The crushed rose was gone, but the message remained.
Amara hadn't touched food or sleep. Instead, she paced the villa like a predator caged in her own territory haunted by a smile. Their fathers. Together. Smiling in the photo Luca had sent. A silent bomb dropped in silence.
She'd grown up hearing that the Romanos were enemies. But enemies didn't smile like that. Not unless something darker lived beneath it all.
What else had been a lie?
The question gnawed at her until she found herself standing in front of her mother's untouched vanity. The scent of forgotten perfume lingered in the air like a memory refusing to fade.
Her fingers hesitated over the jewelry box. It was antique, gold-trimmed, and sealed.
She picked the lock.
Inside, among dusty brooches and faded earrings, sat something foreign.
A pendant.
Not flashy, not decorative. Just… wrong.
She held it up to the light. The weight wasn't from gold. It was from something hidden.
With a gentle press on the clasp, the back clicked open.
No photo.
Instead, a tiny chip, tucked inside a velvet lining.
Her stomach dropped.
This wasn't jewelry. It was evidence.
She rushed back to her study, her thoughts racing. What would her mother hide in a pendant, unless she knew she wouldn't live long enough to explain?
The villa was silent, but Amara's pulse was thunder in her ears. She connected the chip to a secure port and began decrypting the files.
Encrypted folders. Foreign accounts. A name embedded in hidden metadata.
Romano.
Her hands curled into fists.
This wasn't just a family rivalry.
This was blood. Betrayal. Business. All wrapped in silence.
At dawn, with the first light cutting through the curtains, Amara called Chiara.
"Pull everything about my mother's death," she said. "Autopsy. Police files. Witnesses. Anything that was hiddenI want it exposed."
Chiara's voice was steady. "Give me a few hours."
Amara ended the call and looked back at the pendant lying open beside her keyboard.
She wasn't chasing shadows anymore.
She had found a key.
And she intended to use it.