Chapter 1
Matteo did not let anyone drag Honora into a back room.
That surprised almost everyone.
Three men near the staircase had already started toward her when Matteo raised one hand. They stopped immediately.
“No one touches her.”
Honora was still on the carpeted landing, one hand against the cheek Matteo had slapped. Posy stood behind two security men below, crying into the sleeve of her cream cardigan.
Matteo descended to his daughter first.
“Look at me.”
Posy did.
“Does anything hurt?”
“My ankle.”
“Your head?”
“No.”
“Neck?”
She shook her head.
He crouched despite the tuxedo.
“You’re going to the hospital.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know.”
Then he looked toward his security chief.
“Call an ambulance. Preserve every camera. Nobody deletes anything.”
The man hesitated.
Even in the Sanzio world, preserving evidence without first asking what it might contain was not a casual instruction.
Matteo’s gaze hardened.
“All of it.”
The man nodded.
Honora laughed from above.
“You’re giving police your casino cameras now?”
“It’s not my casino.”
That silenced part of the room.
Technically, the Belladonna Club belonged to Sanzio Leisure Holdings, controlled by Matteo’s older brother, Luca. Matteo’s notoriety made him poison to formal gaming governance, so he had deliberately remained outside the casino’s licensed management structure.
Everyone in the room knew he still carried power.
But power and title were not the same thing.
Police arrived before the ambulance left.
Matteo gave them the staircase footage and his own statement.
Detective Sarah Cole asked:
“What happened after you caught your daughter?”
“I handed her to security.”
“Then?”
“I walked upstairs and hit Honora Crane.”
“Was she attacking anyone at that point?”
“No.”
“Moving toward your daughter?”
“No.”
“So why did you strike her?”
“Because I was furious.”
Cole wrote it down.
No claim that retaliation became self-defense because Matteo Vescari had an intimidating reputation.
Honora would answer for shoving a child toward marble stairs.
Matteo would answer for his own hand.
At the hospital, Posy was diagnosed with a sprained ankle, bruising along one hip, and a scraped palm. No fracture. No head trauma.
She had been lucky because her father happened to be coming up the staircase.
That sentence stayed with Matteo.
Happened to be.
Posy sat on the examination bed while a child specialist asked what Honora had said before the shove.
“She took my invitation.”
“Why?”
“She said it wasn’t mine anymore.”
“What wasn’t?”
“The casino.”
Matteo looked up.
The specialist continued gently.
“What did you say?”
“I said Uncle Luca invited me.”
“And then?”
“She said Uncle Luca wouldn’t own anything after tonight.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
That was not quite what Posy had said on the staircase.
The specialist asked:
“Did Honora say anything about your father?”
Posy nodded.
“She said Daddy came because he couldn’t stand not being important.”
Matteo almost smiled.
That sounded like Honora.
Then Posy whispered:
“I told her Uncle Luca said Daddy had to stop her.”
Matteo went still.
“When did Luca tell you that?”
“Yesterday.”
“He told you?”
“He called when you were outside.”
Matteo’s stomach tightened.
Luca had apparently spoken to his eight-year-old niece about something he had not yet explained fully to his own brother.
Posy continued.
“He said if Miss Crane said the casino was hers, I should stay away from her.”
That was stranger.
Then Matteo’s attorney entered the room carrying a sealed copy of the Belladonna sale agreement.
“Luca’s missing.”
Matteo looked at him.
“What?”
“Not missing missing. His phone is off. He left the casino before the banquet.”
“Where?”
“No one knows.”
Matteo’s voice became colder.
“And the deal?”
His attorney handed him the folder.
“Was scheduled to close at midnight.”
It was now 9:42 p.m.
Matteo stared at the contract.
Honora had told Posy the casino already belonged to her.
May you like
Luca had sent Matteo to stop the transaction.
And then Luca had disappeared before he could kill his own deal himself.
