Chapter 5 - THE PICTURE WITH THE RED DOOR
The next morning, Emma asked for paper.
Sophia gave her a coloring book.
Emma refused.
“Big paper.”
Sophia sighed.
“Why?”
“Because the house is big.”
Alessandro overheard from the hallway.
He smiled.
“Reasonable.”
He asked a staff member to bring drawing paper.
Emma spread the sheets across the floor.
Then began painting.
At first, the picture looked like a collection of colorful shapes.
A yellow house.
A blue window.
A red door.
Three stick figures.
And something black beside the stairs.
Alessandro crouched beside her.
“What are you drawing?”
Emma pointed.
“This is Mommy.”
“Very nice.”
“This is me.”
“Excellent.”
“This is the shiny bird man.”
Alessandro's expression changed.
He looked at the third figure.
Vincent.
Emma pointed to the red door.
“He went here.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Where is that?”
Emma shrugged.
“The room that smells funny.”
Sophia looked up.
“What room?”
Emma pointed toward the lower hallway.
“The red door downstairs.”
Alessandro stood.
There was no red door in the public areas of the mansion.
But there was a service entrance in the basement painted dark burgundy.
It led to an old wine-storage room.
Nicholas accompanied him downstairs.
The door was locked.
The electronic access log showed several entries made through Vincent's administrator account.
Inside, investigators found a concealed workstation.
A laptop.
Encrypted storage devices.
Copies of financial records.
And a series of photographs.
One photograph showed Alessandro leaving a restaurant.
Another showed Nicholas meeting an attorney.
A third showed Sophia walking Emma to preschool.
Alessandro stared.
The photographs had been taken before Emma painted his face.
Before anyone knew the child had witnessed anything.
Nicholas looked grim.
“Vincent was monitoring the staff.”
Alessandro nodded.
Then noticed something else.
A folder labeled:
PROJECT WINTER.
Inside were documents describing a planned transfer of several Moretti-controlled properties.
The transfer required Alessandro's approval.
But the signature pages had already been prepared.
Alessandro felt cold.
The sedative had not been intended merely to embarrass him.
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Someone had planned to use his incapacitation to steal control of valuable assets.
And Vincent had been preparing the betrayal for months.
