Chapter 6 - The Truth Behind the Fire
Dominic looked around.
Gasoline flowed from small tubes hidden between the wine barrels.
Evelyn had planned everything.
Matteo grabbed Maisie.
Grace screamed.
“Let her go!”
Evelyn aimed at Matteo.
“Put the child down.”
Matteo laughed.
“You won't shoot while I'm holding her.”
Evelyn's expression did not change.
“That assumes I care.”
Dominic believed her.
So did Matteo.
He lowered Maisie slightly.
Dominic moved.
One step.
Evelyn shifted the gun toward him.
“Don't.”
Maisie cried.
“Daddy.”
Dominic forced himself to stop.
Carlo looked around.
“Evelyn, think about this.”
“I've spent twenty years thinking.”
“You burn this place, you destroy the records.”
“I already moved what matters.”
Sofia stared.
“You were the compromised investigator.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Finally.”
Dominic understood.
The federal official who had betrayed Sofia.
Evelyn.
She had manipulated every side.
Carlo.
Matteo.
Grace.
Sofia.
Now she wanted them dead together.
“You sent the photographs,” Dominic said.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make you investigate Grace.”
“The shed?”
“Matteo's idea.”
Matteo sneered.
“You told me Dominic had the card.”
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Gasoline reached the center drain.
Evelyn held a lighter.
Grace whispered, “No.”
Dominic watched Maisie.
She was staring at Bunny in his hand.
He saw her eyes shift.
Not to him.
To the floor.
The red emergency fire pipe running along the wall.
Maisie understood hoses now.
His brave little girl.
Dominic looked at Grace.
Grace followed his gaze.
She saw the valve.
Carlo spoke loudly.
“You don't want the network.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“No?”
“You want revenge.”
That got her attention.
Carlo continued.
“Your husband.”
Sofia looked at him.
Evelyn's smile disappeared.
Carlo said, “He wasn't killed by Sofia.”
“Don't.”
“Matteo killed him.”
Matteo stared.
“What are you doing?”
Carlo looked at Evelyn.
“You spent seventeen years blaming my wife.”
“You signed the order.”
“No.”
Evelyn's hand shook.
Matteo said, “He's lying.”
Carlo reached slowly into his jacket.
Evelyn aimed.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Carlo removed a folded paper.
“Original order.”
He tossed it.
It landed near Evelyn.
She looked down.
Matteo moved.
Dominic moved faster.
He slammed into Matteo.
Maisie fell free.
Grace lunged and grabbed her.
Evelyn fired.
The bullet struck Carlo.
Sofia screamed.
Chaos erupted.
Dominic punched Matteo.
Matteo drove him into a barrel.
Grace ran toward the wall.
Maisie clung to her.
“Mommy!”
“Hold on!”
Grace reached the emergency valve.
Turned it.
Nothing.
“Locked!”
Elena appeared near the stairs.
No one had seen her enter.
She swung a metal wrench into the control box.
Sparks exploded.
The valve released.
Water blasted through ceiling sprinklers.
Evelyn screamed.
Gasoline spread but diluted.
She lit the lighter anyway.
Sofia tackled her.
Both women crashed to the floor.
The lighter flew.
Dominic saw it tumble.
Open flame.
Toward a pool of gasoline.
“No!”
Carlo, bleeding from his shoulder, kicked a metal tray.
The lighter landed in it.
The flame died beneath sprinkler water.
Matteo threw Dominic into a wall.
Dominic hit hard.
Matteo ran toward Grace.
Wrong choice.
Dominic caught him from behind.
Years of anger hit at once.
The shed.
Grace.
Maisie.
His mother.
His childhood.
Dominic slammed Matteo against a barrel.
Matteo laughed through blood.
“You think killing me fixes your family?”
Dominic raised his fist.
Then stopped.
Maisie was watching.
He lowered his hand.
“No.”
He pinned Matteo instead.
“Living long enough to testify might.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
Real ones.
Carlo smiled weakly.
“I called federal agents.”
Dominic stared.
“You trust them now?”
“One.”
The cellar door opened.
Armed federal tactical officers entered.
“Hands!”
Everyone froze.
A woman in an FBI jacket stepped forward.
Elena sighed with relief.
“Agent Morales.”
Evelyn tried to run.
Two agents caught her.
Matteo was handcuffed.
Grace held Maisie.
Dominic crossed the room and took them both into his arms.
Maisie pressed her face against his neck.
“Daddy found Bunny?”
Dominic laughed and cried at the same time.
“Daddy found Bunny.”
Behind them, Sofia knelt beside Carlo.
His wound wasn't fatal.
Dominic watched his parents look at each other after eighteen years apart.
There were no easy reunions in the DeLuca family.
Maybe there never would be.
But everyone was alive.
For tonight, that was enough.
Then Agent Morales approached Dominic.
“We need to discuss the evidence.”
Grace looked at the broken memory card.
“It was destroyed.”
Morales smiled.
“No.”
Sofia looked confused.
Morales pointed toward Bunny.
“The card in the rabbit was never the real evidence.”
Dominic stared.
“What?”
Sofia's face changed.
Carlo slowly looked toward Elena.
Dominic followed his gaze.
Elena stood beside the cellar door.
And for the first time all night, she looked afraid.
May you like
Morales said quietly:
“Elena has the original.”
