Chapter 3 - The Letter That Was Never Delivered
The gun was already aimed at us.
I knew it before anyone moved.
Before Luca reached inside his jacket.
Before Giovanni stepped forward.
Before Shadow released the low warning growl that came from deep in his chest.
I knew because the man holding it wasn't nervous.
Nervous men shook.
Nervous men talked too much.
Nervous men tried to prove they were dangerous.
This man simply stood there.
Calm.
Patient.
Like he had been waiting six years for this exact moment.
The alley suddenly felt smaller.
The walls felt closer.
The air felt heavier.
Isabella grabbed Shadow's collar.
"Alessandro, listen to me."
I didn't take my eyes off the man.
"Who is he?"
Her silence answered before her words did.
She knew him.
That was worse.
The man stepped closer into the light.
He was older than me.
Maybe late fifties.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
A face that looked ordinary until you noticed the eyes.
Cold.
Empty.
The eyes of someone who had spent years watching other people lose.
"Six years," he said.
His voice was quiet.
"Six years, Alessandro."
Luca moved beside me.
"How does he know your name?"
I didn't answer.
Because I was asking myself the same question.
The man lifted the photograph in his hand.
Even from a distance, I could see it.
A picture of Isabella.
Not a recent picture.
An old one.
From before she disappeared.
"She should have stayed gone," the man said.
Isabella's fingers tightened around Shadow's collar.
"You were never supposed to find her."
My blood went cold.
Not because of the threat.
Because of the certainty.
This wasn't a man searching for Isabella.
This was a man who had been responsible for hiding her.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The man smiled slightly.
"Someone who cleaned up a mistake."
The words hung between us.
A mistake.
That's what Isabella had been?
A mistake?
My anger moved faster than my thoughts.
I stepped forward.
Luca immediately grabbed my arm.
Not to stop me.
To remind me.
A man like me didn't survive by acting on emotion.
But Isabella saw it.
She saw the anger.
She saw the pain.
And she whispered the words that stopped me.
"Alessandro... don't let him make you lose control."
Six years.
Six years without hearing her voice.
And somehow, in one sentence, she still knew exactly how to reach me.
The man noticed.
His smile disappeared.
"You see?"
He looked at Isabella.
"That's why you were dangerous."
I stared at him.
"What did you do?"
The man tilted his head.
"Ask her."
I looked at Isabella.
She didn't look away.
That scared me more than anything.
Because Isabella never avoided difficult conversations.
Not with me.
Not with anyone.
But now...
Now she looked like someone carrying a truth too heavy to hold.
"I didn't tell you because I was trying to protect you."
My jaw tightened.
"Protect me from what?"
She looked at the envelope in my hand.
"From the people closest to you."
The alley went silent.
Luca's expression changed.
"What are you saying?"
Isabella looked at him.
"I'm saying someone inside Alessandro's organization helped fake my death."
Nobody spoke.
The accusation was too big.
Too impossible.
My organization was built on loyalty.
Every person around me had been tested.
Every person around me had earned their place.
But then again...
Six years ago, I had believed Isabella was dead.
I had believed a lot of things.
The man with the gun laughed quietly.
"You still don't understand."
He looked at me.
"You think the enemy was outside your door."
He raised the photograph.
"But the enemy was sitting at your table."
A sharp pain moved through my chest.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Because suddenly every strange thing from six years ago started appearing again.
The unanswered phone calls.
The missing security footage.
The witness who changed his story.
The driver who disappeared.
The investigation that ended too quickly.
At the time, I thought it was because someone wanted Isabella gone.
Now I wondered if someone wanted me to believe she was gone.
The man stepped backward.
"We have to leave."
Isabella immediately grabbed my sleeve.
"No."
I looked at her.
"He knows too much."
Her eyes filled with fear.
"That's exactly what he wants."
The man turned.
And then something happened that changed everything.
Shadow moved.
The dog ran toward the man.
Not attacking.
Running past him.
Straight toward the street.
The man looked surprised for the first time.
Because he didn't expect the dog to move.
Shadow stopped near a parked black vehicle.
He barked.
Once.
Twice.
Then he looked back at Isabella.
She went pale.
"No..."
I looked at her.
"What?"
She didn't answer.
The man with the gun did.
"She didn't tell you about the second message."
My eyes returned to him.
"What message?"
Isabella closed her eyes.
A mistake.
A tiny movement.
But I saw it.
She had been hiding something.
The man smiled.
"Of course she didn't."
He looked at Isabella.
"You always did care too much about him."
I stepped toward her.
"What message?"
She didn't speak.
I lowered my voice.
"Isabella."
The way I said her name made her look at me.
Not as a mafia boss.
Not as a man demanding answers.
As the person she used to love.
And that hurt her.
"I received a message three days before the accident."
My heart stopped.
"What message?"
Her voice became barely a whisper.
"It said..."
She looked toward Shadow.
"...that someone was going to kill you next."
Everything went quiet.
The city noise disappeared.
The cars.
The distant voices.
Everything.
Because suddenly the story changed.
Isabella wasn't the target.
She was the warning.
Someone had wanted me to lose her.
Someone had wanted me angry.
Broken.
Distracted.
And for six years, I had been exactly that.
The man with the gun began walking away.
Luca noticed.
"He's leaving."
I didn't move.
Because I was looking at Isabella.
At the woman I had mourned.
The woman standing alive in front of me.
The woman who had known someone wanted me dead.
"And you let me bury you?" I asked.
The pain on her face was worse than anger.
"I tried to come back."
"Then why didn't you?"
She looked at the envelope.
"Because every person who tried to help me disappeared."
The words landed slowly.
One by one.
Like bullets.
I looked at Luca.
Then Giovanni.
Then the empty street.
For the first time in years, I didn't know who I could trust.
Isabella reached for my hand.
A simple gesture.
The same gesture she used to make when she wanted me to stop fighting.
But before her fingers touched mine...
A phone rang.
Not mine.
Not Luca's.
Not Giovanni's.
The sound came from inside the torn leather collar around Shadow's neck.
Everyone froze.
The dog stood perfectly still.
Waiting.
I slowly reached down.
The collar had a hidden compartment.
Inside was a small device.
A phone.
Old.
Damaged.
But still working.
The screen lit up.
One new message.
From an unknown number.
I opened it.
May you like
And saw a photograph that made Isabella cover her mouth in horror.
Because the picture showed someone who was supposed to be dead too.
