Page 59 of Lorenzo

“Good.” He sits back and watches me. “You hired this private investigator to keep Alessio out of prison. She is good, yes?”

“Better than I expected. She's done more in a few days than the police have managed since the arrest.”

Mario studies me. “That is high praise coming from you.”

I don't mince words. “Yes.”

“Then I will leave this decision up to you. Would you be willing to have her split her focus between Alessio and trying to find who may be sabotaging us?”

My answer is immediate. “No.”

He accepts that with a nod. Mario is a father as well. He understands where my priority lies.

“Then we will wait until she has cleared his name and hire her for this,” he says. “If she's as good as you say she is, then she might be the one for the job.”

“She might.”

Mario’s gaze sharpens. “You sound reluctant.”

“I do not know whether we have that much time.”

His fingers tap once against the folder.

“You are angry.”

“My son was arrested for a murder he did not commit, and now people who have taken our money for years are suddenly concerned about their reputations.”

He leans forward and looks me in the eye. “We do what we can in the meantime. To keep this contained and try to find the source ourselves.”

“And if it spreads?”

Mario’s expression hardens. “Then whoever started this will learn what happens when they try to use my nephew to weaken this family.”

Chapter Eight

Donna

Mocha lies beneath my desk with his head resting across my left foot while I work through the public remains of Genevieve Sorel’s life.

There is more of it than I expected.

Most people leave fragments behind. An old address attached to a forgotten account. A job title that no longer exists. Photographs scattered across years without enough context to explain the people standing beside them.

Genevieve has left me an orderly trail that begins years ago and continues almost to the night she died.

I start with the basics.

Full name. Age. Current address. Previous addresses. Employment history. Education. Public records. Social media accounts under her legal name and the variations people usually try when they want a second account to be less obvious.

Everything agrees.

That should make my job easier.

Instead, it bothers me.

I open a new page in my notes and type her name at the top.

GENEVIEVE SOREL.