Chapter 5 - The Queen of Betrayal
The bullet struck Matteo high in the chest, spinning him onto the rain-soaked pier. Sofia screamed his name as Camilla raised the pistol again.
Damian fired first.
His bullet struck Camilla’s weapon, knocking it into the ocean.
Sofia rushed to Matteo and pressed both hands against the wound. Blood spread beneath her fingers.
“Stay with me.”
Matteo’s eyes opened slightly. “You issue many orders for a maid.”
Her tears fell onto his face. “Then live long enough to fire me.”
Camilla ran toward a waiting speedboat.
Damian started after her, but Matteo caught his wrist.
“Let her go.”
“She’ll disappear.”
“No. She’ll return for the files.”
Elena reached them with Luca.
“Matteo!”
“The bullet missed the heart,” Damian said after examining the wound. “But he is losing blood.”
Falcone guards carried Matteo into an armored vehicle. Sofia remained beside him during the drive to a private clinic, refusing to release his hand.
The doctor operated for three hours.
Sofia waited in a small corridor with Elena, Luca, Margaret, and Damian. No one spoke much. The empire outside was already reacting to rumors that Matteo had returned from the dead and survived another attack.
At sunrise, the doctor announced Matteo would live.
Sofia closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
Elena embraced her.
“You saved him.”
“He saved all of us.”
“That is what he does when he cares. He simply pretends it is strategy.”
Damian sat across the corridor, his wounded shoulder bandaged.
“What happens to me?” he asked Elena.
“That depends on Matteo.”
“I betrayed him.”
“Yes.”
“I almost killed him.”
“Yes.”
“You could attempt to make me feel slightly less terrible.”
“I could. I choose not to.”
Matteo regained consciousness that afternoon.
The first person he asked for was Sofia.
She entered his room still wearing the torn maid uniform, though someone had given her a clean coat. Matteo looked pale but alert.
“You survived,” she said.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am deciding whether to strike you.”
“The doctor may object.”
“I will ask him to wait outside.”
Matteo’s expression softened.
He noticed dried blood beneath her fingernails.
“You stayed.”
“You were unconscious.”
“That has never stopped people from leaving.”
The simple sentence exposed more than he intended.
Sofia sat beside the bed.
“My father worked for yours.”
“I saw.”
“My mother told me the truth while you were in surgery. My father discovered the Rossi accounts. He intended to testify, but Vittorio’s men killed him before he could.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She brought us to the estate because Antonio promised your family would protect us.”
Matteo looked away. “And instead, my world nearly killed both of you.”
“You did not create every evil connected to your name.”
“No. I only inherited most of it.”
Sofia studied him. “Perhaps inheritance is not destiny.”
He looked back at her.
The distance between them seemed suddenly smaller.
Before either could speak, Damian entered.
Sofia stood.
“I’ll leave.”
“No,” Matteo said. “Stay.”
Damian heard the significance.
He placed a phone upon the bed.
“We found Camilla.”
“Where?”
“At her father’s Manhattan hotel.”
“Vittorio?”
“Also there. They’re holding a meeting tonight with every family willing to challenge us. They intend to announce that you are critically wounded and no longer capable of leading.”
“Technically accurate.”
“They have also placed a price on Sofia.”
Matteo’s expression changed instantly.
“How much?”
“Five million.”
Sofia raised her eyebrows. “I had no idea domestic work offered such advancement.”
Matteo ignored the joke.
“You go into protection immediately.”
“No.”
“That was not a request.”
“And I am no longer your employee.”
“Since when?”
“Since I decided I dislike being ordered around by wounded men.”
Damian almost smiled.
Matteo glared at him. “Leave.”
“I deserved that.”
After Damian departed, Sofia folded her arms.
“You cannot hide me forever.”
“I can hide you until Vittorio is dead.”
“And how do you plan to accomplish that from a hospital bed?”
Matteo removed the medical monitor from his finger.
Sofia stared. “You cannot be serious.”
“Camilla believes I cannot lead.”
“You were shot less than twelve hours ago.”
“Then she will not expect me.”
He attempted to stand and nearly collapsed.
Sofia caught him.
For a moment, her arms were around his chest and his face was near hers.
“You are the most stubborn man I have ever met,” she whispered.
“You have met Damian.”
“Damian accepts evidence.”
Matteo’s hand settled at her waist.
Neither moved.
Then Sofia slowly stepped back.
“You need a better plan.”
They created one.
That evening, Vittorio Rossi gathered more than forty influential men inside the ballroom of his Manhattan hotel. Camilla stood beside him wearing white, presenting herself not as a defeated fiancée but as the rightful heir to the Falcone empire.
Vittorio announced that Matteo’s injuries had left him incapable of leadership.
Several men agreed to transfer their loyalty.
Then the ballroom screens turned on.
Video footage from the Falcone study appeared, showing Camilla and Damian discussing the attempted assassination. Audio followed of Vittorio confessing to arranging the deaths of Matteo’s father and Thomas Vale.
The room erupted.
Camilla looked toward the control booth.
Sofia sat inside with Margaret, operating the broadcast system.
Damian entered the ballroom from one side.
Elena appeared from the other, accompanied by Falcone attorneys carrying authenticated records.
Finally, the main doors opened.
Matteo walked in.
His face was pale, and a concealed brace supported his side, but his black suit was immaculate. Every voice stopped.
Men moved away from Vittorio as though betrayal were contagious.
Matteo approached the stage.
“I apologize for missing my own funeral.”
No one laughed.
Vittorio drew a pistol.
Damian aimed first.
Camilla stepped between them.
“Wait.”
She looked at Matteo.
“You can still end this. Marry me. Unite the families. No one else needs to die.”
Matteo stared at the woman he once intended to make his wife.
“You never wanted a husband.”
“I wanted an equal.”
“You wanted a throne.”
“And the maid wants nothing?”
Matteo glanced toward the control booth.
Sofia stood behind the glass.
“She wanted me alive,” he said.
Camilla’s expression broke.
Vittorio seized his daughter and pressed his pistol against her side.
“Then she is useless.”
He fired toward Matteo.
Damian pushed Matteo aside and returned fire.
Vittorio collapsed.
Camilla stared down at her father, shocked that he had used her as a shield.
Police sirens surrounded the hotel.
Elena had contacted federal investigators and provided the Rossi records before the meeting. Agents entered the ballroom, arresting Vittorio’s surviving men and the leaders tied to the conspiracy.
Camilla attempted to escape through the service corridor.
Sofia waited near the door.
The two women faced each other.
“You think he will choose you?” Camilla asked. “You are a distraction created by danger.”
Sofia did not step aside.
“Maybe. But I never needed him to become less so I could feel powerful.”
Camilla struck her.
Sofia struck back.
Camilla fell against the wall as federal agents entered and placed her in handcuffs.
She looked at Sofia with hatred.
“He will destroy you eventually.”
Sofia touched her bruised cheek.
“Perhaps. But you destroyed yourself first.”
As Camilla was taken away, Matteo approached Sofia.
“You’re injured.”
“It is a bruise.”
“You disobeyed my instructions.”
“I have established a pattern.”
He lifted her chin carefully.
For the first time since entering the hotel, his expression lost its hardness.
“You stayed again.”
May you like
Sofia looked into his eyes.
“So did you.”
