Chapter 5 - A Traitor Inside the House
Massimo did not move.
“My uncle is dead.”
Matteo laughed bitterly through the monitor.
“So was I.”
Then the transmission ended.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Massimo turned away.
Alessandra recognized the look.
It was what she had felt when she saw Matteo alive.
Reality rearranging itself.
Rachel was taken to safety.
Massimo and Alessandra returned to the townhouse.
Leo ran toward them.
Alessandra dropped to her knees.
Massimo watched her hold him.
Then Leo ran to Massimo too.
“You came back.”
Massimo crouched.
“I said I would.”
“You didn’t.”
Massimo glanced at Alessandra.
She smiled despite everything.
“He means you never told him.”
Massimo looked at Leo seriously.
“Then I should have.”
Leo nodded.
“Okay.”
Children forgave with terrifying ease.
Adults did not.
Massimo spent the afternoon tearing apart twenty-two years of family history.
Salvatore Costa had supposedly died from pancreatic cancer.
Closed funeral.
Closed casket.
Private burial.
Massimo had been there.
“So nobody saw the body?” Alessandra asked.
“I did not.”
“Who identified him?”
Massimo searched the records.
The answer was worse than neither expected.
Dr. Vincent Hale.
Current board member.
Vantage Shipping International.
Alessandra stared.
“This started before Vanessa.”
“Long before.”
They traced MRC-17 payments.
Marcello Costa had discovered something in 2004.
Money laundering through port contracts.
Bribery.
Human trafficking routes hidden inside legitimate freight movements.
He had begun documenting names.
Then he died.
Salvatore inherited access.
Instead of exposing the network, he expanded it.
“But why fake his death?” Alessandra asked.
Massimo looked at the accounts.
“To disappear from law enforcement while keeping control.”
“And Matteo?”
“He must have found out.”
They uncovered a video recorded four years earlier.
Matteo appeared.
“If anything happens to me, Salvatore is alive.”
Massimo closed his eyes.
His cousin had tried to tell him.
He had never received the recording.
Someone had intercepted it.
“Who had access to your communications then?” Alessandra asked.
“Six people.”
“How many are alive?”
“Five.”
“How many are in this house?”
Massimo’s eyes lifted.
“Three.”
They looked toward the door.
Inside help.
The same person who opened the window.
The same person who had given Rachel the security code.
Massimo called everyone into the library.
Marco.
Nico.
Teresa.
His attorney, Dominic Vale.
Security chief Enzo Bianchi.
Alessandra stood beside Massimo.
Leo remained upstairs with two guards.
Massimo placed the old video on the screen.
Nobody reacted.
Except Dominic.
One blink.
Too fast.
Alessandra saw it.
So did Massimo.
“Dominic,” Massimo said.
“Yes?”
“Where were you when Matteo disappeared?”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“You know where.”
“Tell me again.”
“Boston.”
“For?”
“A deposition.”
Alessandra spoke.
“Which case?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
His smile disappeared.
“I don’t answer to you.”
Massimo’s voice became soft.
“Tonight you do.”
Dominic gave the case number.
Alessandra searched.
No deposition occurred that day.
Dominic reached inside his jacket.
Massimo drew first.
“Don’t.”
Dominic stopped.
Marco removed the weapon.
Massimo approached his attorney.
“Twenty years.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You sat at my table.”
Nothing.
“You buried my mother.”
Dominic’s face twitched.
“Massimo—”
“Where is Salvatore?”
“I don’t know.”
Massimo hit him once.
Dominic collapsed.
Alessandra flinched.
Massimo crouched.
“Where?”
Dominic spat blood.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Explain.”
“Salvatore doesn’t want the drive.”
“Then what?”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling.
Toward Leo.
Massimo’s face changed.
Alessandra stepped forward.
“What does he want with my son?”
Dominic smiled through blood.
“An heir.”
Massimo grabbed him.
“To what?”
“The Costa organization.”
“Leo is three.”
“He won’t always be.”
Alessandra felt sick.
Dominic continued.
“Salvatore can control the empire through blood. Matteo refused. You refused without even knowing. But the boy—”
Massimo slammed him against the wall.
“You will never say ‘the boy’ again.”
Dominic laughed.
“You already care about him.”
Massimo’s fist tightened.
“That makes you predictable.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Alessandra ran.
“Leo!”
She reached his room.
The guards were unconscious.
The bed was empty.
This time the closet was empty too.
On the pillow lay the green dinosaur Band-Aid.
May you like
And beneath it was a phone.
It began ringing.
