Chapter 4 - The Maid Who Knew Too Much
Maeve couldn't stop staring at the photograph.
Her mother had been alive.
At least after the funeral.
Every memory of that week returned differently.
The closed coffin.
The lawyer insisting identification wasn't possible.
The rushed burial.
Maeve being seventeen and too shattered to question adults.
"She abandoned me."
Dante's voice softened.
"We don't know that."
"She let me bury her."
"We don't know why."
Maeve hated him for being reasonable.
She wanted anger because anger hurt less than grief.
Back at Falcone Manor, they discovered Elena's room emptied.
Only one thing remained.
A note addressed to Maeve.
I promised your mother I would protect you. I failed. Don't trust the man who says he saved her.
Maeve read it aloud.
Luca frowned.
"Hale?"
"Probably," Nico said.
Dante remained silent.
Maeve noticed.
"What aren't you saying?"
"My father."
Salvatore Falcone had allegedly died fifteen years earlier.
But Maeve was learning that death certificates meant very little in this family.
Dante explained that Salvatore had ordered Kathleen to disappear after discovering Hale's betrayal.
Kathleen had escaped with evidence.
Years later, according to what Dante believed, Salvatore died during a warehouse fire.
No body had been recovered.
Maeve rubbed her temples.
"Does anyone in your life die normally?"
Nico considered it.
"Uncle Anthony."
Luca shook his head.
"Boat explosion."
"Right."
Even Maeve laughed.
The moment didn't last.
Security traced Elena's car to an abandoned motel.
They found the vehicle.
No Elena.
Inside the motel room was Maeve's stolen cookbook.
Every page had been photographed.
But the brass key remained taped inside.
"Why leave it?" Maeve asked.
Dante examined the room.
"Because whoever took it already found what they needed."
The recipes contained hundreds of encoded transactions.
Together, they began deciphering them.
Kathleen had documented Hale's laundering network.
But the final pages concerned something else.
Payments made to judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
And one recurring name:
S. Falcone.
Maeve looked at Dante.
"Your father."
Dante's expression became stone.
The records suggested Salvatore hadn't been protecting Kathleen.
He had been working with Hale.
Kathleen had discovered both men were stealing from their own organization.
She had planned to expose them.
Then she'd disappeared.
Maeve's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dante gestured for her not to answer.
She answered.
"Maeve?"
Her heart stopped.
She knew that voice.
Older.
Weaker.
But unmistakable.
"Mom?"
Dante's eyes snapped toward her.
Maeve's knees nearly failed.
"Maeve, listen carefully. You are not safe with the Falcones."
Tears filled Maeve's eyes.
"You're alive."
"I'm sorry."
"You're alive?"
"I can explain everything."
"Then explain!"
"Not on the phone."
Maeve pressed a hand against her mouth.
"Where are you?"
A pause.
Then Kathleen gave an address.
Dante shook his head.
Maeve ignored him.
"Come alone," Kathleen whispered. "And whatever Dante tells you, remember this: his father wasn't the Falcone who betrayed me."
The call ended.
Maeve slowly lowered the phone.
Dante's face had changed.
Because he had heard every word.
And somewhere downstairs, the front door opened.
A guard shouted.
Then a familiar female voice called through the manor.
May you like
"Maeve?"
Her mother had arrived first.
