He looked at her.
“You watched me for two weeks because you had already decided I was guilty.
The cameras didn’t protect you from that.”
Luca connected the transmitter to an isolated scanner.
A sequence of encrypted pulses appeared on one monitor, but the identifying details remained buried beneath layers of routing.
After several minutes, Luca leaned closer.
“I know this signature.”
“Volkov?” Dante asked.
Luca nodded.
The name changed the air in the room.
Emma remembered hearing it only once, when Luca had reported that she had no contact with the Volkov organization.
At the time, it had sounded like another line in an investigation she never knew existed.
Now it sounded like a door opening beneath her feet.
“The device activates when it detects vibration,” Luca explained.
“The water damaged its casing.
That made the indicator pulse strongly enough for the camera to catch it.”
Emma looked toward the fake orchid.
“You mean the thing everyone thought was ridiculous exposed the person listening to you.”
Luca almost smiled.
Dante did not.
He stared at Emma with an expression she could not read.
“You noticed the light,” he said.
“I notice things.
That is what happens when a missed detail can cost you a job.”
Dante looked back at the monitors.
On one screen, the recording showed Emma watering the fake orchid with absurd tenderness.
For the first time, he understood that the habit he had privately mocked had saved him.
A soft chirp came from the transmitter.
Luca froze.
The red indicator shifted from a steady pulse to three rapid flashes.
“It’s receiving,” he said.
A distorted voice broke through the isolated speaker.
“You found our little flower.”
Dante’s hand flattened against the desk.
The voice continued, almost amused.
“The maid notices what your soldiers miss.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
Dante reached for the speaker, but Luca stopped him with one hand.
The caller spoke again.
“Keep her close, Marchetti.
Hospitals have so many doors.”
The transmission ended.
Dante turned toward Emma.
She had already taken out her phone.
“Call the hospital,” he ordered Luca.
“I’m calling my mother.”
“You are not going there.”
Emma’s eyes lifted slowly.
“You do not get to say that anymore.”
“This is not about control.”
“It always becomes control when you are afraid.”
Dante stepped closer.
“They know who you are.”
“They know because you investigated me, watched me, paid my mother’s debt, and moved me into your building.
You tied my life to yours before you ever asked what I wanted.”
The accusation landed visibly.
