Chapter 6 - THE ENEMY WHO WAS NEVER ON THE LEDGER
Three days later, a woman named Evelyn Shaw entered my house carrying a federal identification badge.
She was fifty.
Gray suit.
Calm eyes.
No visible fear of me.
That alone made her interesting.
“I assume you found the transmitter,” she said.
Marco’s expression became hostile.
“You planted it?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
She looked at me.
“Your mother.”
I almost laughed.
“My mother d/i/e/d seventeen years ago.”
“Yes.”
“The technology isn’t seventeen years old.”
“No.”
She sat.
“But the program is.”
I said nothing.
Evelyn opened a folder.
Inside were photographs of Isabella.
My mother.
Meeting with investigators.
Secretly.
“She contacted our predecessor unit eighteen years ago,” Evelyn said. “She offered information about Vittorio.”
“Then why didn’t you protect her?”
Pain crossed Evelyn’s face.
“We failed.”
At least she did not insult me with excuses.
“She d/i/e/d before she could enter protection.”
“P/o/isoned.”
“We believe so.”
“By Carlo?”
“Carlo facilitated access.”
“Vittorio ordered it.”
“We believe that too.”
Gabriel entered.
He had heard enough.
“Then why didn’t you arrest him?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Because your father had compromised the investigation.”
Of course.
“How?” I asked.
“One of our own supervisors was in the ledger.”
Silence.
There it was.
The reason institutions had failed.
Vittorio had not merely corrupted outsiders.
He had reached inside the people investigating him.
Evelyn continued.
“Your mother realized that. So she stopped trusting us.”
“The transmitter?”
“Her contingency plan.”
“She couldn’t have planted modern equipment.”
“She didn’t.”
Evelyn looked at Marco.
“Your head of security did.”
Every person in the room turned.
Marco froze.
I looked at him.
He looked at Evelyn.
Then at me.
For the first time in eighteen years, I saw guilt in his face.
“Marco?”
He exhaled.
“Your mother recruited me.”
The sentence struck differently than anything else had.
“You worked for her?”
“I protected her when I could.”
“You were twenty-three.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Not everything.”
I stepped closer.
“You knew Vittorio might have ordered her d/e/@/th?”
“Not until later.”
“And you never told me?”
“She made me promise.”
“She’s been gone seventeen years.”
“I know.”
My anger rose.
Gabriel stepped between us.
“Lorenzo.”
“No.”
I looked at Marco.
“Why the transmitter?”
“Isabella created a succession protocol.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means if Vittorio ever resurfaced, I was supposed to gather evidence.”
“So you recorded me?”
“I recorded anyone discussing him.”
“In my house.”
“Yes.”
I nearly hit him.
Maybe he expected it.
I didn’t.
Because suddenly I understood something Vittorio never had.
Betrayal was not always simple.
Marco had violated my trust.
But he had done it because of a promise to my mother.
That did not erase the violation.
But it complicated the judgment.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Vittorio appeared?”
“Because the protocol said not to.”
“What protocol?”
Evelyn slid another document toward me.
Isabella’s handwriting.
IF VITTORIO RETURNS, TRUST NEITHER SON UNTIL THEY CHOOSE WHAT KIND OF MEN THEY WILL BECOME.
Gabriel stared.
I almost smiled bitterly.
Even d/e/@/d, our mother was evaluating us.
Evelyn continued.
“She knew Vittorio would try to turn you into him.”
“Did we pass?”
“That isn’t for me to decide.”
I looked at Gabriel.
He smiled faintly.
“I vote yes.”
“Biased.”
“Extremely.”
Then Evelyn delivered the real problem.
“Vittorio is offering names.”
My expression hardened.
“To save himself?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone.”
“Even his remaining loyalists?”
“Especially them.”
Gabriel understood first.
“He wants chaos.”
Evelyn nodded.
“If he cannot control the network, he wants to destroy everyone inside it.”
“So?”
“So several people on the ledger now believe you have the complete original.”
“And they’ll come after us.”
“Yes.”
Elena entered carrying coffee.
She stopped.
“Who is coming after us?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
She put the tray down.
“No.”
I sighed.
“Elena—”
“No more conversations where everyone decides what I’m allowed to know.”
Gabriel looked almost proud.
I explained.
She listened.
Then she said, “We leave.”
I looked at Gabriel.
He nodded.
Lucia mattered more than any estate.
Within hours, Elena, Lucia, and Gabriel were moved to a protected location.
Pino went with them.
Lucia refused to leave without him.
Nobody argued.
I remained behind.
So did Marco.
Our trust was damaged.
But not destroyed.
Not yet.
That night, I confronted him privately.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because your mother believed you needed the freedom to become yourself without knowing she was watching from the past.”
“That sounds poetic.”
“She was better with words than I am.”
I sat opposite him.
“Did you love her?”
Marco looked at me.
Then smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
That surprised me more than I expected.
“She knew?”
“No.”
“You never told her?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She loved your father once. Then she loved you and Gabriel more. There wasn’t room for anything else.”
For the first time, Marco was not my security chief.
He was simply a man who had spent half his life honoring a promise to a woman who could never thank him.
My anger softened.
Not disappeared.
Softened.
“Was Pino part of her plan too?”
Marco actually laughed.
“No.”
“Good.”
“I’m fairly sure the dog operates independently.”
That felt true.
At 2:13 a.m., my phone rang.
Gabriel.
I answered instantly.
“What?”
His voice was tense.
“Lucia is gone.”
I stood.
“What?”
“Elena was asleep. I was downstairs. Pino started barking. When we went up, the window was open.”
My heart stopped.
“Pino?”
“Gone too.”
That mattered.
If someone had taken Lucia, Pino would not have gone quietly.
Unless—
“Check the rabbit.”
“What?”
“Check whether the rabbit is gone.”
Seconds passed.
Then Gabriel whispered, “It’s gone.”
I closed my eyes.
Lucia had left intentionally.
Why?
Then Elena shouted something in the background.
Gabriel returned.
“She left a note.”
“What does it say?”
May you like
His voice shook.
“She wrote: ‘Pino found Grandpa.’”
