Chapter 2 - The Family at the Table
By nine o’clock, sixteen people had gathered in the main salon.
The Duca estate had hosted diplomats, presidents, actors, and royal families in that room. Its ceiling was painted with angels. Its walls displayed portraits of men who had built fortunes through ships, iron, land, and fear.
That morning, every chair faced Alessandro.
He stood at the head of the room.
Matteo closed the doors.
Among those present were Vittoria, Alessandro’s younger brother Luca, Luca’s wife Isabella, the family lawyer Renato Conti, the estate physician, the new cook, six members of staff, and three senior guards.
Sophia sat near the far wall with Emma asleep against her shoulder.
She had asked to leave twice.
Both requests had been refused.
Alessandro began without ceremony.
“My coffee was poisoned.”
No one reacted immediately.
Then Isabella gasped.
Luca stood.
“What?”
“The substance was intended to cause respiratory failure.”
Luca looked toward the kitchen corridor.
“Who prepared it?”
Bianca, the cook, began to cry.
“I didn’t poison anyone.”
Alessandro did not look at her.
“The coffee machine was clean. The beans were uncontaminated. The poison was placed directly into my cup.”
Vittoria lifted her chin.
“Your private cup.”
“Yes.”
“Which means the person knew your routine.”
“Yes.”
Luca turned toward the staff.
“Search them.”
“They have already been searched,” Matteo said.
“Then search the rooms.”
“We are.”
Luca looked at Alessandro.
“Why are we all sitting here?”
“Because each person in this room had access to this wing before sunrise.”
Renato Conti adjusted his cuff.
“This is serious, Alessandro, but detaining your own family may create legal complications.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“Then bill me.”
Renato stopped speaking.
Alessandro walked slowly between the chairs.
“The poison was not improvised. It was selected to mimic a medical event. Whoever used it knew my health history.”
The estate physician paled.
“You think I did this?”
“I think you had knowledge.”
“I have treated this family for twenty-three years.”
“That proves access, not loyalty.”
Vittoria struck the floor once with her cane.
“Enough. Interrogate the staff if necessary, but do not insult men who served your father.”
“My father trusted men who robbed him for decades.”
“He also understood respect.”
“He understood obedience.”
The room tightened.
Luca stepped between them.
“This is not helping.”
Alessandro turned to his brother.
“You entered the kitchen at 6:40.”
Luca’s face changed.
“I walked through.”
“Why?”
“I wanted coffee.”
“You never wake before eight.”
“I had a call.”
“With whom?”
“Singapore.”
“Which company?”
Luca hesitated.
“Duca Maritime.”
Alessandro held out his hand.
“Your phone.”
Luca laughed once.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Give it to Matteo.”
“I am your brother.”
“That is why I asked only once.”
The two men stared at one another.
Luca was four years younger, charming where Alessandro was severe, adored by the press and popular with the board. For years, their differences had balanced the family.
Recently, they had begun to divide it.
Alessandro wanted to sell the private security division.
Luca wanted to expand it.
Alessandro wanted full audits of offshore accounts.
Luca called the audits humiliating.
The board had split almost evenly.
At last, Luca handed over the phone.
Matteo examined the call history.
“There was no call to Singapore.”
Isabella looked at her husband.
“Luca?”
He did not answer.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Why were you in the kitchen?”
“I was meeting Renato.”
Renato’s eyes widened.
“Do not involve me.”
“You sent me a message at six thirty.”
“I sent no such message.”
Luca laughed without humor.
“So now my phone has been manipulated.”
“Or you are lying,” Alessandro said.
Vittoria rose with difficulty.
“Stop this.”
Alessandro turned toward her.
“You knew Luca was awake.”
“I knew nothing.”
“You asked the nurse to bring your medication at six fifteen, though you normally take it at eight.”
Vittoria’s expression hardened.
“Are you accusing your mother?”
“I am listing facts.”
“The fact is that this family is losing its dignity.”
“The fact is that someone tried to kill me before breakfast.”
Emma stirred at the raised voices.
Sophia whispered to her and moved toward the door.
One of the guards blocked her.
“Please,” she said. “She should not hear this.”
Alessandro looked over.
“Take her to the library.”
Sophia did not move.
“With whom?”
“Matteo.”
“I want to stay with her.”
“You will.”
He turned to the head of security.
“No one else enters.”
Matteo nodded and led Sophia and Emma away.
Once they were gone, Alessandro faced the group again.
“Search every person’s private rooms.”
Luca folded his arms.
“You have no authority over mine.”
“I own this estate.”
“You inherited it.”
“Which is how ownership generally works.”
Luca’s face flushed.
“You think being chairman makes you untouchable.”
“No. This morning proved otherwise.”
Renato cleared his throat.
“There is another matter.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“What matter?”
“The emergency succession clause.”
Vittoria closed her eyes.
Luca turned sharply.
“What about it?”
Renato spoke carefully.
“If Alessandro dies while the board is in dispute, control of Duca Holdings transfers temporarily to the deputy chairman.”
Luca was deputy chairman.
Every eye moved toward him.
He stood very still.
Isabella whispered, “Luca.”
He looked at Alessandro.
“You cannot believe I would kill you for a title.”
“I believe titles have inspired worse.”
“I am your brother.”
“You keep using that as evidence.”
The doors opened.
A guard entered carrying a clear plastic bag.
Inside was a small glass vial.
“We found this in the staff changing room,” he said.
Bianca stopped breathing.
The guard pointed toward her.
“Inside the cook’s locker.”
Bianca began shaking her head.
“No. No, that is not mine.”
Dr. Moretti examined the vial through the bag.
“The labeling matches the compound in the coffee.”
The room erupted.
Luca demanded the police.
Isabella moved away from the cook.
Renato began speaking rapidly about evidence preservation.
Bianca fell to her knees.
“I did not put that there.”
Alessandro watched her.
She looked terrified.
But terror did not prove innocence.
“Who hired you?” he asked.
“The agency.”
“Which agency?”
“Palazzo Domestic.”
Renato looked up.
“That company was dissolved last year.”
Bianca stared at him.
“What?”
Alessandro’s gaze sharpened.
“Who interviewed you?”
“A woman.”
“Name.”
“She called herself Clara.”
“What did she look like?”
Bianca swallowed.
“Blond hair. Forty, maybe. She wore a red coat.”
Vittoria’s cane slipped slightly against the floor.
Alessandro noticed.
“Mother?”
Vittoria looked away.
“Do you know her?”
“No.”
But Emma’s small voice came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
She had returned with Sophia and Matteo.
In one hand, she held a photograph she had found tucked inside an old library book.
She pointed at the woman standing beside Vittoria in the picture.
“That’s the red lady.”
Vittoria’s face went white.
Alessandro took the photograph.
The woman in the red coat stood beside his mother at a charity gala twelve years earlier.
He knew her.
Everyone in the family did.
Her name was Clara Moretti.
May you like
She was Dr. Moretti’s sister.
And she had been Alessandro’s father’s mistress.
