Chapter 12 - The Trap at Villa Ramos
For the first time since the crash, Diego lost control.
Not publicly.
Not loudly.
But Carlo saw it.
Claudio saw it.
Marco saw it.
Diego stood in Sofia's empty room staring at the forced window while every instinct inside him demanded immediate violence.
“Security footage,” he said.
“Already checking,” Carlo replied.
“Every gate.”
“Yes.”
“Vehicles.”
“Yes.”
“Phones.”
“We're tracing.”
Diego grabbed the back of a chair.
Claudio entered cautiously.
“Diego—”
“Not now.”
“We'll find her.”
“Get out.”
Claudio stopped.
Marco spoke instead.
“This is what Valli wants.”
Diego turned.
Marco continued.
“He wants you angry.”
“He has Sofia.”
“I know.”
“He threatened her because she stayed with me.”
“I know.”
“Then don't tell me to be patient.”
Marco stepped closer.
“I'm telling you to remember who raised me.”
That stopped him.
Marco knew Valli's habits better than anyone.
“What would he do?”
“He won't kill her quickly.”
Claudio looked horrified.
Marco corrected himself.
“He probably won't hurt her at all if she remains useful.”
“Useful for what?”
“To bring you somewhere.”
Diego looked at the mirror message.
Antonio saved Valli's son.
Let's see if I save her.
“This is about the old clinic,” Diego said.
Marco nodded.
“The one in Palermo?”
“Yes.”
Too far.
Valli needed immediacy.
Then Marco remembered something.
“When Antonio moved north, he rebuilt part of the Palermo clinic on this estate.”
Diego stared.
“What?”
“A private recovery building.”
“The east guest house?”
Marco shook his head.
“The abandoned greenhouse.”
Diego's father had converted the original orangery into a small medical facility after his wife's illness.
It had been unused for years.
On the south edge of the estate.
Inside the gates.
Valli never took Sofia away.
They ran.
Carlo wanted armed security.
Diego refused a visible approach.
“If he sees ten men, he panics.”
“And if he has a weapon?”
“He expects me.”
“Then I'm coming.”
“So am I,” Marco said.
Claudio stepped forward too.
Diego looked at him.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't trust you under pressure.”
Claudio accepted the insult.
Then replied quietly, “That's fair.”
Diego hesitated.
“Stay with Carlo.”
For once, Claudio obeyed.
The greenhouse stood among overgrown hedges.
Glass panels reflected the morning sky.
The main door was open.
Inside, old medical curtains hung between rows of unused equipment.
Diego entered first.
No cane.
He ignored the pain.
“Sofia?”
Nothing.
Then her voice:
“Don't come farther.”
Diego stopped.
She sat in a chair at the far end.
Not tied.
Not injured.
Valli stood behind her holding a pistol.
Sofia's face was calm.
Too calm.
Diego knew her well enough now to recognize fear beneath it.
“Let her go.”
Valli smiled.
“You sound like your father.”
Marco entered behind Diego.
Valli's expression changed.
“You brought him.”
“I came myself,” Marco said.
“My son.”
“No.”
Valli flinched.
Marco continued.
“Antonio was my father.”
“Blood isn't fatherhood.”
“No. It isn't.”
Marco's voice hardened.
“You proved that.”
Valli aimed the pistol toward him.
Sofia moved slightly.
“Don't.”
Valli looked down.
She had spoken to him like an exhausted nurse dealing with a difficult patient.
“You've been talking for an hour,” Sofia said. “If you wanted to kill anyone, you would've done it.”
Diego almost smiled.
Even kidnapped, she irritated dangerous men.
Valli pressed the weapon near her shoulder.
“Be quiet.”
“No.”
“Sofia,” Diego warned.
She looked at him.
“I'm tired of everyone telling me when to speak.”
Wrong moment.
Very Sofia.
Valli laughed.
“I understand why you like her.”
Diego's eyes narrowed.
“Leave her out of this.”
“She put herself into it.”
“No. You brought her.”
Valli's expression became bitter.
“Antonio took everything.”
“Your brother-in-law destroyed himself.”
“He stole Francesca.”
There.
The real wound.
Not money.
Not business.
Francesca.
Marco's mother.
“You loved her,” Diego said.
Valli's face changed.
“She chose Antonio.”
“So you raised their son to hate him.”
“He was mine to raise.”
“No,” Marco said. “I was a weapon.”
Valli looked at him.
For a second, grief replaced rage.
Then disappeared.
“I gave you a life.”
“You gave me a lie.”
Valli's hand shook.
Diego stepped forward.
The pistol immediately aimed at him.
“Stop.”
Diego stopped.
Valli smiled.
“Take another step and she dies.”
Sofia's eyes met Diego's.
She moved her left hand slightly.
Pointing down.
A broken piece of glass lay beside her shoe.
Valli had not tied her.
Of course not.
He underestimated the maid.
Everyone did.
Diego started talking.
“You sabotaged my car.”
“Yes.”
“Why not simply kill me afterward?”
“Too easy.”
“You wanted Claudio blamed.”
“Eventually.”
“Cecilia too.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted us to destroy one another.”
“Yes.”
“You forged Fausto's records.”
“Yes.”
“Planted evidence against Marco.”
“Yes.”
Valli's smile widened.
“You finally understand.”
Sofia slowly moved her foot toward the glass shard.
Diego continued.
“And the mechanic?”
“Gone.”
“Dead?”
Valli shrugged.
Diego kept his face blank.
“Carlo?”
“A loose end.”
“You locked him where I'd find him.”
“Yes.”
“And the memory card?”
“Another breadcrumb.”
“You wanted me suspicious of everyone.”
“That wasn't difficult.”
True.
Diego saw his own weakness exposed.
Valli had not created Diego's distrust.
He had only weaponized it.
“Why Sofia?” Diego asked.
Valli looked at her.
“Because she ruined the experiment.”
“How?”
“She stayed.”
Silence.
“Everyone else behaved exactly as expected,” Valli said. “Claudio reached for power. Cecilia reached for money. Your relatives reached for property. Your executives reached for protection.”
His expression hardened.
“But she kept caring for you.”
Sofia finally reached the glass.
“And then,” Valli continued, “you started trusting someone. That made you unpredictable.”
Sofia's hand closed around the shard.
Diego saw it.
Valli didn't.
Diego stepped forward deliberately.
Valli aimed.
Sofia moved.
She slashed the fabric of a hanging medical curtain, not Valli.
The heavy rod dropped.
It struck his arm.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Diego crossed the distance.
He hit Valli once.
Hard.
The pistol fell.
Marco grabbed it.
Sofia moved away.
Carlo and security rushed inside seconds later.
Valli lay on the floor staring upward.
Diego stood over him.
This was the moment Valli wanted.
The moment Diego could prove every story about the Ramos family true.
One order.
One act of revenge.
Instead Diego stepped back.
“Call the police.”
Valli laughed through a split lip.
“Weak.”
Diego looked at him.
“No.”
He took Sofia's trembling hand.
“Finished.”
When police arrived, Valli was alive.
In handcuffs.
And for the first time in generations, a Ramos enemy left the property through the front gate instead of disappearing into family legend.
But the cost of ending the old way was only beginning to surface.
Because Valli had already sent one final file to prosecutors.
May you like
And it contained evidence of crimes Diego himself had committed years before.
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