Chapter 6 - The Night the Duca House Turned Against Itself
Clara stopped breathing.
“Where is she?”
Daniel smiled through the phone.
Roman grabbed it.
“If you touch that child—”
“Still making threats, Roman?”
“Where is Maisie?”
“You know where.”
The screen went black.
Clara turned on Matteo.
“You tell me.”
For the first time, Matteo looked genuinely confused.
“I don’t know.”
Roman believed him.
Daniel had changed the plan.
Men like Daniel served stronger men until they believed they were stronger themselves.
“He’s cutting Matteo loose,” Roman said.
Matteo’s face changed.
Roman looked at him.
“You thought Daniel worked for you.”
Silence.
“He doesn’t anymore.”
Matteo reached for his phone.
Gabriel took it.
Clara stepped toward Roman.
“The shed.”
Roman understood.
Daniel had said, You know where.
The place where it began.
They ran.
The old shed was blackened but still standing.
No Maisie.
No Bellini.
Then Clara noticed a yellow mark on the wet path.
Crayon.
Another mark appeared ten feet away.
Then another.
Maisie.
Her daughter was leaving a trail.
Clara almost sobbed.
“She’s showing us.”
They followed.
The marks led beyond the hedge.
Toward an abandoned greenhouse.
Roman signaled his men back.
No reckless entrance.
Not with a child inside.
He moved along the side.
Clara followed despite his glare.
Through dirty glass they saw Daniel.
Mrs. Bellini sat tied to a chair.
Maisie sat beside her.
Unharmed.
Daniel was packing documents into a metal case.
He planned to leave.
Roman whispered to Clara.
“Stay here.”
This time she nodded.
Because Maisie needed one parent thinking clearly.
Roman entered through the rear.
Daniel heard him.
He turned.
No dramatic gunfight followed.
No heroic charge.
Roman simply stood there.
“You lost.”
Daniel laughed.
“Did I?”
“Matteo is finished.”
“Matteo was finished years ago.”
“Then why take the child?”
“Insurance.”
Maisie saw Roman.
“Mr. Roman.”
Daniel grabbed her arm.
Roman stopped.
Every trace of anger disappeared from his face.
“Let her go.”
“You first.”
“What do you want?”
“Access codes.”
“To what?”
“The reserve accounts.”
Roman understood.
Daniel had stolen millions.
Now he wanted the emergency reserves only Roman could access.
“You get the codes, you release them?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
“Probably.”
Roman almost smiled.
Daniel hated that.
Outside, Clara saw Mrs. Bellini moving her fingers.
The cook was pointing.
Under the chair.
A gardening shear.
Clara slipped through a broken side panel.
Slowly.
Quietly.
Daniel kept his eyes on Roman.
“You know what your problem always was?” Daniel asked.
“I hired you?”
“You believed reputation was power.”
Roman shrugged.
“It got me good restaurant tables.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You inherited everything.”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The reason.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“You think this was about Matteo?”
“It was about you.”
Daniel had spent fifteen years protecting men born into fortunes.
Watching Roman inherit a mansion.
Companies.
Influence.
Daniel decided he deserved his own empire.
Matteo gave him access.
Then Daniel built something larger behind Matteo’s back.
Eli discovered it.
Roman’s father had discovered an earlier version.
Both became problems.
Roman’s expression hardened.
“You killed my father.”
“Matteo arranged that.”
“And Eli?”
Daniel smiled.
“That one was mine.”
Clara heard it.
Every word.
So did the recorder on Roman.
Daniel had confessed.
Clara reached the shears.
Mrs. Bellini saw her.
Said nothing.
Maisie looked over.
Clara placed one finger against her lips.
Her daughter nodded.
Brave little girl.
Too brave.
Clara cut Bellini’s rope.
Daniel heard the fibers snap.
He turned.
Roman moved.
Seconds later, Daniel was on the floor.
No spectacle.
No celebration.
Just a man who had believed fear made him untouchable discovering it did not.
Clara grabbed Maisie.
“Mommy!”
She held her daughter so tightly Maisie complained.
“Too squishy.”
Clara laughed and cried at once.
Roman freed Bellini.
Police arrived minutes later.
Gabriel had coordinated everything.
Daniel was arrested.
Matteo followed.
The evidence on Eli’s drive connected them to years of fraud and multiple deaths.
But there was still one problem.
Roman.
His companies.
His name.
The investigators wanted answers.
Roman gave them.
All of them.
Even answers that cost him.
Weeks passed.
The Duca mansion changed.
Security staff were replaced.
Accounts frozen.
Companies audited.
Roman voluntarily surrendered control of several businesses while investigations continued.
Newspapers predicted his downfall.
Some associates called him weak.
Others disappeared.
Roman did not care.
Clara prepared to leave.
He found her packing in the servants’ apartment.
“What are you doing?”
“Moving.”
“Why?”
“My employment situation seems awkward.”
“You’re not employed.”
She looked at him.
“You fired me?”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I paid you through the end of the year and terminated the employment contract.”
“That sounds remarkably like firing.”
“I’m bad at this.”
Clara laughed.
Roman had not heard that sound enough.
He leaned against the doorway.
“I don’t want you working for me.”
Clara’s smile faded.
“Why?”
“Because every time I try to talk to you, you call me Mr. Duca.”
“That’s your name.”
“Roman.”
“Roman.”
“Better.”
She folded another shirt.
“What are you trying to say?”
He had negotiated with dangerous men without blinking.
This was worse.
“I want you and Maisie safe.”
“We are.”
“I want you to stay.”
“As what?”
Roman did not answer immediately.
Clara looked at him.
Something had changed between the burning shed and this room.
Not gratitude.
Not debt.
Something quieter.
Something neither wanted to cheapen by naming too quickly.
Roman finally said, “As people who matter to me.”
Clara’s hands stopped.
“Roman…”
“I’m not asking for anything else.”
That was why she believed him.
Maisie ran into the room.
“Mr. Roman!”
Roman sighed.
Clara smiled.
“Apparently we’re back to formal titles.”
Maisie held up a picture.
Three stick figures.
One tall.
One medium.
One tiny.
A large yellow sun above them.
Roman crouched.
“Who’s this?”
“Mommy.”
“And this?”
“Me.”
He pointed at the tall figure.
“Who is that?”
Maisie grinned.
“You.”
Something moved in Roman’s face.
Clara saw it.
So did he.
Before either could speak, Gabriel appeared.
His expression erased the moment.
“We have a problem.”
Roman stood.
“What?”
“Daniel made a deal.”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
“What kind?”
“He gave investigators another name.”
“Whose?”
Gabriel looked at Roman.
“Your father’s attorney.”
Roman frowned.
Gabriel continued.
“Daniel claims Eli left one final recording with him before he died.”
“Where is the attorney?”
“On his way here.”
“When?”
Gabriel looked toward the front windows.
A black sedan was already approaching the mansion.
Roman watched it stop.
An elderly man stepped out carrying a sealed leather case.
He entered the house.
Looked directly at Clara.
Then said the words that silenced the entire room.
“Eli Ellis asked me to give this to his daughter when she turned eighteen.”
He placed the case on the table.
May you like
“But after what happened tonight, I don’t think we can wait another fifteen years.”
And then he unlocked it.
