Chapter 3 - Uncle Victor Comes Calling
Clara refused to speak to Dominic for two days.
She spoke to Isabella.
She tolerated Enzo.
Dominic received silence.
On the third morning, he entered carrying coffee.
Clara looked at it.
“Bribery?”
“Peace offering.”
“Poison?”
“If I wanted you dead, I’d choose something less expensive.”
She took the cup.
“That might be the nicest thing you’ve said.”
Dominic sat.
“I owe you an apology.”
Clara nearly dropped the coffee.
“Can someone record this?”
“I investigated you.”
“I noticed.”
“I treated you like a suspect.”
“You noticed that too?”
He ignored the sarcasm.
“You saved my mother. I should have started there.”
Clara studied him.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because trusting people gets them killed.”
“And distrusting everyone?”
Dominic looked at her.
“That usually just gets me hated.”
“Seems effective.”
His mouth almost moved into a smile.
Then Enzo burst inside.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“Victor Costa is downstairs.”
Clara froze.
Dominic stood.
“Why?”
“He says he wants his niece.”
---
Victor Costa entered surrounded by four men.
He was elegant, silver-haired and smiling.
Clara immediately disliked him.
He looked at her as though inspecting property.
“Elena’s daughter.”
Clara’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“You’re Victor?”
“Your uncle.”
“I don’t have an uncle.”
His smile disappeared.
“Your mother poisoned you against us.”
“My mother never mentioned you.”
That hurt him more.
Dominic noticed.
Victor stepped closer.
“You belong with your family.”
Clara laughed.
“You arranged for me to work at a ballroom where someone started shooting.”
Victor’s face remained calm.
“I arranged your shift because I wanted you to see the Rossis.”
“Why?”
“Because they murdered your grandfather.”
Dominic’s voice cut across the room.
“Careful.”
Victor looked at him.
“Tell her.”
Clara turned toward Dominic.
“Is that true?”
Dominic answered without hesitation.
“My father killed Antonio Costa twenty-six years ago.”
Clara went silent.
Victor smiled.
“You see?”
“Why?”
Dominic answered.
“Antonio ordered the murder of two Rossi children.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
“That is a lie.”
“Then prove it.”
Clara raised her voice.
“Enough!”
Both men stopped.
She looked at Victor.
“You wanted me there because you thought I’d hate them?”
“I wanted you to understand who they were.”
“So your solution was bullets?”
“The shooting was never supposed to hit you.”
Clara stared.
Dominic became very still.
Victor realized his mistake.
Clara whispered, “You knew.”
“Clara—”
“You knew there would be shooting.”
Victor stepped forward.
Dominic moved between them.
“Conversation over.”
“She is my blood.”
Dominic’s eyes turned cold.
“She is not your property.”
Victor smiled.
“Neither is she yours.”
Dominic glanced at Clara.
“No. She isn’t.”
For the first time, Clara looked at him differently.
Victor left.
At the door, he turned.
“Ask yourself something, Clara. Why did your mother run from the Rossis?”
Clara answered quietly.
“Maybe she was running from you.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Then he walked out.
---
Enzo found the final piece that night.
A recorded message Elena Evans had left with an attorney shortly before her death.
Clara sat beside Isabella while Dominic pressed play.
Elena’s voice filled the room.
“If Clara ever learns who I was, tell her I left because Victor wanted revenge more than he wanted family.”
Clara covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“Antonio Costa and Carlo Rossi destroyed each other. Victor inherited the hatred. I refused to let my daughter inherit it too.”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“Victor once told me that if he could make a Costa save a Rossi, then kill one afterward, he could humiliate both families.”
Dominic looked at Enzo.
“The gala.”
Enzo nodded.
Clara whispered, “He put me there deliberately.”
“Yes.”
“And the shooter?”
“Was ordered to target Isabella after you had spent the evening serving her table.”
Clara understood.
Victor had expected fear.
Confusion.
Perhaps resentment.
Instead, Clara had protected Isabella.
She looked at Dominic.
“My sacrifice wasn’t his trap.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice softened.
May you like
“You ruined his trap.”
---
