Chapter 4 - Someone Inside the House
Emma nearly dropped the phone.
“My father died in Afghanistan.”
Silence.
Then Gabriel laughed.
“No, Emmy.”
Matteo moved closer.
Emma raised a hand, stopping him.
Gabriel continued.
“That's what they told you.”
“My father was killed during deployment.”
“Your father came home.”
Emma's knees weakened.
“No.”
“He came home because he discovered what Moretti's father was doing.”
Matteo's expression changed.
Emma saw it.
“You know something.”
Matteo shook his head.
Gabriel heard her.
“He knows enough.”
“Tell me.”
“Not on the phone.”
“Then why call?”
“To give you one chance.”
“At what?”
“Take Lily and leave the estate.”
Emma looked toward the door.
“You threatened us.”
“I protected you.”
“You photographed my daughter sleeping.”
“To prove I could reach her before they did.”
“Who are they?”
Gabriel paused.
“The men Matteo trusts.”
Then the call ended.
Emma stared at the phone.
Matteo reached for it.
She pulled away.
“Did your father know mine?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Your father, Thomas Bennett, handled security logistics for one of our companies after leaving the Army.”
Emma stared.
“You knew that?”
“I knew his name.”
“You never told me.”
“I didn't know you were his daughter until today.”
“My employee file has my name.”
“Bennett isn't rare.”
“His photograph?”
“I'd never seen him.”
Vincenzo entered.
Matteo showed him the picture.
His reaction was immediate.
“You've seen him.”
Vincenzo looked at Emma.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Old records.”
Emma stepped closer.
“How did my father die?”
“I don't know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“Emma—”
“Everyone keeps telling me they don't know while somehow knowing more about my life than I do.”
She pointed at Matteo.
“His father employed mine.”
Then at Vincenzo.
“You've seen his records.”
Then at the phone.
“And a supposedly dead man remembers my childhood nickname.”
Her eyes filled, but she refused to cry.
“Somebody is going to tell me the truth.”
Matteo nodded.
“Come with me.”
He took her beneath the mansion.
Emma had worked there nearly a year without knowing an archive existed under the east wing.
Matteo unlocked a steel cabinet.
Inside were old ledgers.
Employee files.
Photographs.
His father's records.
They searched for Thomas Bennett.
Nothing.
Then Vincenzo found a file under a number rather than a name.
Inside was Emma's father.
Photographs.
Payment records.
Travel documents.
And a final report.
Matteo read it.
His jaw tightened.
Emma snatched it.
The report stated Thomas Bennett had been dismissed after stealing confidential documents.
Two weeks later, he had supposedly deployed overseas.
Three months after that, Emma had received notification of his death.
But the file contained a photograph dated six weeks after his official death.
Thomas Bennett was alive.
Standing outside a warehouse in New Jersey.
Emma sank into a chair.
“My mother died believing he never came home.”
Matteo said nothing.
Emma looked up.
“What did your father do?”
“I don't know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I was twenty-one when this happened. My father kept most business from me.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
The admission stopped her.
Matteo didn't defend himself.
“My father was not a good man, Emma.”
“And you are?”
Vincenzo looked away.
Matteo held her gaze.
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“But whatever happened to Thomas Bennett, I will find it.”
Emma looked at the photograph again.
“Why?”
“Because somebody is using his death to come after my people.”
“Your people?”
“My employees. Vincenzo. Mrs. Russo.”
His eyes shifted toward the ceiling, where Lily was sleeping under guard.
“And your daughter.”
Emma saw something there.
Not possession.
Responsibility.
She hated that it made her feel safer.
They searched until midnight.
At 12:18, Vincenzo found a handwritten ledger.
One recurring name appeared beside payments to Gabriel.
Not Matteo's father.
Another man.
Salvatore DeLuca.
Emma didn't recognize it.
Matteo did.
“My father's attorney.”
“Alive?” Emma asked.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Matteo looked toward Vincenzo.
Vincenzo's face had gone pale.
“He was here yesterday.”
Emma's skin prickled.
“Inside this house?”
“Yes.”
The missing footage.
The copied badge.
The photographs.
The confidential testimony.
An attorney could know everything.
“Find him.”
Matteo called.
No answer.
A team went to DeLuca's home.
Empty.
His office.
Empty.
His private plane remained at the airport.
But his passport was gone.
At 1:03 a.m., the estate lights went out.
Emergency lighting activated seconds later.
