Chapter 2
Clara Belloro had loved Christmas in a way that annoyed Dominic until he missed it.
She decorated too early.
Bought too many ribbons.
Made the staff hang garland even in rooms nobody used.
She said a dangerous house needed harmless traditions.
Dominic said the house was not dangerous.
Clara looked at him for a long time.
Then changed the subject.
After Elsie was born, Clara began wrapping future Christmas presents.
Dominic thought it was sentimental.
Books for age five.
A music box for age six.
A tiny locket for age seven.
A letter for each year.
She told him:
“If anything ever happens to me, she still gets Christmas from me.”
Dominic hated that sentence.
“What is supposed to happen to you?”
Clara smiled sadly.
“You tell me.”
At the time, he dismissed it as fear.
Clara had been struggling with the Belloro life.
Not with Elsie.
Never with Elsie.
With the men at the gates.
The whispered calls.
The family lawyers.
The charity boards that looked clean until Clara opened the invoices.
Clara was not born into organized crime.
She had been a forensic accountant before marrying Dominic.
She understood numbers.
Geneva understood appearances.
That was why they disliked each other almost immediately.
Geneva ran the Belloro Christmas Foundation, a glamorous charity that delivered gifts to hospitals, shelters, and foster-care programs.
Every December, photographers came.
Donors came.
Politicians came.
Children received presents under chandeliers.
Clara started reviewing the foundation after noticing that some vendor invoices were strangely round.
$90,000.
$120,000.
$250,000.
No detail.
No receipts.
Geneva said:
“Charity requires trust.”
Clara answered:
“Charity requires records.”
Three months later, Clara vanished.
Geneva told Dominic that Clara had run away.
She said Clara had grown unstable.
She said Clara left because she never wanted a child trapped in a Mafia family.
Dominic searched privately first.
That was his first mistake.
His men questioned staff before police did.
Witnesses became afraid.
May you like
Timelines blurred.
By the time law enforcement entered properly, the house had already swallowed the truth.
