Chapter 4 - The Maid Who Knew Too Much
Camilla did not want the Falcone empire anymore. She wanted to destroy every person Matteo might choose over her, and Elena’s son was the easiest way to break him.
Matteo reached the security room and found the steel door open.
Elena and Luca were gone.
A single black envelope lay on the desk.
Inside was an address and a photograph of Luca sitting in the back of a vehicle, fear visible in his young face.
Below the image, Camilla had written:
Bring the original Rossi files to Pier 19 before midnight. Come alone, or your nephew enters the ocean before you do.
Elena’s scarf lay on the floor, stained with blood.
Sofia entered behind Matteo with Margaret.
“No,” Sofia whispered.
Matteo picked up the photograph with a hand that did not tremble.
“He took the toy car,” Margaret said.
“What?”
She pointed at the image. Luca still held the silver toy Matteo had given him.
Matteo remembered the car contained a tiny location tracker. He had placed it inside because Elena once complained that Luca constantly lost his favorite toys.
He activated the tracking application on an old phone.
The signal moved east.
“They haven’t reached the pier,” he said.
Sofia studied the route. “They’re taking the service road along the coast.”
Matteo opened a weapons cabinet.
“You cannot go alone,” Sofia said.
“That is exactly what Camilla expects me to do.”
“She also expects you to care more about Luca than yourself.”
“She is correct.”
Sofia caught his arm. “And what happens when she kills you after receiving the files?”
Matteo looked at her hand upon him. “Then Damian controls the empire.”
“You still trust him?”
“No. But he has less reason to harm Elena now.”
“That is not a plan.”
“It is the only one available.”
Sofia stepped in front of him. “You told me loyalty is proven by what someone risks when they have nothing to gain. Let me help.”
“You have already risked enough.”
“That decision belongs to me.”
Their eyes held.
Matteo was accustomed to obedience purchased through fear. Sofia gave him defiance born from courage, and he discovered it was far more difficult to resist.
“Fine,” he said. “But you remain behind me.”
“I have noticed that your definition of partnership is very specific.”
They took an armored vehicle hidden inside the underground garage. Margaret remained at the estate to contact the surviving loyal guards.
As Matteo drove through the storm, Sofia examined the Rossi documents.
One file contained employee records from the estate.
Her name appeared inside.
Sofia Bennett—daughter of Margaret Bennett and Thomas Vale.
She stared at the page.
“My father’s name was Bennett.”
“Apparently not.”
“He died when I was six.”
Matteo glanced toward her.
The record included a photograph of Thomas Vale, once a financial investigator for Matteo’s father.
Sofia’s father had helped uncover Vittorio Rossi’s conspiracy.
Three weeks after Matteo’s father disappeared, Thomas Vale was killed in what police called a robbery.
Sofia’s face became pale.
“My mother lied to me.”
“She may have been protecting you.”
“From whom?”
“From my world.”
She turned to the rain-streaked window. “It found me anyway.”
The location signal stopped near an abandoned coastal property several miles before the pier.
Matteo slowed the vehicle.
“Camilla changed cars.”
They found the first vehicle empty. Blood marked the rear seat, but it was not Luca’s. A dead guard lay behind the wheel.
Damian stood beneath a nearby tree, pressing one hand against his wounded shoulder.
Matteo aimed through the window.
Damian raised his empty hand.
“If I intended to shoot you, I would have chosen better lighting.”
Matteo exited.
Sofia followed with her pistol raised.
Damian looked at her. “The maid.”
“Her name is Sofia.”
Something in Matteo’s tone made Damian notice her differently.
“Elena and the boy?” Matteo asked.
“Camilla moved them to Pier 19. I attempted to stop the convoy.”
“You failed.”
“I was shot.”
“I noticed.”
Damian looked at the files in Sofia’s hand.
“So it is true.”
“Vittorio killed both our fathers,” Matteo said.
Damian’s expression hardened. “Camilla admitted enough before shooting me. She said my father was a useful fool.”
“You nearly became the same.”
Damian accepted the insult.
“What now?”
“You tell me how many men are at the pier.”
“Approximately fifteen. Camilla hired mercenaries from Boston. She also has explosives beneath the warehouse.”