Matteo was already moving.
“Lily.”
Emma ran.
They reached the upstairs hall.
One guard lay unconscious.
The second was missing.
Emma screamed Lily's name.
The bedroom door stood open.
The bed was empty.
On the pillow lay a red crayon.
Emma stopped.
“No.”
Matteo searched the bathroom.
Empty.
Closet.
Empty.
Emma couldn't breathe.
“LILY!”
A tiny voice came from beneath the bed.
“Mommy?”
Emma dropped to her knees.
Lily crawled out.
Emma grabbed her so tightly Lily squeaked.
“I hid.”
“Why?”
“The man came.”
Matteo crouched.
“What man?”
“The shiny-necklace man.”
Gabriel.
“Where did he go?”
Lily pointed toward the hall.
“He said hide and don't come out.”
Emma stared.
Gabriel had entered the room.
But he hadn't taken Lily.
He had hidden her.
Matteo's radio crackled.
A guard's voice came through.
“Boss, intruder in the west corridor.”
Matteo stood.
“Stay here.”
Emma caught his sleeve.
“Don't kill him.”
Matteo looked at her.
“I need answers.”
“So do I.”
He left.
Gunfire sounded somewhere downstairs.
Emma covered Lily's ears.
Then silence.
Long, terrible silence.
Five minutes later, Vincenzo appeared.
“Matteo needs you.”
Emma carried Lily downstairs.
The west corridor was damaged.
Broken glass.
Blood.
One injured guard.
But no Gabriel.
Matteo stood beside an open service door.
“He escaped.”
Emma's heart sank.
“He left this.”
Matteo handed her an envelope.
Inside was a flash drive.
They connected it to an isolated laptop.
A video appeared.
Thomas Bennett filled the screen.
Emma stopped breathing.
Her father.
Older than she remembered.
Alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
“If Emma ever sees this, then I failed.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Thomas continued.
“Gabriel isn't the traitor.”
Matteo leaned closer.
“I found proof that Salvatore DeLuca has been using Moretti shipping routes for weapons trafficking. When Carlo Moretti discovered it, Salvatore convinced him that Gabriel and I were responsible.”
Emma's eyes widened.
Thomas looked exhausted.
“I tried to get the evidence to federal authorities. Salvatore found out.”
The recording flickered.
Then Thomas said something that changed everything.
“Carlo didn't order my death.”
Matteo froze.
“Salvatore did.”
Emma began crying.
Thomas continued.
“And if Salvatore is still alive, he will eventually come for Matteo, because Matteo inherited the only records that can prove what happened.”
The video ended.
Silence filled the room.
Emma wiped her face.
“So Gabriel was telling the truth.”
“Partly,” Matteo said.
“He tried to protect Lily.”
“Yes.”
Vincenzo frowned.
“Then who put the device beneath Matteo's car?”
Nobody answered.
A guard entered.
“We found something.”
He placed a dog tag on the table.
Gabriel Rizzo.
Found near the car.
Emma stared.
If Gabriel had been beneath the vehicle, he might not have been installing the device.
He might have been removing it.
Lily had seen the wrong half of the event.
Matteo understood.
“Gabriel found the sabotage.”
Vincenzo nodded.
“And removed the dangerous part before Lily saw him.”
“Then someone else installed it first.”
Emma looked toward the security monitors.
Someone inside.
Still inside.
Matteo ordered a complete personnel audit.
At 2:36 a.m., the results arrived.
One guard was missing.
Daniel Cross.
The same guard who had been outside Lily's room when the power failed.
His employment records appeared clean.
Too clean.
Vincenzo dug deeper.
The identity belonged to a real man.
A real security contractor.
But the photograph had been replaced.
The man working inside the Moretti estate wasn't Daniel Cross.
Emma stared at his employee photograph.
She had seen him every day for months.
Then Lily wandered toward the screen.
She pointed.
“That's him.”
Emma crouched.
“The hiding man?”
Lily shook her head.
“The other man.”
Matteo became still.
“The one with Gabriel?”
Lily nodded.
Then she added:
“He put the box under your car first.”
Before anyone could respond, every phone in the room vibrated simultaneously.
A security alert appeared.
MAIN GATE OPEN.
Matteo looked at the surveillance feed.
A black SUV was entering.
Nobody had authorized it.
It stopped in front of the mansion.
The rear door opened.
May you like
Daniel Cross stepped out.
And beside him was Salvatore DeLuca.
