Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Photograph
Elena stared at the image.
“No.”
The woman was older.
Gray threaded through dark hair.
But Elena knew those eyes.
“Mom?”
The photograph carried that morning's newspaper.
Don was taken to a private hospital.
The bullet had passed through his side without striking anything vital.
He tried to leave two hours later.
Elena physically blocked the door.
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
“You're staying.”
“My father has your mother.”
“And you're bleeding through a hospital gown.”
He looked down.
“That is inconvenient.”
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
Vittorio entered.
His expression killed the argument.
“Anna is alive.”
Elena gripped the bedrail.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Don't lie to me again.”
“I thought she died.”
Vittorio explained the crash.
Two bodies were recovered.
Matteo was identified correctly.
Anna's identification came through dental records.
The same system Vittorio had manipulated years earlier to fake Salvatore's death.
Salvatore had repeated the trick.
“Why keep her alive?” Sofia asked.
Vittorio understood first.
“The missing evidence.”
Anna had hidden more than the ledger.
She had hidden the original ownership documents proving Belladonna assets had been purchased with stolen Rossy Corporation funds.
Without them, Salvatore could control the criminal empire.
With them, authorities could seize nearly everything.
For seven years he had kept Anna alive trying to discover where they were.
Elena remembered the piano.
The safe-deposit box.
The notebook.
Then one phrase from her mother's note.
When the truth becomes safer than silence.
“There was something else,” Elena said.
Don looked at her.
“The note wasn't telling me to find the bank box. It was telling me when to use what was inside.”
She opened Matteo's leather notebook.
The back cover was unusually thick.
Elena tore the lining.
A micro-SD card fell out.
Sofia inserted it into a laptop.
Scanned documents appeared.
Hundreds.
Original contracts.
Transfer authorizations.
Audio recordings.
Photographs.
Everything.
Vittorio whispered, “Anna kept the originals digitally.”
Don looked at Elena.
“Your mother beat him seven years ago.”
“She just needed someone to finish it.”
Elena contacted the federal prosecutor.
This time they handed over everything.
But Elena still wanted her mother.
Salvatore demanded she come alone to an old lake house before sunrise.
Don objected.
So did everyone else.
Elena went anyway.
Not alone.
She wore a wire.
Agents surrounded the property at a distance.
Don, against medical orders, came with them.
“You are terrible at being shot,” Elena told him.
“I lack practice.”
“Let's keep it that way.”
Before she walked toward the house, he caught her hand.
“Elena.”
She turned.
“If anything feels wrong, leave.”
“My mother is inside.”
“I know.”
“I can't leave her.”
“I know that too.”
His thumb moved once across her knuckles.
“Then come back with her.”
Elena entered.
Salvatore waited beside the fireplace.
Anna sat across the room.
Alive.
Elena forgot every plan.
“Mom.”
Anna stood.
“Elena.”
Twenty-five became seventeen.
Elena crossed the room and collapsed into her mother's arms.
Anna held her.
“My baby.”
Elena cried against her shoulder.
“You were alive.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
“I couldn't.”
Salvatore watched them.
“Touching.”
Elena turned.
“You kept her prisoner.”
“I kept her useful.”
Anna stepped in front of Elena.
“Not anymore.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You still don't know where the originals are.”
“I don't need to.”
His smile faded.
Anna looked at Elena.
“You found Matteo's notebook.”
Elena nodded.
Salvatore understood.
For the first time, fear entered his face.
“You gave it to authorities.”
“Yes.”
He pulled a gun.
Don appeared in the doorway.
Salvatore spun.
“You.”
Don stood pale beneath his black coat.
Unarmed.
“It's over.”
“Nothing is over.”
“Your accounts are frozen. Your people are being arrested. Belladonna is finished.”
Salvatore aimed at him.
“You destroyed your family.”
Don looked at Anna.
Then Elena.
Then his father.
“No. You did.”
Salvatore's hand shook.
Don's did not.
“You want to shoot me?” Don said. “Do it.”
“Don,” Elena whispered.
He never looked away from Salvatore.
“But afterward, Elena walks out. Anna walks out. And everything Matteo died protecting still reaches the authorities.”
Salvatore realized the truth.
Killing Don solved nothing.
His empire was already gone.
Sirens approached.
Salvatore lowered the gun.
Then suddenly turned it toward Elena.
Anna screamed.
Don lunged.
The gun fired.
Glass shattered.
Agents stormed inside.
Salvatore was thrown to the floor.
Elena looked at Don.
He was standing.
She looked at Anna.
Standing.
The bullet had missed.
For the first time in seven years, Salvatore Rossy was placed in handcuffs.
As agents led him away, he looked at Don.
“You'll become me eventually.”
Don said nothing.
Elena did.
“No.”
Salvatore looked at her.
She took Don's hand.
“He already chose not to.”
Salvatore disappeared into the police vehicle.
Dawn broke over the lake.
Anna touched Elena's face.
“I watched you grow through photographs.”
Elena's eyes filled again.
“I thought you abandoned me.”
“Never.”
They embraced.
Don turned away to give them privacy.
Then his phone rang.
Marco.
Don answered.
His expression immediately hardened.
“What do you mean?”
Elena looked at him.
“What happened?”
Don listened.
Then he slowly looked toward Anna.
“The federal team searched Salvatore's Chicago property.”
He paused.
“They found a room containing files on every person who helped Matteo.”
Anna went pale.
Don continued listening.
Then his eyes fixed on Elena.
“There was one file marked NEXT.”
Elena's stomach dropped.
“Whose name?”
Don lowered the phone.
“Mine.”
A car engine roared beyond the trees.
Marco shouted through the earpiece.
May you like
“Don, get down!”
And from the road above them, someone fired.
