Chapter 5 - The Truth Buried with Her Mother
Ella stared at Alessandro across the ruined dining table.
Red wine soaked the white cloth between them. The silver tray still hissed where the poison had touched it. Guards stood motionless around the room, waiting for orders that did not come.
“You knew,” she repeated.
Alessandro’s face remained still, but his eyes did not.
“I knew my father had been accused.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“I never found proof.”
“You knew enough to hide it from me.”
“Ella—”
“How long?”
Lily shifted anxiously in her arms. “Mommy?”
Ella forced her voice lower.
“How long did you know Gabriel believed your father killed my mother?”
Alessandro looked toward Marco.
“Clear the room.”
“No,” Ella said. “You don’t get to remove every witness and control the story.”
Marco stepped closer. “Ella, Lily should not hear this.”
Ella looked down at her daughter.
Lily’s small face had gone pale. She was watching Alessandro, trying to understand why everyone suddenly seemed afraid of him again.
Rosa entered through the side door.
“Come with me, little bird.”
Lily tightened her arms around Ella’s neck. “No.”
Ella kissed her forehead. “I need to talk to your daddy.”
“Are you mad?”
“Yes.”
“At him?”
Ella hesitated.
Alessandro answered quietly. “She has a right to be.”
Lily looked at him. “Did you do something bad?”
“No,” he said. “But I kept something from her.”
“That is bad.”
“Yes.”
Lily considered this, then allowed Rosa to take her.
As they left, she pointed at Alessandro.
“You have to say sorry.”
The door closed.
Ella turned back to him. “Start talking.”
Alessandro dismissed everyone except Marco.
“My father, Vittorio, controlled the Vitale organization before me,” he began. “He wanted access to a shipping company owned by your mother’s family.”
“My mother was a school secretary.”
“By then, yes. But her father owned shares in several freight terminals.”
Ella frowned. “She never told me.”
“Because she walked away from the family business.”
“What business?”
“Legitimate shipping at first. Later, Gabriel used part of it to move money for East Coast crews.”
Ella’s stomach tightened.
“Gabriel was involved with the mafia?”
“He was not a soldier. He was a broker. He moved money, created companies, and arranged introductions.”
“And my mother?”
“She discovered what he was doing.”
Ella sank into a chair.
Alessandro continued.
“She threatened to expose him. Gabriel claimed my father ordered her killed to protect the shipping routes.”
“Did he?”
“I confronted Vittorio.”
“When?”
“Three months before our wedding.”
Ella looked up sharply. “You knew before you married me?”
“I knew there was an accusation.”
“And you said nothing.”
“My father denied it. He showed me records suggesting Gabriel had stolen money and blamed him.”
“You believed him?”
“I believed neither of them.”
“Then why marry me?”
The question came out more painfully than she intended.
Alessandro’s expression changed.
“Because I loved you.”
“Not enough to tell me the truth.”
“I thought the accusation was buried.”
“My mother was buried.”
The words struck him into silence.
Ella stood so quickly that the chair scraped across the floor.
“You let me marry into the family that may have murdered her.”
“I was trying to prove what happened.”
“For five years?”
“My father died before I could force the truth from him.”
“And you simply stopped looking?”
“No.”
Marco moved toward a cabinet and removed a leather folder.
He placed it in front of Ella.
Inside were bank records, photographs, shipping manifests, and copies of hospital files.
Ella flipped through them with shaking hands.
“What is all this?”
“Everything Alessandro collected,” Marco said. “Every payment connected to your mother’s death.”
A transfer had been made two days before her mother’s fatal car accident.
The money came from a company connected to Vittorio Vitale.
The receiving account belonged to a driver named Samuel Crane.
Ella looked at Alessandro.
“You had this?”
“I found it six months after you left.”
“You still didn’t tell me.”
“You were pregnant when you disappeared. Then Lily was born. Gabriel resurfaced through intermediaries. I believed telling you would pull you back into the war.”
“You decided ignorance was safer.”
“Yes.”
“Has that ever worked?”
“No,” he said.
That answer took some of the force from her anger.
Only some.
Marco’s phone buzzed.
He checked the screen. “The doctor stabilized Sofia. The needle contained a fast-acting nerve agent, but the dose was incomplete.”
“Can she speak?” Alessandro asked.
“Not yet.”
Ella looked at the evidence again.
“Why would Gabriel attack Sofia?”
Alessandro turned toward the photograph of the fake daycare employee.
“Because Sofia handled Gabriel’s estate.”
“Meaning?”
“She may know how he faked his death.”
Marco’s radio crackled.
A guard’s voice came through.
“Vehicle approaching the north gate. No identification.”
Alessandro reached for his weapon.
“Stop it outside the outer barrier.”
The radio crackled again.
“It’s already inside.”
Marco’s expression hardened. “That’s impossible.”
The lights flickered.
Then a deep explosion shook the floor.
The dining room windows rattled.
