Chapter 6
Claire folded her arms.
“So we have an old security credential linked to a missing brother, a deleted access record, and photographs of Genevieve taken from inside the estate.”
“Missing is too dramatic,” Alessandro said.
Claire raised an eyebrow.
“You have not heard from him in five years.”
“He chose to disappear.”
“That is still disappearing.”
Genevieve touched Alessandro’s arm.
The gesture startled both of them.
“Maybe those are not the same thing.”
He looked at her.
She withdrew her hand.
“If he left because he wanted a different life, perhaps he protected that life by staying away.”
Alessandro looked at the photograph again.
“That sounds familiar.”
Genevieve held his gaze.
“Yes.”
Claire leaned forward.
“There is something else.”
Mateo groaned.
“I’m beginning to hate that phrase.”
Claire ignored him.
“The document I found yesterday was not the only one restored from the estate archive.”
Alessandro looked at her sharply.
“What else did you find?”
“A visitor record from February.”
“Who?”
Claire opened a folder.
“Mara Voss.”
The room went quiet.
Alessandro stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Mateo stepped closer.
“Show me.”
Claire handed him the paper.
The record listed a vehicle entering the service gate on February 17 at 3:06 p.m.
MARA VOSS.
Authorized by household administrative office.
Departed at 3:41 p.m.
Mateo read it twice.
“I never saw this.”
“Because it was deleted from the active system,” Claire said. “The archive retained a temporary replication.”
Alessandro looked stunned.
“Mara came to my house?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
Claire looked at Genevieve.
“I think she came to see you.”
Genevieve frowned.
“I never met her.”
“Maybe not knowingly.”
Claire opened her phone and showed her a photograph.
Genevieve stared.
A woman in her late thirties stood outside a coffee shop, wearing a wool coat and glasses.
Genevieve went still.
“I know her.”
Alessandro leaned closer.
“From where?”
Genevieve looked at Claire.
“She called herself Margaret.”
Claire nodded slowly.
“She approached you?”
“At a bookstore in Sag Harbor.”
“When?”
“February.”
Alessandro sat down.
“What did she want?”
“At first, nothing.”
Genevieve tried to remember.
“She asked whether I had read a novel I was holding. We talked for maybe ten minutes.”
“And after that?”
“I saw her again about a week later at a café.”
“Coincidence?”
“I thought so.”
Claire watched her carefully.
“And the third time?”
Genevieve looked at Alessandro.
“She came to the estate.”
He said nothing.
“I was in the greenhouse. One of the housekeepers said a woman from the charity committee wanted to speak with me.”
Alessandro frowned.
“What charity committee?”
“The literacy fund.”
Genevieve’s expression turned distant.
“She said she knew someone who had worked with your family years ago.”
“Mara worked for us.”
“I know that now.”
“What did she say?”
Genevieve rubbed her palms together.
“She asked whether I was happy.”
Mateo looked confused.
“That’s all?”
“No.”
Genevieve’s eyes stayed on the blanket.
“She asked whether I ever felt as if I was living someone else’s version of my life.”
Alessandro looked away.
Claire said gently, “Did she mention Nico?”
“No.”
“Did she warn you?”
“Not directly.”
Genevieve hesitated.
“She said sometimes leaving before you hated someone was the only way to preserve what had once been good.”
Alessandro’s face changed.
Mateo muttered, “That sounds like Nico.”
“Yes,” Alessandro said.
Exactly.
Claire closed the folder.
“So Mara was inside the estate weeks before Genevieve received the photographs.”
“Which makes her a suspect,” Alessandro said.
Genevieve immediately looked at him.
He exhaled.
“A person of interest.”
Mateo smiled faintly.
“Growth.”
Alessandro ignored him.
Claire said, “Or she was trying to warn Genevieve.”
“About what?”
“That is what we need to learn.”
Genevieve looked at Lucia.
“I want to go home.”
Alessandro’s eyes lifted.
She saw the hope in them and corrected herself.
“To Brooklyn.”
He nodded.
“Of course.”
“I want quiet.”
“You’ll have it.”
“No men outside the apartment.”
He paused.
“One.”
“Alessandro.”
“On the street.”
“No.”
“Across the street.”
“No.”
“In a coffee shop nearby pretending to read?”
Genevieve stared at him.
Mateo covered his mouth.
Claire looked amused.
Alessandro sighed.
“Fine.”
Genevieve studied him.
“Thank you.”
May you like
He gave a small nod.
It cost him more than she knew.