“She plans to destroy the evidence.”
“And all of us.”
Sofia noticed Damian’s wound bleeding heavily. She tore a strip from the lining of her apron and tied it around his shoulder.
He looked surprised.
“Why help me?”
“Because Matteo still sees you as family, even though he is too angry to admit it.”
Matteo looked away.
Damian gave a weak laugh. “She is observant.”
“She notices what powerful men ignore,” Matteo said.
They devised a plan.
Damian would approach the pier openly, pretending he had captured Matteo. Sofia would use an old maintenance tunnel running beneath the warehouse to reach Elena and Luca. Matteo would remain concealed until Camilla exposed herself.
“You’re sending her into the tunnel alone?” Damian asked.
Sofia answered before Matteo could. “I know servants’ passages better than either of you.”
The three reached the warehouse shortly before midnight.
Waves crashed against the pier. Rain swept sideways beneath the floodlights. Armed men surrounded the building.
Damian marched Matteo through the main entrance with a pistol against his back. Matteo’s hands were loosely bound.
Camilla waited near the open loading bay.
Elena sat tied to a chair. Luca was held near the edge of the pier by a guard.
Camilla wore a long black coat over her evening dress. Her beauty seemed sharper in the cold light.
“I knew betrayal would bring you back to me,” she told Damian.
He pushed Matteo forward.
“I want my empire,” Damian said.
Camilla smiled. “You can have what remains.”
Matteo held up the folder. “Release them first.”
Camilla approached.
“You once told me you would burn New York before allowing anyone to take me from you.”
“I was younger.”
“You told me six months ago.”
“I have aged considerably.”
Her expression tightened.
“You loved me.”
“I loved the woman you pretended to be.”
For the first time, real emotion crossed Camilla’s face.
“Do you think the maid loves you?” she asked. “She met you tonight.”
“She risked her life before knowing whether I deserved it.”
“And that makes her better than me?”
“It makes her real.”
Camilla slapped him.
Damian’s men shifted nervously.
Beneath the warehouse, Sofia crawled through freezing water toward a rusted ladder. She reached the platform behind Elena and silently cut her restraints.
Elena turned, startled.
Sofia placed a finger against her lips.
“Where is Luca?” Elena whispered.
Sofia pointed toward the loading bay.
Matteo continued distracting Camilla.
“Your father destroyed our families,” he said.
“My father taught me that power is inherited only by those willing to take it.”
“He also taught you to become incapable of love.”
Camilla’s eyes filled with fury.
She aimed her pistol at Elena’s empty chair and realized Sofia had freed her.
“Where is she?”
At that instant, the warehouse lights exploded.
Margaret and the surviving Falcone guards had arrived outside, cutting the power and attacking the mercenaries.
Gunfire erupted.
Damian turned his weapon against Camilla’s men.
Matteo broke the loose restraints and charged toward Luca.
The guard holding the boy fired.
Matteo felt a bullet tear through his side but continued forward. He struck the man and pulled Luca away from the edge.
“Uncle Matteo!”
“I promised you a baseball game.”
Matteo carried him behind a shipping container.
Sofia reached Elena, but Camilla appeared from the darkness and grabbed her by the hair.
She pressed a gun against Sofia’s head.
“Matteo!” Camilla screamed.
The gunfire gradually stopped.
Matteo emerged, one hand pressed against his bleeding side.
Camilla dragged Sofia toward the open pier.
“You choose,” she said. “The maid or your empire.”
Sofia met Matteo’s eyes.
“Do not give her anything,” she said.
Camilla struck her.
Matteo placed his pistol on the ground.
“The empire is yours.”
Damian stared at him.
Camilla laughed. “You would surrender everything for a servant?”
Matteo stepped closer.
“No. I would surrender it for the woman who saved my family.”
Sofia’s eyes filled with tears.
Camilla’s finger tightened on the trigger.
A small silver toy car rolled across the wet concrete and struck her shoe.
She looked down.
Luca stood behind a container, having pushed it toward her.
The distraction lasted less than a second.
It was enough.
Sofia drove her elbow backward.
May you like
Matteo lunged.
The gun fired.
