Chapter 3 - The Man Inside the House
Dante drew a gun.
Marco moved beside him.
Elena pulled Michael behind the sofa.
“Stay with me.”
The hallway remained silent.
Dante approached the closed door.
Marco counted with his fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
They entered.
Empty.
The bathroom was empty too.
Then Marco saw the service panel.
Open.
Someone had escaped through the maintenance corridor.
Dante’s fury was terrifying because it was quiet.
“Seal the building.”
Marco nodded.
“Every floor?”
“Every floor.”
Dante returned to Elena.
She stood beside Michael.
“You’re leaving.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re eight months pregnant.”
“And apparently someone has been photographing me outside my doctor’s office. Sending me somewhere without answers isn’t safer.”
“I can protect you.”
She stared at him.
“You sent me to the guest room because you thought you were protecting me.”
He had no answer.
Michael watched them.
Elena softened her voice.
“We solve this together.”
Dante looked at her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
It was the first time that night he treated her like a partner instead of something fragile.
Marco returned with security logs.
Only four people had internal access sufficient to disable the windows.
Dante.
Marco.
Dante’s uncle Vittorio.
And Dante’s longtime attorney, Adrian Cross.
Sabrina’s father.
Sabrina went pale.
“My father isn’t here.”
Marco checked the tablet.
“He entered the building forty minutes ago.”
Sabrina stared.
“What?”
“He used executive access.”
Dante looked at her.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Marco added, “He hasn’t left.”
Michael moved closer to Elena.
“The ring.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“My father wears one.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
Sabrina stepped back.
“No. You’re not doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“Deciding he’s guilty because a frightened child remembers jewelry.”
Michael whispered, “I remember his face.”
Sabrina looked at him.
The boy began trembling.
Elena put an arm around him.
“Michael doesn’t have to prove anything tonight.”
Dante agreed.
“We find Adrian.”
They searched the penthouse.
No Adrian.
Then security discovered his phone in the private library.
Beside it lay a handwritten note.
DANTE—
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND THE BOY.
Sabrina read it twice.
“That isn’t his handwriting.”
Dante examined it.
“I know.”
Elena noticed the wording.
“Whoever wrote this wants us to blame Adrian.”
Marco nodded.
Dante looked toward Sabrina.
“Your father may be a target too.”
Sabrina immediately called him.
His phone rang on the library table.
Then another phone began ringing.
Not Adrian’s.
It came from inside the wall.
Marco removed a wooden panel.
A cheap burner phone had been taped behind it.
Dante answered.
A woman’s voice said, “Is Michael alive?”
Dante stiffened.
“Maria?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
Michael ran toward the phone.
“Mommy!”
The woman inhaled sharply.
“My baby.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Dante took over.
“Who’s hunting him?”
“You already know.”
“No. I don’t.”
“The same person who killed Luca.”
Dante’s face changed.
“Name him.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s standing close enough to hear you.”
Everyone looked around.
Maria continued.
“Dante, Luca found records before he died. Money moved through shell companies controlled by someone your father trusted.”
“Adrian?”
“No.”
Sabrina exhaled.
“Then who?”
Maria whispered, “The records are hidden where Luca spent his last night.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“The old house.”
“Yes.”
“Why bring Michael here?”
“Because I couldn’t protect him anymore.”
“You nearly got him killed.”
“I didn’t arrange the shooter.”
“Then who did?”
A sound came through the line.
A door opening.
Maria gasped.
“Dante—”
The connection died.
They tried calling back.
Nothing.
Dante immediately ordered men to the Marino family’s abandoned estate outside the city.
Elena insisted on going.
This time he didn’t argue long.
Michael remained in the penthouse under Marco’s protection.
Sabrina came with Elena and Dante.
The old Marino house had been empty for years.
Inside Luca’s former bedroom, they found almost nothing.
Until Elena noticed scratches beneath the desk.
Four numbers.
Sabrina whispered, “April seventeenth.”
Dante stared.
“The day Luca died.”
Elena found a small key taped beneath the drawer.
They searched the room until Dante discovered a concealed safe.
0417 opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
Photographs.
A silver ring.
And a letter addressed to Dante.
His hands shook as he opened it.
Dante,
If you’re reading this, I failed.
Someone inside our family has been stealing from us, but money isn’t the worst part.
He is selling information about our families to our enemies.
Maria is pregnant.
If anything happens to me, protect her and my child.
Do not trust—
The bottom of the letter had been torn away.
The name was missing.
Dante stared at it.
Six years of grief sat behind his eyes.
Elena touched his arm.
“You didn’t fail Luca.”
“I didn’t protect his son.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
She shook her head.
“That’s what whoever did this wants you to believe.”
Sabrina opened the ledger.
“These transactions.”
Dante looked.
Millions moved through companies.
One name appeared repeatedly.
A.M. Holdings.
Sabrina froze.
“What?”
She pointed.
“My father’s initials are Adrian Cross.”
“Not A.M.,” Elena said.
“No.”
Dante stared at the page.
His own initials were D.M.
Luca’s L.M.
Then Elena remembered something.
“Your mother.”
Dante looked at her.
“My mother?”
“What was her name?”
“Alessandra Marino.”
A.M.
Dante went still.
“My mother died twelve years ago.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
All three looked toward the staircase.
They were supposed to be alone.
Dante drew his gun.
Footsteps crossed the second floor.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Then a woman’s voice called from the darkness.
“Dante?”
His face lost all color.
He knew that voice.
The woman stepped into the light.
May you like
And Dante whispered:
“Mother?”
