Chapter 4 - THE RECORDING CAMILLA’S FATHER WANTED DESTROYED
Edmund Ashford arrived with four attorneys.
Enzo brought one.
That irritated him.
People who rely on influence dislike rooms where rules become equal.
Edmund denied knowing anything about Lucia.
Then Enzo played Vittorio’s message.
His face changed.
Not dramatically.
Enough.
Elena watched him.
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know he survived?”
“No.”
Lie?
Maybe.
“Did you know I survived?”
“No.”
Then Enzo asked:
“Did Camilla tell you?”
Edmund paused.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Yes.”
There.
“What did you tell her to do?”
“Nothing.”
Enzo produced call recording? Not yet. Camilla called Lorenzo, not father. But phone logs show afterward she called father for 11 minutes.
Marco recovered exterior audio? Hard.
Better Camilla eventually confessed father told her "get her out before Enzo sees locket." Let's build later.
Edmund looked at Lorenzo.
“You created this.”
Lorenzo laughed bitterly.
“You paid me.”
Old alliance collapsing.
Then Elena placed Bellandi ledger on table.
Edmund said:
“Those acquisitions were legal.”
“Prepared before fire.”
“Contingency agreements.”
“How convenient.”
Then Isabel found something in ledger margin.
Initials:
L.M. → E.A. 10/16
Lucia Marchetti to Edmund Ashford day before fire.
Meeting.
Edmund admitted Lucia confronted him.
She believed Malcolm planned illegal pressure campaign against Bellandi family.
Edmund was thirty at time, working father’s company.
He claimed he told her to stay out.
Next day fire.
Years later Lucia kept investigating.
Then six years ago, before her death from aneurysm? Need not murder. We should avoid serial suspicious deaths. She died in car accident maybe raises. Better stroke natural. But Vittorio hinted "what happened to Lucia" could mean evidence theft, not murder.
Lucia died after a documented stroke.
Natural.
What happened to her investigation?
Edmund stole it.
While she was hospitalized, he bribed an assistant to remove a file from her home office.
Why?
It contained contractor confession.
There.
Not murder.
Cover-up.
Enzo stared.
“You stole from my dying mother.”
Edmund looked away.
“To protect my family.”
Elena almost laughed.
The phrase.
Then contractor confession.
Where now?
Edmund claimed destroyed.
Camilla knew?
“Yes.”
She knew entire Ashford family benefited from Bellandi fire cover-up for years.
Did she know before engagement?
“Yes.”
Did she know Elena might be alive?
Only recently.
How?
Lorenzo recognized old Croft employment file surname? Wait he knew Elena? Maybe agency background showed Matteo Croft’s former identity traces. Better: Camilla hired PI to investigate old Bellandi heirs because merger due diligence flagged unresolved trust. PI found Elena Croft through locket photo on social media? She wore necklace in staff agency ID, AI maybe. Let's keep simple: agency recruitment photo showed necklace; Camilla, aware of crescent symbol, noticed and ordered hire to bring her close so she could confirm identity. Huge twist: Camilla deliberately brought Elena into house, not merely discovered her.
Enzo froze.
“You hired her?”
Camilla's application referral from Ashford office. Yes.
Edmund nodded reluctantly.
“Camilla believed if she brought Elena under observation, she could find the key.”
Elena’s face drained.
“So the job…”
“Was a trap.”
There.
Camilla had arranged placement.
Then planned dismissal once key found.
But did she find key? No.
Humiliation was escalating panic.
Enzo felt disgust.
His engagement had become operation.
Then Camilla entered? She had been waiting elsewhere and demanded speak.
She walked in, no riding crop now.
Enzo looked at her.
“Did you hire Elena?”
“Yes.”
No point lying.
“Did you know who she was?”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because if she was Bellandi, everything we built was at risk.”
“We?”
“Our future.”
“No.”
Enzo’s voice cold.
“Your family’s acquisitions.”
Camilla snapped:
“My family spent nineteen years making those properties profitable.”
Elena answered:
“After taking them from dead people.”
Camilla looked at her.
“You weren’t there.”
“I lived through the fire.”
Silence.
Camilla’s face changed.
For first time, not superiority.
Shame maybe.
Then Enzo asked:
“Did you order her to kneel because she disrespected you?”
Camilla looked down.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I wanted her to quit.”
There.
“Why riding crop?”
“I knew guests would watch.”
“You wanted humiliation.”
“Yes.”
“So she would leave without questions.”
“Yes.”
Enzo removed engagement ring? Camilla wearing. He said:
“The engagement is over.”
Edmund exploded.
“You don’t understand what that does to pending merger.”
Enzo turned.
“That sentence is exactly why.”
Camilla cried.
“You loved me.”
“I did.”
That made it worse.
Love had been real enough.
So was betrayal.
Then Isabel announced second video code found.
Engraved date plus initials inside locket: E+E.
Enzo and Elena inserted.
Vittorio returned onscreen.
He held a signed affidavit.
“The contractor who entered Bellandi estate was not hired by Malcolm Ashford.”
Everyone froze.
Edmund stared.
Vittorio continued:
“He was hired by someone using Marchetti funds.”
Enzo felt cold.
Then name.
Lorenzo Marchetti.
All eyes turned.
Lorenzo collapsed into chair.
“No.”
Vittorio said:
“My son paid contractor to disable exterior security before creditors entered property.”
Not to start fire.
But security disabled allowed whoever did.
Then:
“Lorenzo insists he never ordered arson. I believe him.”
Enzo exhaled.
Then:
“But negligence born from greed still has consequences.”
Lorenzo cried.
Vittorio continued:
“The man who set fire was employed by Malcolm Ashford’s security chief.”
A name.
Graham Pike.
Still alive.
And according to Isabel’s current search—
May you like
working as head of security for Edmund Ashford.
The man tied to fire had remained inside Ashford family for nineteen years.
