Chapter 4 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE THE FAMILYCassian did not reach for his gun.
That was what frightened Mateo most.
The Don simply turned, his face completely devoid of expression.
“Close the door.”
Mateo glanced toward Lydia.
“Boss?”
“Close it.”
The heavy door clicked shut.
Lydia heard the change in Cassian's breathing.
Something terrible had entered the room.
“What is happening?” she demanded.
Cassian looked at the man who had served beside him for fifteen years.
“Ten years ago, my father ordered Daniel Hayes eliminated.”
Mateo remained still.
“That's correct.”
“But the operational instructions went through you.”
Mateo's jaw tightened.
“I was following orders.”
“Were you?”
“Cassian, whatever Romano sent you—”
“Who told the driver to strike the passenger side?”
Silence.
Lydia gripped the edge of the bed.
“The passenger side?” she whispered.
Cassian continued.
“Who ordered the second vehicle to block the intersection? Who arranged the fire? Who told the medical examiner to close the case?”
Mateo's hand moved almost imperceptibly toward his jacket.
Cassian's voice became deadly quiet.
“Don't.”
Mateo stopped.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Then Mateo said, “Your father wanted the accountant dead. He wanted the wife dead. And he wanted the daughter dead.”
Lydia felt the room tilt.
Cassian's eyes darkened.
“You told me the girl wasn't part of the order.”
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Cassian moved forward.
Mateo raised both hands.
“Listen to me. You were twenty-six. Your father was dying. Half the captains were preparing to turn against you. If you'd known the full order, you would've done something stupid.”
“I did do something.”
“Yes,” Mateo snapped. “You pulled a half-dead teenager from a burning car and threatened to shoot our own men if they touched her.”
Lydia's hand flew to her mouth.
Cassian had been there.
Not afterward.
Not days later.
At the crash.
She remembered a man's voice through the flames.
Stay with me. Don't close your eyes.
She had spent ten years believing that voice belonged to a paramedic.
“Was that you?” she whispered.
Cassian turned toward her.
“Yes.”
Lydia swallowed.
“You carried me out?”
“Yes.”
“And my parents?”
His expression broke.
“I couldn't reach your father.”
“And my mother?”
“I thought she was dead.”
Mateo gave a bitter laugh.
“That's the part you never understood, Cassian. Evelyn wasn't supposed to die.”
Cassian turned sharply.
“What?”
“She was supposed to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel had something Alessandro wanted. Something Evelyn knew how to find.”
Lydia stepped forward.
“What did my mother know?”
Mateo looked toward her.
“Your father kept records that could bring down half the men who run this city. But those records were only part of it.”
“What else?”
“Names. Judges. Federal agents. Politicians. People who paid to have their enemies disappear.”
Cassian stared at him.
“Where is Evelyn?”
Mateo shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“Then why did Romano send the photograph?”
“Because Vincent knows I'm the only man alive who can explain what happened.”
Cassian took another step.
“And what exactly happened?”
Mateo looked toward Lydia.
“Your mother made a deal.”
Lydia felt sick.
“With whom?”
“With Alessandro Moretti.”
The name hung in the air.
Mateo continued.
“Daniel was planning to expose the organization. Evelyn discovered it before anyone else. She went to Alessandro and begged him to spare her husband.”
“And he agreed?” Lydia asked.
“For a price.”
“What price?”
Mateo looked away.
Cassian's patience snapped.
“Answer her.”
“Evelyn had to give him the location of Daniel's evidence.”
Lydia shook her head.
“No.”
“She agreed. But when Alessandro's men arrived, the evidence was gone.”
“Because my father moved it?”
“Yes.”
“And then they killed him anyway?”
Mateo nodded.
Lydia stumbled backward.
For ten years she had remembered her mother as the gentlest person she had ever known.
Now she was being told Evelyn had betrayed her own husband.
“No,” Lydia whispered. “There has to be another explanation.”
“There probably is,” Cassian said.
Mateo turned toward him.
“You don't believe me?”
“I believe you're telling me the version that keeps you alive.”
For the first time, Mateo looked genuinely nervous.
Cassian reached for his phone.
“Gabriel. Come upstairs. Bring two men.”
Mateo's eyes widened.
“You're arresting me?”
“I'm keeping you where I can see you.”
“After everything I've done for this family?”
“Especially after everything you've done.”
Mateo's expression changed.
The loyal underboss disappeared.
In his place stood a desperate man who had spent fifteen years burying secrets.
“You think you're better than your father?” he asked.
Cassian said nothing.
“You think protecting one blind girl erases the bodies you've left behind?”
“Stop talking.”
“You burned neighborhoods. You destroyed families. And now you want to play the hero because she has pretty eyes?”
Cassian seized him by the collar.
“Say another word about her.”
Mateo smiled.
“There he is.”
Lydia heard fabric tearing.
“Cassian, let him go.”
Cassian released him.
The door opened.
Gabriel Torres, Cassian's security chief, entered with two armed guards.
“Take Mateo to the secure room,” Cassian ordered.
Mateo did not resist.
But as the guards escorted him away, he turned toward Lydia.
“Ask him what happened to the surgeon.”
Lydia stiffened.
“What surgeon?”
Mateo smiled again.
“The one who said your blindness might not be permanent.”
The door closed.
Lydia stood frozen.
Cassian looked as though someone had struck him.
“What did he mean?” she asked.
Cassian said nothing.
“Cassian.”
He approached slowly.
“After the accident, you were treated by Dr. Adrian Mercer. He believed there was a possibility of partial visual recovery with specialized treatment.”
Lydia's heart pounded.
“No one ever told me that.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because Mercer disappeared before the treatment could begin.”
“Disappeared?”
Cassian nodded.
“I spent years trying to find him.”
Lydia took a shaky breath.
“Did your father have him killed?”
“I never found proof.”
A sudden electronic chime interrupted them.
Gabriel's voice came through Cassian's phone.
“Boss, you need to see this.”
“What?”
“We searched Mateo's private safe.”
“And?”
“There are medical records. Evelyn Hayes's records.”
Cassian went still.
Gabriel continued.
“She's been receiving treatment under an alias for the last ten years.”
“Where?”
A pause.
“St. Catherine's Rehabilitation Hospital.”
Cassian frowned.
“That hospital closed six months ago.”
“Not the private wing.”
Lydia moved toward him.
“Take me there.”
Cassian hesitated.
“Lydia, we need to verify—”
“Take me to my mother.”
He looked at her trembling hands.
Then he nodded.
“We leave in ten minutes.”
But before he could call Gabriel back, another message arrived.
This one contained a live video.
Mateo sat in the secure room, surrounded by three guards.
A fourth man entered.
He wore a dark suit and carried a suppressed pistol.
Cassian recognized him.
Gabriel Torres.
On the video, Gabriel calmly shot the three guards.
Then he pointed the weapon at Mateo.
Cassian watched in disbelief.
Gabriel looked directly into the security camera.
“Sorry, Boss.”
He fired.
May you like
The screen went black.
And somewhere deep inside the building, the first explosion shook the walls.
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