Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN WHITE
Celeste Vane arrived at nine seventeen wearing cream silk.
I noticed because Anthony noticed.
His coffee cup stopped halfway to his mouth.
Luca sat beside him eating pancakes cut into tiny squares.
I stood near the kitchen door, pretending I didn't feel Anthony watching Celeste.
She was beautiful.
Not soft beautiful.
Sharp beautiful.
The kind of woman who entered a room already knowing who envied her.
“Darling.”
She kissed Anthony's cheek.
He didn't move.
Then she looked at Luca.
“My poor baby.”
Luca immediately reached for my hand.
The movement was so small Celeste might have missed it.
Anthony didn't.
I felt his gaze.
Celeste bent toward Luca.
“I heard you had a frightening adventure.”
Adventure.
The word made my skin crawl.
Luca hid behind my hip.
Celeste's smile tightened.
“And you must be the maid.”
“Evelyn Hart.”
“The hero.”
I didn't answer.
She looked me over.
“You're prettier than Anthony described.”
Anthony set down his coffee.
“I didn't describe her.”
Celeste smiled.
“Then perhaps someone else did.”
The room went silent.
She knew.
Maybe not everything.
But she knew I was being investigated.
Anthony stood.
“Luca, finish breakfast.”
He walked toward Celeste.
“My study.”
She followed him.
I watched them disappear.
Then Luca whispered, “Miss Evelyn?”
I crouched beside him.
“Yes?”
“The white lady was outside.”
My heart stopped.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“By the pool?”
He nodded.
I looked toward the study.
“Did she talk to you?”
Luca pushed a pancake around his plate.
“She said Daddy wanted me.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
Every nerve in my body screamed.
“Luca, did Miss Celeste open the gate?”
His little face changed.
Fear.
“She said not to tell.”
I stood so quickly my chair fell.
I didn't knock on Anthony's study door.
I threw it open.
Celeste was shouting.
“You're accusing me because a camera malfunctioned?”
Anthony stood behind his desk.
He looked at me.
I said four words.
“Luca says she opened it.”
Celeste turned.
Anthony didn't.
He simply stared at her.
“What?”
I stepped inside.
“He said Celeste told him you wanted him outside.”
Celeste laughed.
It sounded wrong.
“A five-year-old?”
Anthony walked around the desk.
“Did you open the gate?”
“No.”
“Did you speak to Luca?”
“I said hello.”
“Did you tell him I wanted him outside?”
“No.”
Anthony moved closer.
Celeste's confidence cracked.
“Anthony, you're frightening me.”
“Good.”
I had never heard a man say one word with so little emotion and so much threat.
Celeste backed away.
“You're choosing a maid over me?”
Anthony looked at me.
Then at her.
“I'm choosing my son.”
Celeste left twenty minutes later.
But Anthony didn't have her arrested.
That surprised me.
I confronted him after Luca went upstairs.
“You believe him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why let her leave?”
“Because if Celeste did this, she wasn't alone.”
He poured whiskey.
At ten in the morning.
“I want to know who she runs to.”
“And Luca?”
“Protected.”
“By the same security team that missed someone opening the pool gate?”
Anthony's eyes flashed.
I had gone too far.
I didn't care.
“Someone turned off your cameras,” I said. “Someone opened a locked gate. Someone knew exactly when Luca would be alone.”
Anthony put down the glass.
“You think I don't understand that?”
“I think you're treating this like business.”
“It is business.”
“No. It's your son.”
His face changed.
I realized I had hit something deep.
“You think I don't know that?” he repeated.
Quieter.
I looked away.
Then Anthony said something I didn't expect.
“His mother died because of me.”
I turned back.
He was staring at the whiskey.
“Isabella was driving to meet me. Someone planted a device beneath her car.”
My throat tightened.
“Luca was two.”
“I was supposed to be in that car.”
“Anthony—”
“My enemies missed.”
He looked at me.
“They killed my wife instead.”
For the first time, I understood why every door had guards.
Why Anthony watched everyone.
Why Luca was never supposed to go near the pool.
Anthony had already buried one person he loved.
And someone had just tried to make him bury another.
That evening, Marco returned with news.
Celeste had driven directly to a private apartment in downtown Baltimore.
The apartment belonged to Anthony's younger brother.
Vincent Pellagrini.
May you like
And suddenly the danger wasn't outside the family.
It was sitting at Anthony's dinner table.
