Chapter 4 - The House by the Water
The Bellport property looked abandoned.
It wasn’t.
One light burned behind an upstairs curtain.
Marco watched through binoculars.
“Two men outside. Maybe another inside.”
Alessandro studied the house.
“Where would Vittorio keep her?”
“Basement.”
“Why?”
“Only room without street-facing windows.”
Alessandro looked toward the shoreline.
“There’s a cellar entrance behind the house.”
Marco glanced at him.
“How do you know?”
“Vittorio brought me here fifteen years ago.”
“You remember that?”
“I remember doors.”
They approached quietly with Alessandro’s security team.
Within minutes, the property was secured without a public confrontation.
Marco opened the cellar door.
“Elena?”
Nothing.
Then a weak voice came from behind another locked interior door.
“Who’s there?”
Alessandro stopped.
“Elena.”
Silence.
Then—
“Mr. Moretti?”
He opened the door.
Elena Rossi stood inside.
Exhausted.
Pale.
But alive.
She stared at Alessandro as though she didn’t trust her own eyes.
Then she noticed what he was holding.
Mia’s rabbit.
Her knees nearly gave way.
“Mia.”
“She’s safe.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“My baby.”
“She’s waiting for you.”
“Vittorio?”
“Not here.”
She grabbed Alessandro’s sleeve.
“He knows she saw him.”
“I know.”
“He’ll go after her.”
“He already tried to return to the house.”
Elena’s face drained.
Alessandro steadied her.
“He didn’t reach her.”
“Where is he?”
“At my estate.”
Elena stared at him.
“You left Mia in the same house as him?”
“No.”
Alessandro’s voice was calm.
“I left Vittorio in a room with six men who no longer work for him.”
Marco appeared at the doorway.
“We need to leave.”
Elena shook her head.
“Wait.”
She moved toward an old cabinet.
“There’s more.”
Alessandro frowned.
“More evidence?”
“Vittorio made calls here.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know his name.”
Elena opened a loose wooden panel and removed a cheap phone.
“I stole this yesterday.”
Marco took it.
“You risked your life for a phone?”
Elena looked at Alessandro.
“I heard them talking about Mia.”
That answered everything.
They returned to the estate shortly after midnight.
The moment Elena entered the foyer, a tiny voice screamed from the staircase.
“Mommy!”
Mia ran.
Elena dropped to her knees.
Mia crashed into her arms.
“Mommy!”
“Oh, baby.”
Elena held her so tightly that Rosa began crying behind them.
“You came back.”
“I came back.”
Mia pointed at Alessandro.
“Uncle Al found you.”
Elena looked up.
Alessandro stood several feet away, silent.
Mia grabbed her mother’s hand.
“I gave him Bunny.”
Elena laughed through her tears.
“You did?”
“He promised.”
Elena met Alessandro’s eyes.
“And he kept it.”
The reunion lasted only minutes before Marco approached.
“Alessandro.”
Something in his expression pulled Alessandro away.
“What?”
Marco held Elena’s stolen phone.
“We identified the second voice from the recording.”
“Who?”
Marco turned the screen.
A photograph appeared.
Alessandro’s expression hardened.
Elena noticed.
“Who is he?”
Alessandro answered quietly.
“Someone Vittorio could never have betrayed me without.”
“Who?”
May you like
“My uncle.”
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