Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Came Back
Don reached the door before Elena could speak.
“Wait,” she whispered.
He stopped.
Outside, Sofia knocked again.
“Elena, please.”
Don looked at Elena.
“How does she know your name?”
“I've never met her.”
“That was not my question.”
“I don't know.”
Don unlocked the door.
Sofia Bellini stumbled inside.
She was thirty-two, dark-haired, pale, and thinner than the photograph. A healing cut crossed her eyebrow.
She saw Don and recoiled.
“No.”
Don closed the door behind her.
“You expected Elena to be alone?”
Sofia's eyes moved toward the black dossier.
“You opened it.”
Elena stood.
“What is on the last page?”
Sofia shook her head.
“Nothing you want to know.”
Don's voice hardened.
“My brother died on November fourth, 2019. Payments began that day. Your photograph was inside the file. Start talking.”
Sofia looked almost sorry for him.
“That is why Vittorio kept it from you.”
Don went motionless.
Sofia pulled a flash drive from inside her coat.
“Your brother didn't die because your enemies found him.”
Don's face lost color.
“He died because someone inside your family gave them his location.”
Elena watched his hands.
They remained still.
His eyes did not.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You came here without knowing?”
“I came because I know where the answer is.”
Sofia pointed at the dossier.
“The last page is a cipher key. The payments aren't bribes. They're hush money.”
“To whom?”
“The people who cleaned up what happened after Matteo was murdered.”
Don stared at her.
“Why were the secretaries involved?”
“They weren't supposed to be.”
Sofia explained.
The six women had each noticed irregularities while working for Don. One found duplicate invoices. Another discovered security footage had been erased. Another noticed a dead employee receiving monthly payments.
Each asked Vittorio.
Each was removed.
“Removed how?” Elena asked.
“Threatened. Paid. Frightened.”
“And the blood?”
Sofia touched the scar above her eyebrow.
“I refused to leave.”
Don's voice became dangerously soft.
“Did Vittorio do that?”
“No. His security chief did.”
Don reached for his phone.
Sofia grabbed his arm.
“If Vittorio realizes I came back, he'll destroy everything.”
Don looked down at her hand.
She quickly released him.
Elena almost smiled.
Apparently grabbing Don Rossy without permission was contagious.
Sofia inserted the flash drive into Elena’s computer.
Files appeared.
Photographs.
Invoices.
Security logs.
A map of corporate shell companies.
Then one audio file.
Sofia clicked it.
Matteo Rossy’s voice filled the office.
“If you're hearing this, I was right.”
Don sat down.
For the first time Elena saw him look less like a feared executive and more like a man hearing a ghost.
Matteo continued.
“Someone has been moving money through the family companies. I thought it was theft. It isn't. They're financing something bigger.”
Static.
Then:
“I don't trust Vittorio anymore.”
Don closed his eyes.
The recording ended.
Sofia whispered, “There's more.”
The flash drive contained only fragments.
Matteo had apparently discovered an internal conspiracy shortly before his death.
But the files did not prove Vittorio ordered the murder.
They proved he lied afterward.
“Why?” Don asked.
Sofia looked toward the windows.
“Because he may have been protecting you.”
Don laughed without humor.
“By hiding my brother's murderer?”
“Or by hiding the fact that the murderer was someone you would destroy yourself trying to punish.”
Elena studied the ledger.
Something bothered her.
“Where did you get this drive?”
Sofia hesitated.
“Matteo.”
Don stood so fast the chair rolled backward.
“You knew my brother?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Sofia's eyes filled.
“I loved him.”
Silence swallowed the office.
Elena slowly looked at the old photograph again.
Sofia beside Don.
But perhaps she had not been there for Don.
She had been waiting for Matteo.
“We were engaged,” Sofia said. “Secretly.”
Don stared at her.
“My brother told me everything.”
“Not this.”
“He wanted to. Then he discovered the money.”
Sofia's voice cracked.
“He said he couldn't bring me into danger until he knew who was responsible.”
Don turned away.
The anger seemed to drain from him, leaving something heavier.
Seven years of grief rearranged itself in seconds.
