Chapter 3 - THE UNCLE WHO INTRODUCED CAMILLA
Lorenzo arrived furious.
Not frightened.
That came later.
He entered the library and pointed at Marco.
“You had no authority to trace my calls.”
Enzo stood.
“You spoke to Camilla after she found Elena.”
Lorenzo stopped.
Then looked at Elena.
For one second, something crossed his face.
Recognition.
Not surprise.
Elena saw it too.
“You knew me.”
Lorenzo recovered.
“I knew your mother.”
Wrong answer.
Elena stood.
“I didn’t ask whether you knew my mother.”
Silence.
“You knew me.”
Lorenzo looked away.
Enzo stepped closer.
“How?”
No answer.
Marco placed phone records down.
Camilla had called Lorenzo eight times in previous two weeks.
The first call occurred one day after Elena was hired.
Meaning someone identified her almost immediately.
Lorenzo finally sat.
“You don’t understand what you’re reopening.”
Enzo laughed once.
“Then explain it.”
He did.
Partly.
Nineteen years earlier, Malcolm Ashford approached Lorenzo with a proposition.
The Bellandi estate was collapsing financially.
Matteo had refused investors.
Malcolm wanted land for luxury development corridor.
Lorenzo believed sale would benefit everyone.
Enzo’s grandfather disagreed.
Marchetti family had guaranteed part of Bellandi debt.
If Bellandi defaulted, Marchetti could acquire debt and preserve estate.
Lorenzo thought that was throwing money away.
So he secretly introduced Malcolm to Bellandi creditors.
That gave Ashford pressure.
Then fire happened.
Lorenzo insisted he knew nothing about arson.
Maybe.
But afterward he helped Malcolm finalize acquisitions.
Why?
“To protect Marchetti exposure.”
Again.
Money as justification.
Enzo looked at him.
“You helped them take Elena’s family land while bodies were still being identified.”
Lorenzo snapped:
“Everyone believed they were dead.”
Elena said:
“My father wasn’t.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“He chose to disappear.”
“Because someone burned our house.”
“I didn’t burn anything!”
Maybe true.
Then Enzo asked:
“What key does Camilla want?”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
There.
He knew.
“The old chapel vault.”
Enzo froze.
Marchetti House had private chapel built in 1920s.
Beneath altar was family archive vault sealed after Enzo’s grandfather died.
Enzo had keys.
None matched Elena’s.
Lorenzo explained:
One compartment inside required Bellandi key.
Created when families formed joint trust.
If Elena’s key opened it, contents could establish surviving heir rights.
Camilla knew.
How?
Her father had old copies of covenant.
Why humiliate Elena publicly?
Lorenzo claimed Camilla panicked.
Wanted her fired before Enzo saw necklace.
But security footage suggested more.
Camilla had already ordered agency to terminate Elena after party.
She intended to remove her from estate that night.
The riding crop, accusation, humiliation—
all useful to make dismissal look justified.
Then Enzo asked:
“Why did you introduce Camilla to me?”
Lorenzo stared.
Because an Enzo-Camilla marriage would merge enough voting rights to permanently settle old disputed Bellandi assets inside Ashford-Marchetti holding structure.
There.
Marriage as legal cleanup.
Enzo felt sick.
“You arranged my engagement to bury a nineteen-year-old theft.”
“I introduced you.”
“You spent three years telling me she was perfect.”
“You liked her.”
“I did.”
That was true.
He had chosen Camilla too.
Manipulation did not erase his agency.
Then Elena said:
“Open the vault.”
Everyone went quiet.
Lorenzo stood.
“No.”
Enzo looked at him.
“That sounded like fear.”
“You have no idea what your grandfather put there.”
“Then we should find out.”
They went to chapel.
Only Enzo, Elena, Marco, family attorney Isabel Costa, and eventually Lorenzo under watch.
The old archive door opened.
Inside steel drawers.
One marked with crescent moon.
Elena inserted key.
Nothing.
Then Enzo remembered engraving.
October 17, 2008.
There was numeric dial.
10-17-08.
Click.
The drawer opened.
Inside:
A sealed leather folder.
A videotape.
A small ledger.
And one envelope.
FOR ELENA BELLANDI, IF SHE LIVES
Elena started crying.
Enzo gave envelope.
She opened.
Handwriting:
Enzo’s grandfather, Vittorio Marchetti.
My dear Elena, if you are reading this, then we failed to protect your family.
She sat.
Enzo read over shoulder only when she nodded.
Vittorio wrote that days before fire, Matteo contacted him.
He had discovered Ashford acquisition documents prepared in advance.
He suspected someone intended to force catastrophic default.
Not murder necessarily.
Then:
Lorenzo has been speaking with Malcolm behind my back. I do not know whether my son understands what he has helped create.
Lorenzo went pale.
Then ledger.
Payments from Ashford Group.
To contractor.
To creditor.
To private security firm.
And one recipient:
L. Marchetti Consulting
Lorenzo.
$2.4 million.
Not introduction fee.
Far more.
Enzo looked at uncle.
“You took money.”
Lorenzo whispered:
“Yes.”
Elena stood.
“You sold my family.”
He cried.
“I thought it was land.”
Not lives.
Maybe true.
Then Isabel inserted videotape into converter.
Vittorio appeared.
Older.
Gravely ill.
“If this recording is being viewed, Elena may have returned.”
He looked directly into camera.
“The Bellandi fire was not an accident.”
Everyone froze.
“I cannot prove who set it.”
Important.
“But I can prove who profited before smoke cleared.”
Documents.
Malcolm Ashford.
Lorenzo.
A banker.
Then Vittorio said:
“There is one person I trusted with original fire investigation.”
Enzo leaned closer.
“Who?”
Vittorio held photograph.
A young woman.
Enzo’s mother.
Lucia Marchetti.
Enzo stopped breathing.
His mother had died six years earlier.
Vittorio continued:
“Lucia learned who ordered the contractor to enter Bellandi estate the night of the fire.”
Then video cut.
Not damaged.
Deliberately stopped.
Second file required code.
And written beneath screen:
ASK CAMILLA’S FATHER WHAT HAPPENED TO LUCIA.
Camilla’s father.
Edmund Ashford.
Still alive.
May you like
Suddenly the conspiracy was not only about Elena.
It might also explain why Enzo’s mother spent her final years terrified of something nobody understood.
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