Chapter 4 - The Secret Anna Left Behind
Gunfire erupted outside.
Elena ran.
She didn’t think.
She knew only one thing.
Sofia.
The nursery was upstairs.
Behind her, men shouted.
Glass shattered.
Elena reached the bedroom and grabbed Sofia from the crib.
The baby screamed.
“I know. I know.”
Elena wrapped her inside a blanket.
The door opened.
Elena spun around.
A man dressed in black entered.
Not Matteo.
Not one of his guards.
He raised a weapon.
Elena backed toward the window.
“Give me the baby.”
“No.”
“You don’t want to die for someone else’s child.”
Something changed inside Elena.
She held Sofia tighter.
“You picked the wrong woman to say that to.”
The man stepped forward.
A shot exploded.
He collapsed.
Matteo stood behind him.
“Elena.”
She could barely breathe.
Matteo rushed forward.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Sofia?”
“She’s okay.”
He checked them both anyway.
His hands shook.
“Elena, look at me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
She touched her cheek.
A piece of shattered glass had cut her.
“It’s nothing.”
Matteo stared at the dead attacker.
Then at her.
“You could have been killed.”
“So could your daughter.”
“That’s different.”
“No, Matteo. It isn’t.”
For several seconds they simply stared at each other.
Then Nikolai appeared.
“We need to leave.”
Matteo raised his weapon.
Nikolai rolled his eyes.
“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have warned you.”
Another explosion shook the house.
Matteo cursed.
“Garage. Now.”
They escaped through an underground tunnel leading to a boathouse.
Twenty minutes later, they were racing across black water.
Sofia finally stopped crying against Elena.
Nikolai sat opposite them.
Matteo kept his pistol aimed at his brother.
“This is getting ridiculous,” Nikolai said.
“Then start explaining.”
“I already did.”
“Not enough.”
Nikolai looked at Sofia.
“Anna told me she discovered Viktor’s operation about two months before she died.”
“Why tell you?”
“Because she thought you’d go to war immediately.”
“She was right.”
“Yes.”
Nikolai leaned forward.
“She wanted evidence first.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena looked down at Sofia.
Anna’s words repeated in her mind.
Matteo will find it when he finally looks at his daughter.
She frowned.
“What was Sofia wearing when Anna died?”
Matteo looked at her.
“What?”
“When your wife left that night. What was Sofia wearing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“Elena—”
“Anna said you’d find it when you looked at your daughter.”
Matteo went silent.
Nikolai stared at Sofia.
Elena examined the blanket.
“Does Sofia have anything that belonged to Anna?”
Matteo’s face changed.
“A necklace.”
“Where?”
“Inside her diaper bag.”
They reached another safe property before dawn.
Matteo dumped the contents of Sofia’s bag onto a table.
Diapers.
Clothes.
Medicine.
A silver necklace.
He picked it up.
A small oval locket hung from the chain.
“My wife wore this every day.”
“Open it,” Elena said.
He did.
Inside was a photograph.
Nothing else.
Nikolai sighed.
“Wonderful.”
Elena took the locket.
“It’s heavy.”
Matteo frowned.
She pressed along the edge.
A tiny panel opened.
A memory card fell onto the table.
Nobody spoke.
Nikolai finally whispered, “Anna.”
Matteo stared at it.
His eyes filled with something Elena had never seen there.
Grief.
Not the controlled version.
The real thing.
“She knew.”
Elena touched his arm.
“She trusted you to find it.”
“No.”
He looked at Sofia.
“She trusted me to look at my daughter.”
They loaded the card onto an isolated computer.
Files appeared.
Hundreds.
Shipping records.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
Names.
Nikolai leaned back.
“This could destroy Viktor.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Not just Viktor.”
A folder was labeled VOLKOV.
Matteo opened it.
His face went pale.
Elena leaned closer.
“What?”
Nikolai swore.
The records implicated Matteo’s father.
Konstantin Volkov.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“My father financed Viktor.”
Nikolai nodded slowly.
“For years.”
“No.”
“It’s here.”
“My father ordered me to stop those routes.”
“Because you discovered the small part of an operation he controlled.”
Matteo stood abruptly.
Elena watched him pace.
“Where is your father now?”
She asked.
Matteo stopped.
“New York.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Matteo answered.
A familiar older voice filled the room.
“Hello, son.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“Father.”
“I hear you found Anna’s little insurance policy.”
Nobody moved.
Konstantin continued.
“Bring it to New York.”
“No.”
A pause.
Then his father laughed.
“You misunderstand.”
“What?”
“I’m not asking.”
A photograph arrived on Matteo’s phone.
He opened it.
Nikolai stood.
“Who is that?”
Matteo looked at Elena.
Her blood turned cold.
The photograph showed her younger sister, Mia, leaving her apartment in Chicago.
Konstantin spoke again.
“You have twenty-four hours.”
Elena grabbed the phone.
“If you touch her—”
“Elena Rossi.”
The old man sounded amused.
“How lovely to finally meet the woman feeding my granddaughter.”
Matteo took the phone.
“My family is not part of this.”
Konstantin replied calmly.
“Neither was Anna.”
May you like
The call ended.
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