the past.”

I lowered my head and took the dress.

“All right. We’ll talk at the gala.”

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