Chapter 2 - THE ROOM THEY WERE WATCHING
Dominic Bellini made it twenty-eight feet.
That was farther than anyone expected.
He reached the ballroom doors before Marco’s security chief, Anthony DeLuca, caught him by the jacket and drove him into the wall.
The wineglass hit the floor.
Dominic swung once.
Anthony blocked it.
Two Bellini soldiers closed in.
“Get off me!”
Dominic twisted violently.
“Marco! You don’t know what she’s talking about!”
Marco remained beside the staircase.
Sofia stood near him with one hand pressed to the cheek Vivian had slapped.
Marco noticed the red mark.
He noticed everything now.
Or tried to.
His left eye blurred the room into light and movement.
His right did most of the work.
He hated that seventy people could see him compensate.
He hated more that Vivian had known exactly how difficult the stairs were and let him walk toward empty air.
“Bring Dominic back.”
Anthony dragged him toward the center of the ballroom.
Dominic looked furious.
Terrified men often did.
Vivian moved toward Marco.
“Please.”
He raised one finger.
She stopped.
“Do not touch me.”
Her face tightened.
“You honestly believe a maid over me?”
Marco looked toward Sofia.
Young.
Uniform wrinkled from hitting the wall.
Hair partially loose.
She had just risked herself to catch a man twice her size.
Then he looked at Vivian.
Twelve days from becoming his wife.
Perfect dress.
Perfect posture.
A woman who had removed a medical safety rail because it “looked ugly.”
“I believe what I can verify.”
Vivian laughed once.
“Since when?”
That landed.
Marco said nothing.
She realized too late what she had implied.
That he had trusted her without verifying before.
Anthony forced Dominic into a chair.
Marco held up the miniature camera.
“Who receives this?”
Dominic looked at it.
Then at Sofia.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Sofia spoke quietly.
“Yes, you have.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Marco turned toward her.
“What did you see?”
Sofia hesitated.
Seventy people.
Capos.
Spouses.
Political friends.
Men who had known Marco since childhood.
She looked uncomfortable speaking in front of them.
Marco understood.
“Everyone out.”
Vivian stared.
“What?”
Marco raised his voice just enough.
“Family captains stay. Anthony stays. Sofia stays. Everyone else leaves.”
The ballroom emptied quickly.
Nobody complained.
Within four minutes, only twelve people remained.
Marco lowered himself into a chair.
The motion embarrassed him more than it should have.
Sofia noticed.
She moved a lamp away from his injured side without saying anything.
Less glare.
He looked at her.
“Thank you.”
Vivian saw that too.
Her expression darkened.
Marco turned back to Sofia.
“Tell me.”
She swallowed.
“Three days ago, I cleaned Mr. Dominic’s guest room.”
Dominic interrupted.
“She had no permission to search—”
Anthony tightened one hand on his shoulder.
Marco said, “Continue.”
“There was another little black camera behind the alarm clock.”
“Same type?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
Sofia reached into her apron again.
Dominic cursed.
She removed a tiny square of black adhesive.
“I found this stuck to the dust cloth.”
Anthony examined it.
Mounting foam.
Sofia continued.
“I thought it was strange, but I didn’t understand what it was until yesterday, when I found the one in your sleep mask.”
Marco looked at Dominic.
“You had a camera in your room.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Maybe someone put it there to frame me.”
Sofia nodded unexpectedly.
Marco looked at her.
“You agree?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic stared.
She continued.
“But Mr. Dominic’s camera was pointed at his desk.”
“Not the bed?”
“No.”
“What was on the desk?”
Dominic looked away.
Marco noticed.
“Dominic.”
His cousin’s voice hardened.
“Nothing.”
“Then you won’t mind Anthony checking.”
Dominic’s eyes flashed.
“You’re humiliating me because a housekeeper found electronics?”
“No.”
Marco leaned forward.
“I’m humiliating you because you ran.”
Silence.
Dominic looked toward Vivian.
One glance.
Too quick.
But Marco saw it.
So did Sofia.
Vivian folded her arms.
“Maybe he ran because he knows what happens when you’re frightened.”
Marco slowly turned toward her.
“What happens when I’m frightened?”
Vivian realized she had gone too far.
He stood.
Pain flashed behind his left eye.
He did not show it.
“What happens?”
She said nothing.
Marco stepped closer.
“You’ve watched me in my bedroom.”
Her face went pale.
“You’ve watched me take medication.”
No answer.
“You’ve watched me miss a glass because I couldn’t judge the distance.”
Sofia lowered her eyes.
Marco continued.
“You watched me wake up at two in the morning because my eye felt like someone pushed a nail through it.”
