Chapter 4 - The Price of a Secret
Antonio locked down the estate before sunrise.
Steel gates closed.
Security doubled.
Every employee was searched.
Every delivery was canceled.
Elena watched men carrying weapons move through the halls and understood for the first time that the rumors surrounding her employer had not been exaggerated.
She grabbed Mia’s coat.
“We’re leaving.”
Antonio blocked the doorway.
“No.”
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Someone called me demanding your daughter.”
“That is exactly why we are leaving.”
“They already know she exists.”
Elena stepped closer.
“You listen to me. I brought her here because I was desperate for a paycheck. That was my mistake. But she is not part of your world.”
“She became part of it the moment that toy entered this house.”
“No. Your enemies made her part of it.”
Antonio absorbed the accusation.
Because she was right.
He hated that she was right.
“I will protect her.”
“Like you protected your son?”
Silence.
Elena immediately regretted it.
Antonio’s face became empty.
Not angry.
Worse.
She whispered, “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No.”
He moved aside.
“You should have.”
Elena reached the door.
Antonio spoke behind her.
“If you leave through that gate, there is a good chance whoever called me will follow you.”
She stopped.
“I can assign men.”
“And what happens when your men start shooting near my child?”
Antonio had no answer.
Mia appeared from behind the sofa holding Biscuit.
“Why everybody mad?”
Elena crouched.
“We’re not mad, sweetheart.”
Mia looked at Antonio.
“You mad.”
Antonio slowly knelt.
“Maybe a little.”
“Your heart still sad?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Antonio looked at the three-year-old.
“Yes.”
Mia considered this.
“Doctor says hugs.”
Then she wrapped both arms around his neck.
Every armed man in the entrance hall looked away.
Antonio remained frozen.
Then, slowly, one tattooed hand rested against her back.
For the first time since Lorenzo died, Antonio held a child.
It hurt more than a bullet ever had.
And somehow less.
When Mia released him, Antonio stood.
“Elena, give me forty-eight hours.”
“For what?”
“To find out why your husband died.”
“And your son?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“If I can make it safe, you leave.”
She looked at him.
“You promise?”
Antonio’s eyes shifted toward Mia.
Promises had once destroyed him.
“I promise.”
The flash drive from Daniel’s box was encrypted.
Antonio summoned Marco Bell, an accountant who had spent twelve years quietly cleaning the Moretti organization’s financial disasters.
Marco examined the files.
“Whoever made this wanted insurance.”
“Can you open it?”
“Eventually.”
“You have three hours.”
Marco glanced up.
“Then I should stop talking.”
While he worked, Antonio studied the photographs.
Damen.
Costa.
Trucks.
Pier warehouses.
A judge.
Two police officers.
One photograph showed Sofia standing near Daniel Rossi.
Antonio stared.
The picture had been taken three years after Lorenzo died.
Two years before Daniel’s death.
Meaning they had known one another.
Elena entered.
When she saw the photograph, she stopped.
“That’s Daniel.”
“You recognize the woman?”
“No.”
“Lorenzo’s mother.”
Elena slowly sat.
“Why was my husband meeting your ex-wife?”
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
“Where is she?”
Antonio hesitated.
“California, last I knew.”
“You haven’t spoken?”
“Not in four years.”
Elena stared at him as if trying to understand how two people could lose a child and then lose each other so completely.
“Call her.”
Antonio looked away.
“Antonio.”
It was the first time Elena had used his first name.
He noticed.
“So you can face men who want to kill you,” she said, “but not your son's mother?”
Antonio picked up his phone.
The old number was disconnected.
Rosa remembered Sofia’s sister lived in Connecticut.
An hour later, Antonio found a current number.
He called.
A woman answered after five rings.
“Hello?”
Antonio stopped breathing.
Sofia.
Five years of silence lived between them.
“It’s me.”
The other end became quiet.
Then:
“Antonio?”
“Yes.”
“How did you—”
“I opened Lorenzo’s room.”
Sofia inhaled sharply.
“You found the letter.”
“Yes.”
“Then you finally know.”
“Not everything.”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Antonio’s grip tightened.
“When?”
“Three days after the funeral.”
“I remember those days.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice broke.
“You were surrounded by Damen and twenty armed men. You wanted blood. I told you I thought the crash was deliberate.”
“You told me grief was making you suspicious.”
“Because Damen was standing behind you.”
Antonio closed his eyes.
Sofia continued.
“I became afraid of you too.”
“Of me?”
“Of what you would become if I gave you a name without proof.”
“Daniel Rossi.”
Silence.
Then Sofia whispered, “Where did you hear that name?”
Antonio looked at Elena.
“His widow works in my house.”
“Oh God.”
“And his daughter has Lorenzo’s stethoscope.”
Sofia began crying.
“Listen to me. Get them out.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel found the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one Damen killed our son to hide.”
The lights went out.
Every lamp in the mansion died simultaneously.
Security alarms began screaming.
Antonio turned.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Elena screamed Mia’s name.
May you like
And from somewhere inside the darkened house came a child’s frightened cry.
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