Chapter 4 - The Traitor at Alessandro's Table
By sunrise, Il Corvo Nero was closed.
Alessandro sat at the same table where Bruno had found him.
Four lieutenants faced him.
One chair was empty.
Marco Bellini's.
Alessandro placed a photograph on the table.
Bellini beside Isabella's car.
Nobody spoke.
“Interesting night,” Alessandro said.
Salvatore Conti shifted.
“Where did you get that?”
“Wrong question.”
Alessandro looked around the table.
“The correct question is why one of you tried to murder the mother of my daughter.”
Silence.
That was how they learned Sofia existed.
One man whispered:
“Daughter?”
Alessandro's eyes moved toward him.
“Is there a problem?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Luca entered.
“We found Bellini.”
“Where?”
“Dock seventeen.”
Alessandro stood.
Twenty minutes later, Marco Bellini was brought into a warehouse office.
His expensive suit was dirty.
He smiled when Alessandro entered.
“So it's true.”
Alessandro closed the door.
“You tell me.”
“You have a daughter.”
Alessandro's face revealed nothing.
Marco laughed.
“Your father spent years hiding that secret.”
“My father?”
“You really didn't know?”
“Explain.”
Marco leaned back.
“Your father knew Isabella was pregnant before she disappeared.”
Alessandro's hands tightened.
“He wanted the Romano bloodline erased. Your father believed a child connecting the Moretti and Romano families could eventually challenge everything.”
“So he ordered Isabella killed.”
“He ordered several things.”
“Did you help him?”
Marco smiled.
That was enough.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Why now?”
“Because Isabella contacted someone.”
“Who?”
Marco's smile disappeared.
“She has something that belongs to us.”
“What?”
“Records.”
Alessandro glanced at Luca.
Marco continued.
“Your father kept books nobody was supposed to see. Payments. Judges. Politicians. Businesses. Names.”
“And Isabella has them?”
“She has the only copy.”
Alessandro understood.
The crash wasn't revenge.
It was cleanup.
“Where are the records?”
Marco laughed.
“If I knew, Isabella wouldn't have survived six years.”
Alessandro turned toward the door.
Marco called after him.
“You think this ends with me?”
Alessandro stopped.
“Four men sat at your table yesterday.”
Marco smiled.
“One of them is still working with me.”
Back at the hospital, Isabella listened without interrupting.
When Alessandro finished, she looked toward Sofia.
“You need to take her somewhere safe.”
“You're both coming to my estate.”
“No.”
“Isabella.”
“I won't put Sofia inside your world.”
“My world already found her.”
That silenced her.
Alessandro lowered his voice.
“You ran for six years. Someone still found you.”
“I know.”
“Then stop running alone.”
Isabella looked at him.
“I don't know if I can trust you.”
“You trusted a German Shepherd.”
“Bruno has better judgment than most men.”
Alessandro almost smiled.
“So apparently he chose me.”
Bruno, lying beside Sofia's chair, lifted his head.
Sofia giggled.
“He likes you.”
“I noticed.”
Isabella finally sighed.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“We go to your estate.”
Alessandro nodded.
“But Sofia gets her own room.”
“Obviously.”
“And Bruno sleeps wherever she wants.”
Alessandro looked at the enormous muddy Shepherd.
“Within reason.”
Sofia immediately interrupted.
“He sleeps in my bed.”
Alessandro looked at Isabella.
She smiled for the first time.
“Good luck.”
For one brief moment, there was no war.
No betrayal.
No missing ledger.
Just a five-year-old girl, her dog, and two people realizing their lives had somehow collided again.
Then Luca entered.
“Boss.”
Alessandro recognized the expression.
“What now?”
“We know who Bellini's partner is.”
“Who?”
Luca hesitated.
“Giovanni.”
Alessandro slowly turned.
The man who had followed him down the ravine.
The man who had guarded him for eleven years.
May you like
And the man who knew exactly where Alessandro was taking Isabella and Sofia.
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