Ella looked toward the door. “Lily.”
Alessandro caught her arm.
“Marco, get them to the underground garage.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
“You’re going to Lily. I’m clearing the route.”
Another explosion sounded, closer this time.
Gunfire erupted beyond the west wing.
The estate alarms began to howl.
Marco drew his pistol and led Ella into the corridor.
Smoke rolled beneath the ceiling.
Servants ran toward the emergency staircase while guards shouted into radios.
Ella grabbed Marco’s sleeve. “Where is Rosa?”
“Children’s room.”
They reached the main staircase.
A body lay near the bottom.
Peter Rizzi.
His eyes were open, and blood spread beneath his head.
Ella stopped.
Marco checked his pulse. “Dead.”
A shadow moved above them.
Marco raised his gun.
Sofia stood at the top of the stairs.
She wore a hospital robe beneath a dark coat. One hand gripped the railing. The other held a pistol against Rosa’s side.
Lily stood beside them, crying.
Ella’s heart seemed to tear in half.
“Sofia?”
Alessandro entered from the opposite corridor and aimed his weapon.
Sofia laughed weakly.
“No one move.”
“You were poisoned,” Ella said.
“A measured dose.”
“You poisoned yourself?”
“I needed Alessandro to believe I was another target.”
Alessandro’s voice was cold. “Put the weapon down.”
“You should have listened when your father told you not to marry her.”
Ella stared at her. “You worked for Gabriel.”
“I worked with him.”
“Why?”
Sofia’s eyes shifted toward Alessandro.
“Because I spent my entire life protecting this family. Then you chose her.”
Alessandro did not react.
Sofia’s face twisted.
“You brought an outsider into our home. You gave her influence. You nearly abandoned everything your father built.”
“Ella never asked me to abandon anything.”
“She made you weak.”
Lily sobbed. “Daddy.”
Alessandro’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Sofia pressed the pistol harder into Rosa’s ribs.
“Drop your weapon.”
He slowly lowered it to the floor.
Marco followed.
Ella stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
Alessandro turned sharply. “No.”
Sofia smiled. “There it is. The weakness.”
Ella continued toward the stairs.
“You don’t need Lily.”
“I need Alessandro to understand loss.”
“You think he loves me more than her?”
Sofia’s smile faded.
Ella moved one step higher.
“Look at him. If you hurt Lily, he will tear apart everyone you have ever known. But me? I’m the woman who left him. I’m the reason you hate him.”
“Ella, stop,” Alessandro said.
She ignored him.
“Let Lily and Rosa come down. I’ll go with you.”
Lily reached for her. “Mommy.”
Sofia considered the offer.
Then a man appeared behind her.
Gray coat.
Burn scar on the left side of his neck.
Gabriel Vale.
He placed one hand on Sofia’s shoulder.
“That won’t be necessary.”
Ella’s breath caught.
Gabriel looked older than she remembered, but his eyes were unchanged.
Warm once.
Now empty.
“You killed my mother,” Ella said.
Gabriel sighed. “Your mother forced my hand.”
The truth landed more brutally than any accusation against Vittorio.
“You blamed Alessandro’s father.”
“Vittorio helped clean it up. That made the story believable.”
Alessandro’s voice became deadly.
“You used my father.”
“And he used me. That was the nature of our arrangement.”
Ella could barely breathe.
“My mother trusted you.”
“She was going to destroy everything.”
“So you murdered her.”
Gabriel’s expression remained calm.
“I preserved the family.”
Ella looked at Lily.
“No. You destroyed it.”
Gabriel gestured toward the upper corridor.
“Time to go.”
Sofia pulled Rosa and Lily backward.
Alessandro watched every movement.
His face was controlled, but Ella saw his right hand shifting slowly toward the knife hidden at the back of his belt.
Gabriel noticed too.
He raised his gun and fired.
Alessandro staggered.
Ella screamed.
The bullet struck his shoulder, spinning him against the wall.
“Daddy!” Lily shrieked.
In that instant, Rosa drove her elbow into Sofia’s stomach.
Lily dropped to the floor.
Marco fired.
Sofia’s gun flew from her hand.
Alessandro, bleeding heavily, pulled the knife and threw it.
The blade struck Gabriel’s wrist.
His weapon fell down the stairs.
Ella ran upward.
She grabbed Lily and dragged her behind the stone railing as more gunfire erupted through the corridor.
Gabriel fled toward the west wing.
Sofia lunged for her pistol.
Rosa kicked it away.
Marco reached the landing and forced Sofia to the ground.
Alessandro climbed the stairs with one hand pressed to his shoulder.
Ella looked at him. “You’re bleeding.”
“He took Lily.”
“No, he didn’t.”
Alessandro looked behind her.
Lily was gone.
A service door stood open.
From the darkness beyond it came the sound of a child screaming.
May you like
Gabriel had circled back through the hidden corridor.
And this time, he had what he wanted.
