Chapter 5 - The Price of Silence
Vittorio aimed directly at Naomi.
Matteo stepped in front of her.
“Move,” Vittorio said.
“No.”
“This has nothing to do with you anymore.”
“It became my business when you entered my house with a gun.”
Vittorio laughed.
“It was always your business. You were simply too arrogant to notice.”
Luca moved subtly toward the wall.
Vittorio noticed.
“Don’t.”
Luca stopped.
Naomi could hear her heartbeat.
Vittorio demanded the archive password.
Naomi refused.
He moved the gun toward Matteo.
“Then he dies.”
Naomi looked at Matteo.
He shook his head.
“Don’t.”
She understood something.
Vittorio needed her alive.
Otherwise he would already have shot her.
“You don’t know the password,” she said.
Vittorio smiled.
“That’s why you’re useful.”
“And after I give it to you?”
“You disappear.”
Matteo’s eyes became lethal.
Vittorio laughed again.
“You see? This is your weakness, nephew. Your father had the same disease. He cared about people.”
“Terrible flaw.”
“It killed him.”
Matteo froze.
“What did you say?”
Vittorio realized too late.
Naomi saw it.
Matteo took one step forward.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
Vittorio said nothing.
“Did he?”
Silence.
Then alarms exploded through the mansion.
Luca moved.
Matteo struck Vittorio’s gun arm.
The weapon fired into the ceiling.
Naomi dropped behind the desk.
Security rushed in.
Within seconds Vittorio was pinned against the floor.
Nobody had been shot.
Matteo stood over his uncle.
“What happened to my father?”
Vittorio smiled from the floor.
“Ask Dane.”
Federal authorities arrived less than an hour later.
This time Matteo bypassed every attorney connected to the family and contacted an independent investigative unit.
The evidence was copied.
Secured.
Distributed.
Vittorio was arrested.
But Charles Dane remained missing.
And so did the answer about Alessandro Marino’s death.
For Naomi, another question mattered more.
Her father’s name.
The records proved David Parker had not stolen anything.
The original accusation had been fabricated.
Matteo called a press conference.
Naomi refused to attend.
“I don’t want cameras.”
“Then there won’t be cameras on you.”
“You’re going to expose your family.”
“I’m going to expose the truth.”
“Your companies could suffer.”
“They should, if they were built on lies.”
The next morning Matteo publicly cleared David Parker’s name.
Marino Development acknowledged that Parker had uncovered internal fraud and had been falsely accused.
The company established compensation for his surviving family.
Naomi watched from another room.
When Matteo spoke her father’s name, her knees nearly failed again.
Not from poison.
From grief.
“He deserved better,” Matteo said before the cameras.
Naomi cried.
Afterward Matteo found her alone.
“He would have liked you,” she said.
“You don’t know that.”
“He hated arrogant men.”
Matteo almost smiled.
“So he would have hated me.”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Naomi looked at him.
“Maybe less.”
The silence between them became different.
Warm.
Dangerous in another way.
Matteo touched her cheek.
Slowly enough that she could move away.
She didn’t.
“Naomi.”
“Yes?”
His phone rang.
The moment broke.
Luca.
They had found Dane.
Or rather, Dane had contacted them.
He wanted immunity.
In exchange, he would reveal everything about Alessandro’s death.
And he wanted Naomi present.
“No,” Matteo said immediately.
Naomi folded her arms.
“Yes.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
“Then stop pretending I’m part of this.”
“You are the person I’m trying to protect.”
“I spent years being treated like I was too weak to decide things for myself.”
“I don’t think you’re weak.”
“Then prove it.”
Matteo stared at her.
Two hours later they entered a federal safe location.
Dane sat behind a table.
He looked exhausted.
“I didn’t kill Alessandro,” he said.
“Who did?”
“Vittorio.”
Matteo’s expression did not change.
Dane explained that Alessandro had planned to turn over evidence against his brother.
Vittorio arranged for medication to be altered.
A heart condition did the rest.
The death appeared natural.
Matteo’s hands tightened.
Naomi quietly placed her hand over his.
He looked down.
The same gesture.
The same hand.
This time he was the one who needed it.
Dane noticed.
“That’s why Vittorio feared her.”
“Why?”
“Because David Parker documented the method.”
Naomi felt sick.
Her father had known Vittorio was capable of murder.
Perhaps that was why David had spent his final years afraid.
Dane agreed to testify.
Vittorio would face charges far beyond financial crimes.
When they returned to the mansion that night, Matteo stood alone on the balcony.
Naomi joined him.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She appreciated the answer.
“My father spent years carrying shame that wasn’t his,” she said.
“Mine spent years carrying secrets he should have exposed.”
“They both made mistakes.”
“Yes.”
“But we’re not them.”
Matteo looked at her.
“No.”
Naomi touched his hand.
He turned it over and intertwined their fingers.
Neither spoke.
Then Matteo’s phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown sender.
He opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Naomi asleep in her staff bedroom.
Taken months before she had collapsed.
May you like
Below it were six words.
VITTORIO WAS NEVER THE ONE WATCHING HER.
