Chapter 2 - The Ghost of Elena
The silence in the study was broken only by the crackle of the dying fire and the ragged, shallow wheeze from Lily’s chest.
"Leo... listen to me," Victoria choked out, taking an unsteady step backward until her spine hit the carved mantelpiece. "That recording is an artificial fabrication. In the age of digital manipulation, anyone can clone a voice. Beatrice is working for our commercial rivals in New Jersey! She was planted here to fracture this family before the port merger!"
Leo did not argue. He did not raise his voice.
He reached into his breast pocket and produced a sleek black satellite phone, tapping the speed-dial with his thumb.
"Mateo," Leo spoke into the receiver. "Bring Dr. Vance and the tactical unit up from the gatehouse. Seal the west wing. Notify the Port Authority Police that all private vessels docked at the Rossi marine basin are grounded under federal executive order."
Victoria lunged toward the desk, her manicured nails clawing at the mahogany wood. "You cannot do this! I am the widow of Don Antonio Rossi! I hold forty percent of the voting proxies on the board of directors! If you lay a hand on me, the council will strip you of your chairmanship before the opening bell on Wall Street!"
"The council answers to the man who holds the shipping deeds, Victoria," Leo said, rising from his chair with Lily secured against his chest. "And you haven't held a deed in this house since my father took his last breath."
The heavy double doors of the study swung open.
Dr. Sarah Vance, the chief pediatric pulmonologist from Manhattan Presbyterian, strode into the room carrying an emergency medical kit, flanked by Mateo Rossi and two armed private security operatives in dark suits.
Dr. Vance did not look at Victoria. She knelt beside Leo, placing a digital pulse oximeter on Lily’s small index finger while preparing a high-dose albuterol and budesonide nebulizer.
"Oxygen saturation is eighty-six percent, Leo," Dr. Vance reported, her voice tight with clinical urgency. "She is in acute bronchospasm with marked intercostal retractions. We need to administer continuous bronchodilators and initiate IV methylprednisolone immediately. If she had remained in that cellar another fifteen minutes, her airway would have completely closed."
Leo looked at Beatrice Harris, who stood quietly near the terminal. "Beatrice. Guide Dr. Vance to the master suite. Stay with my daughter. If anyone other than Dr. Vance approaches that room, Mateo has orders to shoot them on sight."
Beatrice nodded, stepping forward to gently take Lily from Leo’s arms, following Dr. Vance out through the reinforced private corridor.
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Once the heavy oak door clicked shut, Leo turned back to Victoria. The paternal tenderness in his frame vanished entirely, replaced by the terrifying, cold granite of a mob sovereign whose family had been marked for slaughter.
"Now, Victoria," Leo said, stepping across the shattered glass. "Let's talk about the night Elena died on Route 9."
