Chapter 2 - The Man Who Was Already InsideDante slipped the photograph into his jacket.
He didn't know why.
Instinct.
Maybe fear.
Maybe because a man who survived his twenties in the Belucchi world learned one simple rule: if something made your stomach turn, hide it before somebody else saw it.
The door handle stopped moving.
Lily stared at it.
Dante raised one finger to his lips.
She nodded.
He moved toward the door.
Three silent steps.
Then four.
His hand closed around the pistol beneath his jacket.
The latch clicked.
The door opened.
Nico Ferrara stood there.
"Dante."
Dante did not lower his weapon.
"Where were you?"
"Back entrance."
"What happened?"
Nico looked toward the girl.
Then toward Dante's hand.
"I found this."
He tossed a folded piece of paper onto the table.
Dante opened it.
His own estate security code was printed across the bottom.
Not his current one.
A code from seven years ago.
One that had been deactivated after the old west-wing cameras were replaced.
Nico spoke quietly.
"Someone used it twelve minutes ago."
Dante looked up.
"Inside this house?"
Nico nodded.
"My system says yes."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"How does a system know someone entered without knowing who?"
"It doesn't."
Dante stared at him.
Nico's jaw tightened.
"That's the problem."
The house staff had already been locked down.
Every gate.
Every driveway.
Every external camera.
No one entered.
No one left.
But somebody was moving inside.
Dante looked at Lily.
"Did the gray-coat man come here?"
She nodded.
"Last night."
"Here?"
She pointed upstairs.
"The old rooms."
Dante felt a pulse against his temple.
His father's private study.
The west wing.
The room that had remained untouched since Enzo Belucchi died.
Dante looked at Nico.
"Get everyone out of the west wing."
"Already doing it."
"And Sophia?"
"Her apartment was empty."
Dante frowned.
"Empty?"
"The front door wasn't forced."
"What about the cameras?"
"Disabled from inside."
Dante looked down at the music box.
"What did the gray-coat man want?"
Lily's face went pale.
"He asked Mommy where she buried the key."
"What key?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
Dante crouched in front of her.
"Lily, I need you to remember exactly what he said."
She stared at the carpet.
"He said, 'Sophia, you promised.'"
Dante felt an unpleasant chill.
Promised what?
And to whom?
Nico moved closer.
"Sir."
Dante turned.
"There was something else at her apartment."
"What?"
"A blood trail."
Lily grabbed Dante's sleeve.
"My mommy's hurt?"
"We don't know."
Nico continued.
"Trail went from the kitchen to the bedroom. Then stopped."
"Blood type?"
"Unknown."
"How much?"
"Enough."
Dante looked at Lily.
The child was still gripping his sleeve.
He had no idea why, but that small hand felt heavier than the loaded gun under his coat.
He turned the music box over.
The hidden compartment fascinated him.
He inspected the interior.
Nothing.
Then he found a small metal slot beneath the base.
It was shaped like a keyhole.
Not for the music box.
For something much smaller.
"Do you know what opens this?"
Lily nodded.
"Mommy did."
"What did she use?"
She reached into her raincoat pocket.
Dante froze.
She pulled out a tiny brass key.
"She told me not to lose it."
Dante took it.
It fit.
He inserted it.
The compartment opened.
Inside was a black memory card.
Nico swore softly.
Dante stared at it.
"This is what she wanted us to find."
Nico's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed almost immediately.
"Say that again."
Silence.
"What do you mean, gone?"
He ended the call.
"South garage camera just came back online."
"And?"
"It's showing Sophia."
Dante's heart stopped.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
He stepped forward.
Nico shook his head.
"There's a problem."
"What?"
"The footage is dated two years ago."
Dante stared at him.
"That's impossible."
Nico pulled out his phone.
On the screen was grainy black-and-white video.
Sophia walked through the south garage.
She was holding the same music box.
She was wearing the same red coat.
And beside her was Lily.
Dante looked at the child.
Lily had gone white.
"Daddy."
Dante turned.
"What?"
"That's not Mommy."
The footage continued.
The girl on screen looked four years old.
The woman beside her was Sophia.
But behind them, reflected faintly in a car window, stood a man.
Gray coat.
Pale face.
One hand on Sophia's shoulder.
The man looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
Dante leaned closer.
He knew that face.
Not from life.
From a photograph buried in his father's study.
The photograph with the missing third man.
Nico whispered.
"Who is that?"
Dante didn't answer.
Because the man on the screen was his father's older brother.
A man Dante's family had said died thirty years ago.
And according to the official Belucchi records, he had never existed.
The video suddenly glitched.
A line of white text appeared.
DANTE, ASK YOUR MOTHER WHY SHE LIED.
Then the screen went black.
Lily started crying.
Dante looked toward the sealed west wing.
May you like
For the first time in nine years, he did not feel like the man controlling the house.
He felt like a man who had just discovered the house had been controlling him.
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