Chapter 4 – THE SECURITY GUARD’S CONFESSION

The silence in the dining room was deafening.

Marcus, a man built like a linebacker, looked like a cornered animal. He took another step toward the kitchen doors, but two of the dinner guests—Luca’s uncles—stepped in his way, blocking his exit.

Luca walked slowly toward his best friend. He still held his grandfather’s cracked gold watch in his hand.

“You told me the security cameras malfunctioned that night,” Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

Marcus wiped sweat from his forehead. “Luca, listen to me—”

“You told me nobody came through the gates. You looked me in the eyes at my wife’s funeral and swore the perimeter was secure.”

“It was complicated, man!” Marcus blurted out, his voice cracking.

Vanessa lunged toward Marcus.

“Don’t say another word, Marcus! Get out of here! They’re setting us up!”

But Marcus didn’t look at Vanessa. He looked at the cracked watch in Luca’s hand, then at little Mia, who was still hiding behind my apron.

The big man’s shoulders slumped. The fight left him entirely.

“I didn’t know what she was going to do, Luca. I swear to God. If I had known she was going to hurt Catherine, I would never have let her in.”

Vanessa let out a piercing scream.

“SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT!”

Luca didn’t even look at Vanessa. He kept his eyes locked on Marcus.

“Why?” Luca asked. The single word carried the weight of a broken brotherhood. “Why would you betray me? Betray Catherine? I trusted you with my family’s lives.”

Marcus looked down at the marble floor.

“Because Vanessa was blackmailing me.”

Vanessa froze. Her chest heaved rapidly. “He’s lying! He’s trying to save himself!”

Sofia stepped closer. “Blackmailing you with what, Marcus?”

Marcus pulled at his tight collar, looking like he was suffocating.

“Six months before Catherine died, I got into a bad gambling debt. Really bad. The kind of people who threaten to break your legs. I was desperate.”

Luca frowned. “Why didn’t you come to me? I would have paid it. I would have helped you.”

“I was ashamed!” Marcus cried. “You gave me a job, a life, and I threw it away at the poker tables. But Vanessa… she found out.”

I watched Vanessa’s face. The panic was slowly shifting into something colder. Something calculated.

“She offered to pay the debt,” Marcus continued, his voice trembling. “In exchange, I had to let her into the estate whenever she wanted. Unrecorded. No cameras. No logs.”

Teresa spoke from the doorway.

“She was stalking my daughter-in-law.”

Marcus nodded miserably. “She wanted to know Catherine’s schedule. When she took her medication. When the nurse left the room. When you were out of town on business, Luca.”

Luca looked like he had been physically struck.

“You let a predator into my home.”

“I thought she was just a jealous assistant!” Marcus pleaded. “I thought she was just trying to find dirt on Catherine to break you two up! I swear, Luca, I didn’t know she was planning to kill her!”

“But you knew after,” Sofia said sharply.

Marcus closed his eyes. Tears leaked out.

“The night Catherine died… Vanessa came through the back gate. I let her in. Ten minutes later, I heard the nurse screaming for help. I ran inside. Vanessa was running down the back stairs. She shoved past me.”

Marcus pointed a shaking finger at Vanessa.

“She was holding a pillow. And Catherine’s sapphire locket.”

The guests began whispering frantically. Some pulled out their phones.

Vanessa realized the walls were closing in. She stood up perfectly straight, smoothing her red dress.

“Fine,” Vanessa spat, her voice dripping with venom. “You want the truth? Let’s talk about the truth.”

She glared at Luca.

“You act like Catherine was an angel. A saint who was taken too soon.”

Luca stepped toward her. “Do not say her name.”

Vanessa laughed bitterly.

“I didn’t kill her, Luca. I didn’t have to.”

Vanessa reached into the deep neckline of her evening gown. She pulled out a small, folded piece of paper that she had kept hidden against her skin.

“Catherine didn’t die from asthma,” Vanessa said, holding the paper up. “She was poisoned. Slowly. Over months.”

The room gasped.

Elena, the nurse, grabbed her chest. “That’s impossible. Her toxicology report—”

“Was altered,” Vanessa interrupted with a wicked smile. “Because Catherine wasn’t the only one with secrets in this house.”

Vanessa unfolded the paper.

“I found this in Catherine’s desk the night she died. It’s a blackmail letter.”

Vanessa locked eyes with me.

“Catherine was being blackmailed by someone in this very room. Someone who wanted her dead long before I ever stepped foot in this house.”

Vanessa pointed straight at Teresa.

“Ask your precious mother why she bought arsenic three weeks before Catherine’s death.”

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