Chapter 3 - The Enemy Inside
They returned to the mansion under armed escort.
Matteo refused to allow Naomi inside until Luca’s men cleared every room manually.
The security failure lasted eleven minutes.
Long enough.
Whoever entered Matteo’s bedroom had disappeared.
The gun remained.
No fingerprints.
The bottle remained.
No useful prints.
But beneath them was a note.
PARKER SHOULD HAVE KEPT QUIET.
Naomi read it twice.
Then folded it.
Her fear transformed into something else.
Anger.
“My father lost everything because of these people.”
Matteo stood beside her.
“Yes.”
“My mother worked two jobs after he died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix thirteen years.”
“No.”
“What does?”
“Truth.”
She looked at him.
“From a Marino?”
“Especially from one.”
The next morning Matteo summoned his uncle Vittorio.
Vittorio arrived at noon wearing a gray suit and the relaxed smile of a man who believed himself untouchable.
He was sixty-two.
Elegant.
Charming.
Dangerous.
His smile vanished when he saw Naomi sitting beside Matteo.
“Well,” Vittorio said. “The help is joining family meetings now?”
Matteo’s voice became ice.
“Sit.”
Vittorio sat.
Matteo placed David Parker’s ledger on the table.
Vittorio did not touch it.
“Where did you get that?”
That was enough.
Naomi saw it.
Recognition.
Fear.
“You knew my father,” she said.
Vittorio looked at her.
“David Parker was a thief.”
“No.”
“Your father stole from us.”
Matteo opened the ledger.
“These accounts prove otherwise.”
Vittorio laughed.
“You believe a dead accountant over family?”
“I believe numbers.”
Vittorio looked at Naomi.
“Do you know what happens to people who dig through graves?”
Naomi’s hands tightened.
Matteo leaned forward.
“Threaten her again.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Or what?”
The room changed.
Even Luca shifted.
Matteo spoke softly.
“You’ve spent your entire life wondering whether I’m capable of becoming my father.”
Vittorio’s smile faded.
“Don’t make me answer that question today.”
He stood.
“You’re destroying family loyalty over a maid.”
Matteo rose too.
“No.”
He looked at Naomi.
“I’m discovering who my family actually is because of one.”
Vittorio left.
That evening Naomi asked Matteo why he had not arrested him.
“Because the ledger proves theft, not poisoning.”
“So we wait?”
“We make him think we’re waiting.”
Matteo had already sent copies to federal investigators through an attorney he trusted.
He was dismantling Vittorio’s protection quietly.
Naomi discovered another truth that evening.
Matteo’s world was not what she had imagined.
It was dangerous, yes.
But the man himself lived almost like a prisoner.
Security outside every door.
Armored vehicles.
Food inspected.
Windows reinforced.
Every friendship evaluated for motive.
Every kindness interpreted as weakness.
“You’re lonely,” Naomi said.
They were sitting in the kitchen at midnight.
Matteo looked offended.
“I have six hundred employees.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I have family.”
“Your uncle tried to poison me.”
“Allegedly.”
“Very comforting.”
He smiled.
Naomi smiled back.
Something shifted.
Then Matteo noticed she was shaking.
“Cold?”
“No.”
Her cup slipped.
He caught it.
Naomi’s eyes widened.
“I feel dizzy.”
Matteo stood immediately.
She had stopped taking the capsules.
So why—
Naomi collapsed against him.
“Luca!”
Samuel arrived quickly.
Blood tests showed another sedative.
Different compound.
Naomi had been drugged again.
This time through food.
Matteo ordered the kitchen sealed.
Every ingredient tested.
The culprit was found in a small carton of cream Naomi used in her coffee.
Only Naomi used that brand.
Someone had replaced it.
That meant the attacker had access even after the lockdown.
Matteo sat beside Naomi until she woke.
Again her hand found his.
This time neither commented.
“I’m tired,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“Not sleepy.”
He understood.
Tired of fear.
Tired of being hunted.
Tired of wondering who wanted her gone.
Matteo squeezed her hand.
“Then we finish it.”
“How?”
“We stop reacting.”
He created a trap.
They publicly announced that Naomi would leave the mansion the following morning.
Privately, Matteo moved her to a secure guest suite and doubled surveillance.
At 2:07 a.m., somebody entered Naomi’s old bedroom.
The cameras caught everything.
Evelyn Grant.
She had returned.
Security surrounded her.
But when Matteo confronted her, Evelyn did not fight.
She cried.
“I had no choice.”
“Who sent you?”
She shook her head.
“He’ll kill my son.”
“Vittorio?”
Evelyn looked toward the camera.
Fear consumed her.
“No.”
Matteo froze.
“Then who?”
Evelyn whispered a name.
Matteo’s expression changed completely.
Naomi saw it from the observation room.
She had never seen him frightened.
Not until then.
The name Evelyn whispered was not Vittorio Marino.
May you like
It belonged to someone Matteo had trusted since childhood.
And that person was already upstairs.
