Chapter 5 - The Woman They Chose to Blame
Clara ran before Roman could stop her.
“Maisie!”
She took the cellar stairs so fast she struck her shoulder against the wall.
Roman followed.
The scream came again.
“Mommy!”
Clara reached the kitchen.
Maisie was standing on a chair.
Mrs. Bellini held something in her hand.
Nobody was hurt.
Clara grabbed her daughter.
“What happened?”
Maisie pointed.
“Daddy.”
Mrs. Bellini looked pale.
She handed Clara an envelope.
It had been pushed beneath the kitchen door.
Inside was another photograph.
Eli.
Alive.
The timestamp was dated six months after his supposed death.
Clara nearly dropped it.
“No.”
Roman took the photograph.
“Could the date be altered?”
“Yes.”
“Could the picture be old?”
Clara stared at Eli’s coat.
She had bought it for him two weeks before the accident.
Then she noticed the newspaper on the table behind him.
A headline.
Roman photographed it and searched the date.
Six months after Eli died.
Clara sat down.
“He was alive.”
Nobody spoke.
Hope arrived before reason could stop it.
Maybe Eli had survived.
Maybe he had hidden.
Maybe—
Then rage followed.
If he had been alive, why had he abandoned her?
Why had he abandoned Maisie?
Roman crouched.
“Clara, we don’t know what this means.”
“It means my husband didn’t die when they said he died.”
“That’s all it means.”
She nodded.
Calmly.
Too calmly.
“Find him.”
Roman did.
Or rather, he found what happened.
The hospital record from the night of Eli’s accident had been falsified.
The body Clara identified had been badly injured.
She had seen only part of his face.
Dental records confirmed the identity.
Those records had also been falsified.
Eli survived.
Daniel’s people took him from the hospital.
For six months, they kept him alive because they believed he had hidden copies of the financial evidence.
Then the trail ended.
Clara refused to cry.
Not yet.
Roman found a final medical payment linked to a private clinic in northern New York.
The patient was listed under another name.
Death recorded three years earlier.
Six months after the crash.
Eli really was dead.
Just not when Clara had been told.
She closed her eyes.
Roman sat beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
“They made me bury somebody else.”
“Yes.”
“They made my daughter visit a grave that wasn’t her father’s.”
“Yes.”
“Matteo knew?”
“We’ll prove it.”
Clara looked at him.
“No.”
Roman waited.
“We already know enough to destroy him.”
“Knowing and proving are different.”
“I don’t care about court.”
“I do.”
That surprised her.
Roman Duca had a reputation built on solving problems outside courtrooms.
He saw the question.
“I’ve spent half my life believing fear was enough to keep people loyal.”
He glanced toward Maisie.
“I was tied to a post in my own shed. Apparently my philosophy needs work.”
Clara almost smiled.
He continued.
“I don’t want Matteo frightened. I want him exposed.”
They built the trap.
Roman’s resignation remained public within the organization.
Matteo took control.
Within hours, he began moving assets.
Adrian traced them.
Sofia copied communications.
Gabriel contacted federal investigators through an attorney Roman trusted.
Roman was not pretending to be innocent.
His family businesses had lived too long in gray territory.
But the stolen network was different.
Fraud.
Extortion.
Murder.
Daniel and Matteo had built it while hiding behind Roman’s name.
Clara became the key.
Because Matteo believed she knew where Eli’s final evidence was.
So Clara allowed a rumor to spread.
She had another copy.
It was hidden in the mansion.
Matteo reacted within an hour.
He invited Clara to his study.
Roman objected.
“No.”
“It’s working.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“He won’t talk if you’re there.”
“Then he doesn’t talk.”
Clara folded her arms.
“Roman.”
“No.”
“You ran into a warehouse after somebody tried to burn you alive.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“It was me.”
She stared.
Roman realized what he had said.
Clara softened.
“I’m not asking you to stop protecting me.”
She touched his bruised wrist.
“I’m asking you to trust me.”
That was harder.
