Chapter 5 - The Maid's Secret
Dante reached Vittorio's estate before sunset.
The gates were open.
That frightened him more than guards would have.
Inside, Elena sat in the drawing room with Mia.
Neither appeared harmed.
Vittorio stood near the fireplace.
Seventy years old.
Silver-haired.
Calm.
The man had attended Dante's wedding.
He had carried Chiara's coffin.
Dante wanted to tear the room apart.
Instead he looked at Mia.
“You okay, little one?”
She nodded.
“Mr. Vittorio gave me cookies.”
Elena looked ashamed.
“I'm sorry.”
“Why did you come here?”
“Because he told me he knew my husband.”
Dante frowned.
Elena's husband had supposedly died before she joined the household.
Vittorio smiled.
“Tell him.”
Elena reached into her handbag.
She produced a photograph.
Gabriel Russo stood beside a younger man.
Elena pointed.
“My husband, Matteo.”
Dante looked at her.
“Gabriel's son?”
She nodded.
Matteo had disappeared two years earlier after attempting to continue Gabriel's investigation.
Elena believed he was dead.
Then she received a message that morning.
Vittorio claimed Matteo was alive.
“So you brought him the tape?”
“I didn't know Mia had it.”
Dante looked at the child.
Mia reached into her dress pocket.
Nothing.
“I gave it to the old man.”
Vittorio smiled.
Dante turned.
“Play it.”
“No.”
“Then this ends badly.”
Vittorio sighed.
“You still think this is about me.”
He removed the cassette from his pocket.
“I've done terrible things, Dante. But I did not kill Chiara.”
“Play it.”
Vittorio inserted the tape into a player.
Chiara's voice began.
“If Dante hears this, then I need him to know who poured the poison into my drink.”
Everyone stopped breathing.
“I saw the reflection in the dining-room mirror.”
Static cracked.
Then Chiara said:
“It was Lorenzo Valli.”
Dante stared.
The doctor.
The man who signed her death certificate.
The man who had appeared conveniently that morning.
Vittorio stopped the tape.
“Lorenzo wasn't working for me.”
“Who was he working for?”
Vittorio smiled sadly.
“That's the part your wife never discovered.”
A gunshot exploded outside.
Glass shattered.
Vittorio fell.
Elena screamed.
Dante grabbed Mia and pulled her behind the sofa.
Marco fired toward the window.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Dante crawled toward Vittorio.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Who?” Dante demanded.
Vittorio struggled to breathe.
“Your father... trusted him.”
“Who?”
Vittorio tried to answer.
But headlights suddenly flooded the room.
Cars surrounded the estate.
Marco looked outside.
His face tightened.
“Dante.”
Dozens of armed men were approaching.
At their center walked Dr. Lorenzo Valli.
And beside him was someone Dante had never expected to see again.
May you like
His father.
Antonio Moretti.
