Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The voice from the hallway was impossible.
Not because Gabriel Falcone had never heard it before.
Because he had.
Years ago.
In a place where that voice should have disappeared forever.
The library doors remained open.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Even the guards holding their weapons seemed frozen between orders and fear.
Gabriel stared toward the entrance.
His fingers tightened around the edge of the blanket.
“Matteo.”
He said the name again.
This time louder.
But nobody answered.
The hallway remained empty.
Carmine immediately moved toward the door.
“Stay back.”
Two guards followed him.
Their footsteps echoed across the marble floor.
But when they reached the hallway, there was nothing.
No person.
No shadow.
No movement.
Only the old mansion lights flickering above them.
Carmine returned seconds later.
His expression was darker.
“Someone was there.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You saw him?”
“No.”
“Then why do you believe it?”
Carmine looked toward the hallway.
“Because the security cameras just went offline.”
That sentence changed everything.
Gabriel knew his estate.
Every camera.
Every entrance.
Every blind spot.
The Falcone mansion was not protected because Gabriel was paranoid.
It was protected because men like him did not get second chances.
And someone had just walked through his security system like they owned the place.
Dr. Cole stepped away from the medical equipment.
“Your body cannot handle stress right now.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Who was Matteo?”
The question came from Sadi.
Quiet.
Almost hesitant.
But everyone heard it.
Carmine looked at her.
The expression on his face changed immediately.
Not anger.
Recognition.
“You know that name?”
Sadi shook her head.
“No.”
But her reaction had already answered.
Gabriel noticed.
He noticed everything.
“You do.”
Sadi looked down.
“My mother wrote it.”
The room became silent again.
Gabriel stared at her.
“Where?”
“In her notebook.”
“What notebook?”
“The one she left behind.”
Carmine stepped closer.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
Sadi looked at him.
“Because I didn’t know it mattered.”
“You didn’t know a name connected to a fake surgeon, a murder attempt, and a contaminated medical supply mattered?”
Sadi’s face hardened slightly.
“I didn’t know Gabriel Falcone was going to be poisoned.”
Nobody expected that answer.
Not from a maid.
Not from someone who had spent months cleaning rooms where powerful people made decisions about other people’s lives.
Gabriel watched her carefully.
She was not trying to impress him.
She was angry.
And that interested him.
Because most people around Gabriel were afraid to be angry.
“Bring me the notebook,” Gabriel said.
Sadi hesitated.
“It’s at my apartment.”
“Send someone.”
“No.”
The word came quickly.
Everyone looked at her.
Sadi realized what she had done.
She had refused Gabriel Falcone.
But instead of apologizing, she continued.
“If someone really wanted to hide this information, they already know where it is.”
Carmine narrowed his eyes.
“You think your apartment is being watched?”
“I think my mother spent years writing things people wanted hidden.”
Gabriel looked at Carmine.
“Take two men.”
Carmine nodded.
Then Gabriel added:
“Take Sadi.”
That surprised everyone.
Especially her.
“Me?”
“You know where everything is.”
“I’m just a maid.”
Gabriel looked directly at her.
“No.”
A pause.
“You’re the only person in this room who noticed I was being murdered.”
Nobody argued.
Forty minutes later, Gabriel’s private security team arrived at Sadi’s small apartment building.
It was nothing like the Falcone estate.
No marble floors.
No guards.
No expensive furniture.
Just a narrow hallway with old paint peeling from the walls and a broken light above the stairs.
Sadi walked ahead slowly.
She looked uncomfortable.
Not because she was embarrassed.
Because she knew something was wrong.
Carmine noticed.
“You feel something?”
Sadi stopped.
“My door was locked.”
Carmine looked at the apartment.
“It still is.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“I always lock it twice.”
One guard checked the handle.
The door opened.
Everyone immediately reached for their weapons.
Inside, the apartment was dark.
Too dark.
Carmine entered first.
The room was small.
A couch.
A kitchen table.
A few shelves.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Until Sadi saw the table.
Her mother’s old notebook was gone.
She rushed forward.
“No.”
Carmine watched her.
“What?”
“She kept it here.”
“Where?”
“In the drawer.”
The drawer was open.
Empty.
Sadi touched the inside.
Her hand trembled.
Someone had been there.
Recently.
Carmine searched the room.
“Nothing else is missing?”
Sadi looked around.
Her eyes moved slowly.
Then stopped.
“My mother’s sewing box.”
“What about it?”
“She never let anyone touch it.”
Carmine opened a cabinet.
The box was gone.
Sadi closed her eyes.
Because suddenly she understood.
They were not looking for the notebook.
They were looking for what was hidden inside it.
A few minutes later, Gabriel received a video call from Carmine.
He answered immediately.
“What did you find?”
“Someone broke in.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“What was taken?”
Sadi appeared on the screen.
“My mother’s notebook.”
“And?”
She looked at the camera.
“The sewing box.”
Gabriel became still.
“Why would someone steal a sewing box?”
Sadi did not answer immediately.
Because she had never told anyone the truth.
Not even after her mother died.
The sewing box was not special because of what it contained.
It was special because of what was underneath it.
A hidden compartment.
A place where her mother kept the things she believed could get someone killed.
Gabriel noticed her silence.
“Sadi.”
She looked at him.
“My mother told me never to open it.”
“Why?”
“Because she said if someone ever found out what was inside…”
She stopped.
Gabriel waited.
“What?”
Sadi whispered:
“They would come after me.”
The call went silent.
Then Gabriel spoke.
“Carmine.”
“Yes?”
“Bring her back.”
Sadi looked surprised.
“What about the apartment?”
“Leave it.”
“Why?”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“Because whoever entered already knew we would find it.”
Carmine understood.
It was not a break-in.
It was a message.
They wanted them to know someone had been there.
They wanted them to know they were watching.
As the security team prepared to leave, Sadi noticed something near the floor.
A small piece of black thread.
She picked it up.
Her face changed.
Because it was not ordinary thread.
It was the same material from Gabriel’s stitches.
But there was something attached to it.
A tiny piece of paper.
Only three words were written.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Sadi stopped breathing.
She knew that handwriting.
She had seen it thousands of times.
The note said:
“Trust no Falcone.”
She looked up slowly.
Because behind the handwriting was a second message.
A message hidden beneath the paper.
A name.
One she had never expected to see.
And when Gabriel saw it through the phone screen, his expression changed completely.
May you like
Because the name belonged to the person he thought had died ten years ago…
The person standing outside the apartment door was already waiting.
