Chapter 4 - The Secret Beneath DeLuca’s Kitchen
The old Mamma Rosa’s restaurant looked dead from the street.
Dust covered the front windows.
The faded sign hung above a locked door.
Elena remembered photographs of Teresa standing there young and smiling.
Now police notices from years-old building inspections curled against the glass.
Matteo used a key.
Elena looked at him.
“You have a key?”
“My company bought half this block ten years ago.”
“You said nobody owned it.”
“I said the public records didn’t show an owner.”
She stared.
“That sounds like ownership.”
“It sounds like Philadelphia.”
Under different circumstances, she might have smiled.
Not tonight.
Inside, everything smelled of dust and old grease.
Tables remained stacked against one wall.
A cracked espresso machine sat behind the bar.
The dining room felt like a place abandoned mid-sentence.
Nico waited near the kitchen.
“Basement’s clear from the exterior access.”
“Rachel?”
“No sign.”
Elena moved toward the basement door.
The words were painted in red.
WELCOME HOME, SOFIA.
She touched them.
Dry.
Matteo stopped her.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Could be evidence.”
“You say that like we’re calling the police.”
Matteo looked at her.
“We might.”
She blinked.
Luca did too.
Matteo ignored him.
They descended.
The basement was larger than Elena expected.
Wine racks.
Storage shelves.
Old refrigerators.
At the far wall stood a steel door.
No handle.
Only a keypad.
Elena examined the recipe.
Seven digits remained unused.
She entered them.
The keypad flashed green.
The steel door opened.
Behind it was not a storage room.
It was an office.
Preserved.
Desk.
Filing cabinets.
Photographs.
A tape recorder.
Stacks of ledgers.
Elena stepped inside.
Matteo stood beside her.
On the wall hung photographs of politicians, police officers, union officials, judges, businessmen.
Some were dead.
Some still powerful.
Red lines connected names.
“This is what Sofia found,” Elena whispered.
Luca shut the door behind them.
Matteo opened a ledger.
Payments.
Dates.
Companies.
Judges.
“You could destroy half the city with this.”
“No,” Luca said.
Matteo looked up.
“You could destroy yourself too.”
Several DeLuca businesses appeared in the entries.
Matteo flipped pages.
His father’s handwriting.
Not his.
Still, the family name was everywhere.
Elena found a cassette labeled:
FOR MY CHILDREN.
Her hands trembled.
Matteo saw it.
Neither moved.
Finally Elena inserted the tape.
Static.
Then a woman’s voice.
Sofia.
“If you are listening to this, then Vittorio returned.”
Matteo sat down.
Elena remained standing.
Sofia continued.
“I wanted to leave you more than secrets. I wanted to leave you birthdays. Sunday dinners. Arguments about school. Bad Christmas photographs.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
“But Vittorio would have used Elena against Matteo and Matteo against Elena.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“So I chose the only thing I could choose. Distance.”
The tape clicked.
“I am sorry.”
Matteo stared at the recorder.
Sofia explained the ledger.
Vittorio had built alliances with officials who protected violent criminal operations far beyond the DeLuca organization.
Sofia wanted evidence that could survive him.
She and Teresa had copied everything.
Then came the final revelation.
“Vittorio discovered part of what we were doing. He staged my death. He believed fear would make me surrender the ledger. Teresa hid Elena before he learned she existed.”
Matteo clenched his fists.
“I made a deal. I disappeared. He promised Matteo would live.”
Elena whispered, “Where did she go?”
The tape continued.
“If Teresa followed our plan, then when it is finally safe, she will bring you both to me.”
Matteo opened his eyes.
The tape ended.
No location.
Elena exhaled sharply.
“That’s it?”
Matteo examined the cassette.
There was handwriting on the bottom.
A date.
Tomorrow’s date.
Twenty-two years later.
Elena stared.
“My grandmother planned this.”
Luca shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Elena said. “A delayed instruction. Maybe an account. A meeting.”
Matteo checked the desk.
A drawer contained envelopes.
One marked with tomorrow’s date.
Inside was a reservation card.
Bellavita.
A restaurant on the Delaware River.
Table 17.
8:00 p.m.
Two guests.
Elena looked at Matteo.
“Sofia expected us to meet someone.”
“Or Vittorio wants us to think that.”
Footsteps sounded outside the steel door.
Everyone froze.
Nico raised his weapon.
Three knocks.
Then Rachel’s voice.
“Elena?”
Elena rushed toward the door.
Matteo caught her.
“Wait.”
“Elena, please!”
Rachel sounded terrified.
Elena looked at Matteo.
“That’s her.”
“It could be a trap.”
“I don’t care.”
She opened the door.
Rachel stumbled inside.
Hands tied.
Mascara streaked down her cheeks.
Elena grabbed her.
“Oh my God.”
Rachel sobbed against her shoulder.
“I thought they were going to kill me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo looked behind her.
Empty hallway.
Nico searched.
“No one.”
Rachel pulled back.
“They put me in a van. They kept asking what Elena knew.”
Matteo asked, “How did you get here?”
“They drove me.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“They just released you?”
Rachel nodded rapidly.
“There was a man.”
“What did he say?”
Rachel looked at Matteo.
“He said the ledger doesn’t matter anymore.”
Matteo frowned.
“Why?”
Rachel swallowed.
“Because he already has the only person who can testify to it.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
“Sofia?”
Rachel nodded.
“He said she’s alive.”
Matteo went completely still.
“Where?”
Rachel began crying again.
“He told me to give you this.”
She reached inside her jacket.
A small restaurant matchbook.
Bellavita.
Table 17.
Tomorrow.
Matteo stared at it.
Then Rachel whispered:
“He also said not to bring Luca.”
Silence.
Everyone looked at Luca.
Luca’s face drained.
Matteo slowly turned toward his oldest lieutenant.
“Why?”
Luca stepped backward.
“Matteo.”
“Why did he say your name?”
Luca looked toward the door.
Nico blocked it.
Matteo’s voice became almost a whisper.
“What did you do?”
Luca closed his eyes.
“When Sofia disappeared…”
Matteo stepped closer.
May you like
Luca opened them.
“I was the one who drove her away.”