Vivian whispered, “Marco—”
“And then this evening you removed the rail.”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“Then what were you trying to do?”
She looked around the room.
No ally offered an answer.
Finally:
“I wanted people to see you walking.”
Marco stared.
“What?”
“The rumors are everywhere.”
Her voice gained strength.
“The Genovese crew thinks you’re permanently blind. The Contis think Dominic is already running the family. Your own captains keep asking when you’re returning.”
“So you removed a safety device.”
“To make you look strong.”
“You nearly put me down a staircase.”
“I thought you knew where the landing ended.”
“I couldn’t see it.”
That sentence came out louder than Marco intended.
Nobody moved.
Marco hated saying it.
Hated admitting the limitation.
Sofia looked at him differently.
Not with pity.
With anger at the person who had exploited it.
Vivian said, “You never tell me what you can see.”
“Because I didn’t want seventy men discussing it.”
“And now they are anyway.”
Marco stared at her.
Something ended quietly between them.
Then Anthony’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Anthony looked at Marco.
“Dominic’s room.”
“What about it?”
“They found a transmitter.”
Dominic stiffened.
Anthony continued.
“Live uplink. Hardwired into the house network.”
Marco looked toward Sofia.
“Where?”
“Behind the desk,” Anthony said.
“Anything else?”
“Laptop is gone.”
Dominic stood abruptly.
Anthony pushed him back down.
“I don’t own a laptop.”
Anthony put the call on speaker.
A guard upstairs said, “Boss, there’s a cable running behind the wall into the old service chase.”
Marco frowned.
“Service chase goes where?”
Sofia answered.
“Downstairs laundry. Then east corridor.”
She cleaned that wing.
She knew.
“Where does it end?”
“The old nursery.”
Marco went still.
Nobody had used the nursery in fifteen years.
It had belonged to Marco’s younger brother, Alessandro.
Alessandro died at sixteen.
The room stayed locked afterward because Marco’s mother could not bear to empty it.
Marco still had the key.
Or thought he did.
“Anthony.”
They moved immediately.
Marco refused assistance until the first hallway turned darker.
Then depth flattened.
He stopped.
Not because he wanted to.
Because the floor pattern disappeared into shadow.
Sofia quietly stepped beside him.
“Three feet to the corner.”
Marco looked at her.
She did not offer her arm.
She simply told him where the wall was.
He appreciated that more.
“Then?”
“Straight hall. No stairs.”
He nodded.
They walked.
Vivian followed despite being told to remain in the ballroom.
Dominic stayed between guards.
The nursery door was locked.
Marco reached into his pocket.
Key.
Still there.
He opened it.
Dust.
Covered furniture.
Old bookshelf.
Baseball trophies.
A model ship Alessandro had never finished.
And one modern object.
A folding table.
Three monitors.
One laptop.
Feeds filled the screens.
Marco’s bedroom.
His office.
Rehabilitation room.
Dining hall.
Front gate.
And the upper gallery where he had almost fallen.
Sofia whispered, “Oh my God.”
One monitor showed archived clips labeled by date.
Marco approached.
Anthony stopped him.
“Let me.”
Marco ignored him.
He leaned close enough to see.
One filename:
VISION TEST — M.B. LEFT EYE FAILURE.
Another:
STAIRS — DEPTH ISSUE.
Another:
MEDICATION SCHEDULE.
His private weakness had been cataloged.
Studied.
Sold.
Marco’s face became unreadable.
Then the final monitor changed automatically.
Incoming call.
No video.
Audio only.
A distorted male voice filled the old nursery.
“Dominic?”
Nobody breathed.
The voice continued.
“You have ten minutes to answer.”
Dominic went white.
Marco turned toward him.
The speaker said:
“If Bellini knows about the cameras, activate Phase Two.”
Marco stared at his cousin.
Dominic whispered, “I don’t know what Phase Two is.”
The voice continued.
“Do not let him reach Dr. Keller.”
Marco’s blood chilled.
Dr. Keller was his eye surgeon.
Vivian looked away.
Marco saw it.
“What does Keller know?”
She said nothing.
Marco grabbed the edge of the table.
“What does my doctor know?”
Dominic suddenly shouted:
“Vivian, tell him!”
Everyone turned.
Her face collapsed.
And Marco understood.
Dominic had not been the center of the conspiracy.
Neither had Vivian.
They were frightened pieces inside something older.
Something already close enough to control his medical care.
Anthony pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling Keller.”
The call rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then someone answered.
No greeting.
Just breathing.
May you like
And far in the background—
A man screaming.
