Chapter 4 - The Traitor in the HouseAlessandro stared at Luca.
I blocked the study door.
“You’re walking into a trap.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Luca looked surprised that I was still breathing.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Elena.”
“Enzo sent the photograph because he wants you emotional.”
“My daughter may be alive.”
“Exactly.”
His eyes flashed.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand someone used my child as bait.”
That stopped him.
I lowered my voice.
“We’re connected now whether I like it or not.”
Luca examined the message.
“There’s metadata attached.”
“Location?”
“Old St. Vincent’s Hospital in Queens.”
Alessandro frowned.
“That building closed years ago.”
“Perfect place for a trap,” I said.
He looked at Luca.
“Get the cars.”
“No.”
Both men looked at me.
“The message says alone.”
Alessandro almost smiled.
“You expect me to obey?”
“I expect Enzo to expect you not to.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“She has a point.”
Alessandro gave him a look.
Luca cleared his throat.
“I’ll get the cars.”
Sophia stayed with trusted security while I remained at the mansion.
At least, that was the plan.
Twenty minutes after Alessandro left, the black phone rang.
I answered.
“Elena.”
Enzo knew my name.
“What do you want?”
“You’re smarter than Moretti gives you credit for.”
“Where is Isabella?”
“Closer than he thinks.”
“Why Sophia?”
Silence.
Then:
“Because children open doors adults keep closed.”
“You watched us.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To see whether Moretti had changed.”
“He barely knew Sophia.”
“Men like Alessandro Moretti don’t change because of adults.”
My skin crawled.
“What are you planning?”
“Ask him what happened the night Isabella disappeared.”
The call ended.
At 10:47 p.m., Alessandro returned.
His shirt was stained with blood.
Not his.
“Where’s Isabella?”
“Gone.”
“What happened?”
“Two men were waiting.”
“And?”
“They won’t be waiting anymore.”
I decided not to ask.
He placed something on the table.
A photograph.
It showed Alessandro eleven years earlier carrying a little girl from a car.
Behind him stood Enzo.
On the back:
YOU CHOSE YOUR EMPIRE OVER HER.
“What happened that night?” I asked.
Alessandro stared at the photograph.
Finally, he sat.
“I was supposed to take Isabella to a school performance.”
“You didn’t?”
“There was a meeting.”
“So someone else drove her.”
“Enzo.”
I understood.
“He kidnapped her.”
“I believed so.”
“Why?”
“Her car was found near the river. There was blood inside.”
“Isabella’s?”
“We were told it was.”
“Told by whom?”
“My doctor.”
Luca entered.
“And that doctor disappeared six months later.”
Alessandro looked up.
Luca placed a file on the desk.
“I checked archived records.”
Inside was a laboratory report.
“The blood type didn’t match Isabella.”
Alessandro went still.
“You’re certain?”
“Completely.”
For eleven years, someone had manufactured a death.
“Then Enzo kept her alive,” I said.
“Why?”
Alessandro answered without looking at me.
“To punish me.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A video.
The young woman from the security footage appeared.
She stared directly into the camera.
“My name is Isabella Moretti.”
Alessandro grabbed the phone.
She continued.
“If my father is watching, Enzo lied to me.”
Her voice shook.
“He told me you abandoned me.”
Alessandro’s hand tightened.
“He told me you knew I survived and chose your business instead.”
“That’s a lie,” Alessandro whispered.
Isabella looked over her shoulder.
Then back at the camera.
“I opened the room because Enzo wanted Sophia inside. But I left the necklace because I needed you to understand.”
She leaned closer.
“I remember the butterflies.”
The video suddenly shook.
A door slammed somewhere behind her.
Isabella whispered quickly:
“Don’t trust anyone who was there the night I disappeared.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Luca said, “Boss.”
Alessandro turned.
May you like
Luca looked pale.
“I was there that night.”
