Chapter 6 - The Lie Her Father Brought Home
Matteo did not deny it.
That frightened Alessia more than any accusation could have.
“What happened the night Carlo died?”
Her father sat slowly.
“He called me.”
Enzo’s expression hardened.
Carlo Vieri had officially died from a heart attack seven years earlier.
Matteo told a different story.
Carlo discovered the network had grown beyond Stefano.
He planned to expose everyone.
Before he could, someone poisoned him.
Matteo arrived too late.
“Why were you there?”
“Carlo asked me to retrieve evidence.”
“You let everyone believe he died naturally,” Enzo said.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Enzo laughed bitterly.
“Men keep destroying people’s lives and calling it protection.”
Alessia felt the words too.
Matteo lowered his head.
Enzo demanded proof.
Matteo produced a recording.
Carlo’s final message named the person he suspected.
Not Luca.
Marco.
Everyone stared at Enzo’s consigliere.
Marco went pale.
“That recording is false.”
Matteo insisted it was genuine.
Marco drew his weapon.
Luca appeared from the doorway and disarmed him.
Chaos followed.
Stefano was in custody downstairs.
Luca had deliberately removed him from the villa because he suspected Matteo would attempt to frame someone.
The incriminating payments carrying Luca’s name were forged.
So was Carlo’s recording.
“How do you know?” Alessia asked.
Luca played another version.
The same words.
Different name.
Enzo.
Someone had generated multiple recordings years earlier using edited fragments of Carlo’s voice.
Matteo had been carrying one.
Alessia stared at her father.
“You knew?”
“No.”
She wanted to believe him.
Then Stefano, under interrogation, revealed the final twist.
Matteo had once worked with him.
Not willingly at first.
But after years in hiding, Matteo began trading information to protect Alessia and Nona.
Eventually protection became cooperation.
He helped Stefano hide money.
He falsified records.
And on the night Carlo died, Matteo had been inside the estate.
“You poisoned him?” Enzo asked.
“No!”
Matteo broke.
“I changed his medication.”
Silence.
Stefano had threatened Alessia.
Matteo switched Carlo’s heart pills with another medication believing it would merely make him ill.
Instead, Carlo died.
Enzo crossed the room.
Alessia stepped between them.
Not because Matteo deserved protection.
Because she knew what Enzo would become if he killed him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“He killed my father.”
“And if you kill mine, what are we?”
Enzo’s breathing was heavy.
“Move, Alessia.”
“No.”
His eyes met hers.
She was terrified again.
Just like the elevator.
And again, she did not surrender.
Finally, Enzo stepped backward.
Matteo collapsed into a chair.
Alessia looked at her father.
“You abandoned me to protect me. You lied to Nona. You helped criminals. And you killed a man because you were afraid.”
“I loved you.”
“Love doesn’t erase what you did.”
She was crying now.
“But I’m not going to let another person die because everyone keeps confusing love with ownership.”
Enzo heard the accusation.
So did Matteo.
The evidence was turned over to a trusted prosecutor outside Stefano’s network.
Matteo agreed to testify.
So did Stefano, in exchange for protection.
The conspiracy began collapsing.
Judges resigned.
Executives were arrested.
Police officers disappeared before warrants reached them.
But the mastermind remained unknown.
Three days later, Alessia prepared to return home.
Enzo stood beside her suitcase.
“You can stay.”
“I know.”
“I can provide security.”
“I know.”
“Your job—”
“I’m not taking a job from you.”
His mouth tightened.
She stepped closer.
“I need my life back, Enzo.”
“And me?”
The question was unexpectedly vulnerable.
“You were never mine to take.”
He looked almost offended.
“That was painfully healthy.”
She smiled.
“I’ll call you.”
“How often?”
“Don’t ruin it.”
He kissed her forehead.
Not her mouth.
Because she had not offered that.
She loved him a little for understanding.
Alessia returned to the apartment with Nona.
Bruno gave her work at a hotel.
Life almost became ordinary.
For six days.
On the seventh, Alessia found an envelope beneath her apartment door.
Inside was a photograph of Enzo sleeping.
Taken from inside his bedroom.
On the back:
HE PROTECTED YOU. NOW PROTECT HIM. MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.
There was an address.
Alessia called Enzo.
No answer.
Luca.
No answer.
Marco.
Nothing.
Then the television interrupted its evening program.
Breaking news.
An explosion had struck a Vieri-owned warehouse.
Multiple casualties were feared.
Enzo Vieri was missing.
Alessia looked at the photograph again.
Someone had reached him.
And whoever remained behind the conspiracy knew exactly how to make her come willingly.
She grabbed her coat.
Nona blocked the door.
“No.”
“I have to go.”
“You taught that man power isn’t permission.”
Nona held out a phone.
“So don’t give your enemy permission to choose the battlefield.”
Alessia stared at her grandmother.
Then slowly smiled.
For the first time, she understood.
Being brave did not mean going alone.
May you like
She called everyone Enzo had ever trusted.
And this time, Alessia made the plan.