Roman nodded.
Clara entered Matteo’s study wearing a concealed recorder.
Matteo poured tea.
She did not drink it.
“I hear you found something belonging to your husband.”
“Maybe.”
Matteo smiled.
He looked like someone’s favorite uncle.
That made him worse.
“Eli was a talented accountant.”
“You knew him.”
“Briefly.”
“You had him killed.”
Matteo’s smile remained.
“Careful.”
“Why?”
“Because accusations have consequences.”
“My husband learned that.”
Matteo set down his cup.
“He was offered money.”
“To stop investigating?”
“To protect his family.”
“You call murdering him protection?”
Matteo leaned back.
“Eli made choices.”
There.
Almost.
Clara needed more.
“What choice did Roman make?”
Matteo’s expression changed.
“Roman?”
“You tried to kill him.”
“Roman has always been sentimental.”
“About family?”
“About loyalty.”
Matteo smiled.
“He thinks those are the same thing.”
Clara felt sick.
“You tied him in that shed.”
“No.”
Interesting.
“Daniel did?”
Matteo said nothing.
“You ordered him.”
Still nothing.
Clara stood.
Matteo’s voice stopped her.
“Do you know why your husband really died?”
She turned.
“Because of the money?”
“No.”
Matteo smiled.
“Because he discovered Roman’s father had known.”
Clara froze.
“Knew what?”
“That the empire Roman inherited was already compromised.”
Matteo explained that Roman’s father had discovered the stolen accounts years earlier.
He planned to expose Matteo.
Then he died suddenly.
Officially, a heart attack.
Roman had never questioned it.
Clara’s blood chilled.
“You killed Roman’s father too.”
Matteo stood.
“I said nothing of the kind.”
But his eyes did.
Clara moved toward the door.
Locked.
She tried again.
Matteo sighed.
“You were supposed to be temporary.”
Clara turned.
“What?”
“Daniel recommended you for the maid position.”
Her heart stopped.
“I applied through an agency.”
“An agency we owned.”
The photographs.
Someone had watched her before she arrived.
They had deliberately brought Eli’s widow into Roman’s house.
“Why?”
“To see whether Eli had told you anything.”
Clara understood.
For two years, she had not been an employee.
She had been surveillance.
“And Maisie?”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“A complication.”
Clara stepped backward.
Outside, Roman listened through the recorder.
That word changed everything.
He moved.
Gabriel caught his arm.
“Wait.”
Roman looked ready to tear the door from its hinges.
Inside, Matteo approached Clara.
“Where is Eli’s copy?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“I don’t.”
Matteo reached into his desk.
Clara’s heart pounded.
He removed a phone.
Then pressed play.
A recording filled the room.
Eli’s voice.
Clara’s knees weakened.
“Clara, if you hear this, take Maisie and run. Don’t trust—”
The recording stopped.
Matteo smiled.
“I have the rest.”
Clara stared at him.
“You kept his voice.”
“I keep useful things.”
Outside, Roman had heard enough.
He broke the lock.
The door slammed open.
Matteo spun.
Roman entered.
His face was terrifyingly calm.
“Play the rest.”
Matteo smiled.
“So the dead boy finally learned to listen.”
Roman walked closer.
“Play it.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“No. I made my mistake years ago.”
“What mistake?”
“Calling you family.”
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
Sirens approached the estate.
Gabriel entered behind Roman.
Then Sofia.
Then Adrian.
Matteo looked from face to face.
“You think this ends with me?”
Roman said nothing.
Matteo laughed.
“Daniel has everything.”
“What everything?”
“The accounts. The names. The evidence.”
Roman’s phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
A live video opened.
Daniel Voss appeared.
Behind him was Mrs. Bellini.
Bound to a chair.
Clara looked toward the kitchen.
Maisie.
She ran.
The kitchen was empty.
A yellow crayon lay broken on the floor.
Daniel smiled into the camera.
May you like
Then he lifted something into view.
Maisie’s little white shoe.
