Chapter 13 - The Recording Behind the Wall
Russo had disappeared.
Again.
Matteo broke the lock.
The mansion was evacuated.
Every employee was questioned.
Nobody admitted helping Vale.
Gemma began thinking like Leonardo's detective.
Who benefited from access?
Who knew schedules?
Who could enter without attracting attention?
The answer was uncomfortable.
Joseph.
Matteo refused to believe it.
Then Joseph confessed.
Not to working for Vale.
To communicating with him.
Vale had threatened Sofia.
For five years Joseph had fed him harmless information to keep her alive.
“Harmless?” Matteo demanded.
“I never gave him security plans.”
“You gave him access to our lives.”
“I kept your mother alive.”
Again.
Protection through deception.
Leonardo looked exhausted.
Vale had built his entire strategy around one weakness shared by everyone in the house.
They loved by hiding truth.
Gemma changed the game.
“No more secrets.”
She gathered everyone in the sitting room.
Every guard.
Joseph.
Daniel.
Teresa.
Matteo.
Leonardo.
They told each other everything.
Passwords were changed openly.
Hidden passages mapped.
Financial accounts disclosed.
Every camera feed displayed where everyone could see it.
Vale's advantage disappeared.
At 2:17 the next morning, a camera detected movement in the old nursery.
Matteo started toward it.
Leonardo stopped him.
“Together.”
They entered together.
The nursery was empty.
But a section of wall had been opened.
Inside was another recording.
This one belonged to Sofia.
She had made it before disappearing.
She described Adrian Vale.
His obsession.
His threats.
And one crucial detail.
Vale had a congenital heart condition.
He required medication every six hours.
Gemma looked at Matteo.
“That means he can't stay hidden indefinitely.”
Daniel nodded.
“And he needs a pharmacy.”
They traced unusual purchases near the estate.
One location appeared repeatedly.
A private clinic owned by a Ferraro shell corporation Matteo had never known existed.
Vittorio had bought it decades earlier.
They called federal agents.
Vale was there.
But before the arrest team entered, the clinic exploded.
Fire swallowed the building.
Investigators found one body.
Dental records appeared to match Vale.
Matteo did not celebrate.
Leonardo didn't either.
Gemma looked at the report.
Something bothered her.
“Too easy.”
Daniel agreed.
Then Gemma noticed the time of the explosion.
2:17.
Vale wanted them to believe he was dead.
That night, Leonardo found the final chapter of his manuscript printed beside his bed.
He had never written it.
The last page contained one sentence.
May you like
THE MAID DIES FIRST.
Gemma was nowhere in the mansion.
