Chapter 3 - THE MEDICAL FILE
“Vivienne dropped it,” I said, my heart hammering against my ribs. “It was wrapped in her scarf.”
Nico stepped into the light. He didn't look angry, just terribly exhausted. He held out his hand, and I placed the key and the crumpled receipt onto his palm. He read the back of the receipt, his jaw tightening.
“She was looking for Elena’s file,” he murmured, almost to himself.
“Mr. Caruso, I didn't mean to pry,” I said quickly. “I was just cleaning up.”
“Stop calling me Mr. Caruso, Kate. Tonight, you were the only person at that table who protected my daughter.” He looked down at the silver key. “This goes to the private archive room in the basement. I thought I had the only copy.”
“Why would Vivienne want to break in there?”
Nico met my eyes. “Because she didn't just stumble into our lives. She was placed here.”
He walked past me, heading for the kitchen door that led down to the basement. “Come with me.”
I shouldn't have followed him. I was a housemaid. I was supposed to wash the dishes and go to my quarters. But the mention of Lily’s mother—and the safety of the little girl I had come to love—kept my feet moving down the concrete stairs.
The basement archive was a climate-controlled room filled with locked filing cabinets. Nico used the silver key to open the heavy steel door.
He went straight to a red cabinet in the corner, unlocked it, and pulled out a thick manila folder. He set it on the metal table under the harsh fluorescent light and opened it.
I expected to see medical jargon, autopsy reports from a car crash.
Instead, the first page was a toxicology screen.
“Elena didn't die in a crash,” Nico said, his voice completely hollow. “She was poisoned. Slowly, over the course of six months. By the time I realized she wasn't just sick, her organs were failing.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth. “Why did you tell everyone it was a car accident?”
“To protect Lily. And to give me time to find out who did it.” Nico flipped to the next page. “I hired the best private nurses in the city to care for Elena during her final months. One of them disappeared the night Elena died.”
He slid a photograph across the table.
It was an ID badge from a private nursing agency. The name on it was Valerie Vance. But the face—the bright eyes, the sharp cheekbones, the auburn hair—was unmistakable.
It was Vivienne.
“She was here,” I breathed, feeling physically sick. “She killed your wife, changed her name, and then came back years later to marry you?”
“No,” Nico said, shaking his head. “She didn't act alone. She’s a mercenary. Someone paid her to eliminate my wife, and now they sent her back to finish the job by taking my assets through marriage.”
“But how did she get back into your circle? How did she pass background checks?”
Nico reached into the back of the folder. He pulled out a heavy gold bracelet, the links thick and expensive.
“I found this in Vivienne’s purse last week when I was looking for my keys,” Nico said softly. “I recognized it immediately.”
He turned the bracelet over. Etched into the gold was the name Marco.
Marco was Nico’s underboss. The man who had introduced Vivienne to Nico six months ago at a charity gala, claiming she was a wealthy heiress.
“Marco brought her in,” Nico said. “My best friend.”
Before I could process the betrayal, a small, terrified voice echoed from the top of the basement stairs.
“Kate?”
I turned around. Lily was standing at the top of the stairs in her pajamas, clutching a small, framed photograph to her chest.
“Lily, what are you doing out of bed?” I hurried toward the stairs.
May you like
She held out the photograph. It was a picture of me and my older sister, Sarah, taken two years ago, right before Sarah vanished without a trace. I kept it on my bedside table.
“There’s a man,” Lily stammered, her eyes wide with terror. “He’s in your room. He was looking at this.”
