Chapter 9 - The Last Secret Beneath Milan
They found Matteo beneath the central train station.
Alive.
Barely.
Bruno had shot him after Matteo poisoned Stefano during a secret transfer.
Stefano survived.
Matteo might not.
At the hospital, Alessia sat beside her father.
“I spent my life trying to undo one cowardly decision with another,” he whispered.
“Then stop.”
“I wanted to make it right.”
“You don’t make murder right with more murder.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I know.”
For once, Matteo did not defend himself.
He gave Enzo the location of Bruno’s final operation.
Beneath an abandoned Vieri warehouse sat an archive containing blackmail material Rosa had accumulated for decades.
If released, it could destroy hundreds of innocent families along with guilty officials.
Bruno planned to sell it.
Enzo wanted to send his men.
Alessia stopped him.
“Police.”
He stared at her.
“This is my problem.”
“No. That thinking created this problem.”
He looked toward Luca.
Luca nodded.
“She’s right.”
Enzo appeared personally betrayed.
“Everyone has become very comfortable disagreeing with me.”
Alessia smiled.
“Growth.”
They contacted the prosecutor handling Matteo’s case.
The raid began before dawn.
Bruno attempted to flee through underground tunnels.
Enzo followed despite explicit instructions not to.
Alessia discovered this and followed Enzo despite explicit instructions not to.
Luca followed both because apparently nobody respected orders anymore.
They cornered Bruno in an old service chamber beneath the city.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
Bruno held a detonator.
Explosives surrounded the archive.
“If I press this, everything disappears.”
Enzo raised his weapon.
“So do you.”
Bruno laughed.
“You won’t shoot.”
“Why?”
“Because she changed you.”
His eyes moved to Alessia.
“That little cleaner made the wolf civilized.”
Enzo’s expression remained unreadable.
Bruno smiled.
“Pathetic.”
Alessia stepped forward.
“No.”
Enzo glanced at her.
Bruno frowned.
“You think he became weaker because he stopped frightening everyone.”
She looked at Enzo.
“He became harder to control.”
Bruno’s thumb tightened over the detonator.
Alessia noticed the wire running from it.
Not toward the explosives.
Toward the lights.
A bluff.
“Enzo.”
He saw her eyes move.
Understood.
Luca fired into the ceiling above Bruno.
Bruno flinched.
Enzo crossed the distance and disarmed him.
The detonator hit the floor.
Nothing exploded.
Police arrested Bruno.
The archive was secured.
By sunrise, it was over.
Actually over.
Stefano and Rosa faced decades in prison.
Bruno agreed to cooperate.
Matteo survived surgery and later pleaded guilty to his role in Carlo’s death.
Enzo testified.
So did Alessia.
Months passed.
Milan changed seasons.
The Vieri name remained powerful.
But differently.
Enzo’s legitimate companies expanded.
The foundation opened.
Alessia became its public face despite repeatedly insisting she hated speeches.
Nona attended every event.
She flirted shamelessly with Luca.
Luca pretended to be terrified.
Marco became CEO of Vieri Holdings.
And Enzo?
Enzo learned to go home before midnight.
Sometimes.
One evening, Alessia found him standing inside the elevator at Vieri Tower.
The same elevator.
“Are you stalking cleaning women again?”
“Only one.”
She entered.
He pressed thirty-two.
Halfway up, the elevator stopped.
Alessia froze.
Enzo immediately raised both hands.
“I did that.”
“You WHAT?”
“It’s safe.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Please wait.”
The lights dimmed.
Not darkness.
Soft amber.
Exactly like that first night.
Enzo stood where he had stood before.
But this time he stayed several feet away.
“Back then,” he said, “I thought power meant nobody could tell me no.”
Alessia’s anger softened.
“You corrected me.”
“I slapped your hand.”
“Very educational.”
She smiled.
He continued.
“You were the first person in years who looked at me and saw a man behaving badly instead of a name everyone feared.”
“That’s romantic when you phrase it very carefully.”
“I practiced.”
“I can tell.”
Enzo reached into his pocket.
Alessia’s smile vanished.
He held a ring.
But he did not kneel yet.
“Before I ask, I need you to understand something.”
Her eyes filled.
“You can say no.”
The elevator seemed suddenly very quiet.
“And nothing changes,” he continued. “Your job stays yours. Your home stays yours. Your choices stay yours. I stay the irritating man who brings coffee to your grandmother.”
A tear escaped down Alessia’s cheek.
“Enzo.”
“May I ask?”
She laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
He knelt.
“Alessia Rinaldi, will you marry me?”
She stared at him.
Then deliberately waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Enzo’s confidence began collapsing.
“Alessia?”
She smiled.
“I wanted you to experience not being in control.”
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
She held out her hand.
“Yes.”
For once, Enzo Vieri looked completely speechless.
Then the elevator suddenly jerked.
Both froze.
Alessia stared at him.
“You planned that too?”
“No.”
The elevator dropped an inch.
Enzo went pale.
Alessia burst out laughing.
A maintenance voice crackled through the speaker.
“Sorry, Signor Vieri. Minor calibration issue.”
Enzo looked upward.
“You’re fired.”
Alessia grabbed his face.
“No firing people on our engagement night.”
“Our?”
“Our.”
May you like
Then she kissed him.
But one final surprise was waiting upstairs.