Elena suddenly understood why Sofia had taken the secretary position.
“You came back to investigate.”
Sofia nodded.
“I thought the evidence was still here.”
“And the other secretaries?”
“I contacted them. Quietly. I asked what they'd seen.”
Don looked at her sharply.
“So their departures were because of you?”
“Partly. Vittorio discovered someone was investigating. He assumed each secretary knew too much.”
Elena returned to the black dossier.
“Then why am I here?”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Don.
“Why did you hire me?”
“I told you. Your interview interested me.”
“That's not enough.”
Sofia stared at Elena's employee badge.
Then her expression changed.
“What?”
Sofia stepped closer.
“Elena Ward.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother's name?”
Elena frowned.
“Why?”
“What was her maiden name?”
“Moretti.”
Don turned.
Sofia went pale.
“Elena, your mother worked here.”
“No.”
“She did.”
“My mother was a bookkeeper for a restaurant group.”
“Rossy Hospitality.”
Elena's stomach tightened.
“That doesn't mean anything.”
Sofia opened another encrypted directory.
A list appeared.
MATTEO ROSSY.
SOFIA BELLINI.
ANNA MORETTI.
Don read the third name.
“Your mother knew Matteo.”
Elena shook her head.
“My mother died when I was seventeen.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Sofia looked at Don.
“What year?”
Elena answered.
“2019.”
Nobody spoke.
“What month?” Don asked.
Elena already knew why he was asking.
Her voice barely worked.
“November.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
Don asked the final question.
“What day?”
Elena looked at the handwritten number.
11-04-19.
“No.”
Her knees weakened.
“No, that's impossible.”
She had been told her mother was driving home after working late.
A truck crossed the center line.
Instant death.
Nothing suspicious.
Nothing criminal.
Nothing connected to Don Rossy.
Elena had spent seven years believing it.
Don pulled up a chair.
“Sit.”
“I don't want to sit.”
“Elena.”
“My mother wasn't involved with you.”
“I didn't say she was.”
“She wasn't mafia.”
“Neither was Matteo.”
That stopped her.
Don crouched in front of Elena.
“My brother wanted the family legitimate. So did I.”
“Your reputation says otherwise.”
“My reputation keeps worse men from testing whether the stories are true.”
Sofia spoke quietly.
“Matteo and Anna were auditing the same accounts.”
Elena stared at her.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because after they died, Vittorio buried everything.”
Elena felt anger replace shock.
She opened the black dossier and flipped through every page.
The last sheet looked blank except for a grid of numbers.
Cipher key.
Sofia had said it unlocked the payments.
Elena photographed it.
Don noticed.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure nobody can make this disappear again.”
His expression softened.
“Good.”
They worked until sunset.
The cipher revealed eighteen shell companies.
Three were controlled by Vittorio.
Seven led nowhere.
Eight connected to a corporation called Belladonna Holdings.
Don did not recognize it.
Sofia did.
Her face drained.
“What?”
“Belladonna was Matteo's private code word.”
“For what?”
“For the person he feared most.”
Don leaned closer.
A password field appeared.
Sofia tried Matteo’s birthday.
Wrong.
His mother's name.
Wrong.
Her own name.
Wrong.
Elena stared at the date.
11-04-19.
“Try my mother's name.”
Sofia typed ANNA.
Access granted.
A single video appeared.
Timestamp: November 4, 2019, 8:41 p.m.
Don pressed play.
Matteo appeared on screen beside Elena’s mother.
Anna Moretti looked exactly as Elena remembered.
Alive.
Afraid.
Matteo leaned toward the camera.
“If anything happens to us tonight, Don needs to know the truth.”
Someone pounded on a door behind them.
Anna turned.
Matteo whispered a name.
The video cut out before they heard it.
Elena stared at the frozen frame.
Then her phone vibrated.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Elena and Don inside the office.
Taken minutes ago.
From somewhere nearby.
Underneath were six words.
YOU FOUND WHAT YOUR MOTHER FOUND.
May you like
Another message arrived.
THIS TIME, DON DIES FIRST.
