Chapter 8 - Salvatore and Gabriel Suspect Something Is Wrong Here
Down in the subterranean security office of the estate, Gabriel tossed a thick manila folder onto the metal desk.
Salvatore Marchetti, older, silver-haired, and smoking a fine Cuban cigar, leaned back in his leather chair.
“Well, Gabriel? Does the Ashford girl pass muster?” Salvatore asked, blowing a ring of blue smoke toward the ceiling.
“She says all the right words, Uncle Sal, but something about her mannerisms feels completely off,” Gabriel grunted.
“She holds her fork differently, she doesn't use her left hand when she gestures, and her stride is too balanced.”
Salvatore narrowed his eyes, tapping the ash from his cigar into a crystal tray on the table.
“Sienna Ashford was raised in country clubs and equestrian camps; she doesn't walk like a girl who grew up carrying heavy baskets.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel replied, tapping a computer screen displaying high-resolution security footage of Maeve in the garden.
“Either the trauma of Elias’s accident humbled her overnight, or that isn't Sienna Ashford walking around upstairs.”
Salvatore stood up slowly, walking over to the monitor to study Maeve’s reflection as she read a book by the fountain.
May you like
“Keep digging into her recent credit card statements, phone logs, and everyone she has spoken to this week.”
“If she’s an imposter planted by a rival family, we need to know before she learns where the vault keys are kept.”
Related Stories
