Chapter 4 - THE MAN INSIDE THE HOUSE
Z
Alessandro listened to his dead brother’s recording three times.
Each time the final sentence hurt more.
And Alessandro trusts him completely.
The file ended there.
Marcus explained that corruption had damaged the rest of the data.
Rosa had Matteo’s second copy hidden somewhere, but she refused to retrieve it until Lena and Noah were safely moved.
By two in the morning, three vehicles left the mansion.
The first was a decoy.
The second carried security.
The third held Elena, Lena, Noah, Rosa and Alessandro.
Alessandro insisted on driving.
Nobody argued.
The lake house sat two hours north, surrounded by woods and October darkness.
Noah slept through most of the journey.
Elena did not.
She watched Alessandro’s reflection in the windshield.
He looked carved from stone.
“You’re thinking of Dominic,” she said finally.
His hands tightened around the wheel.
“Dominic has been beside me since I was twenty-one.”
“That doesn’t mean Matteo meant him.”
“There aren’t many men I trust completely.”
“Maybe that was the point.”
Alessandro looked at her in the mirror.
“What?”
“Maybe Matteo knew you would immediately suspect the people closest to you. Maybe the recording is incomplete in a dangerous way.”
Rosa nodded from the passenger seat.
“Listen to her.”
Alessandro gave his aunt a dry look.
“You have information you haven’t shared for three years.”
“And I intend to live long enough to regret it.”
Elena almost laughed.
Even under threat, Rosa remained Rosa.
They reached the lake house shortly before four.
It was not really a house.
It was a cedar-and-stone retreat overlooking black water, with six bedrooms, a private dock and security cameras disguised as landscape lights.
Noah woke as Alessandro carried him inside.
The boy blinked.
“Uncle Alessandro?”
“Yes?”
“I can walk.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you carrying me?”
Alessandro considered this.
“Because I missed four years.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
Noah apparently found this reasonable.
He laid his head back on Alessandro’s shoulder.
“Okay.”
Later, after Lena settled Noah into bed, Rosa called Alessandro and Elena into the kitchen.
She removed a key from a chain around her neck.
“There is a safe in Matteo’s old room.”
Alessandro stared at her.
“You had the evidence in this house?”
“Where would you hide something from a Moretti?”
He thought.
“Inside another Moretti property.”
“Exactly.”
They climbed upstairs.
Matteo’s bedroom had barely changed.
A baseball cap hung on a bedpost.
Paperbacks filled a shelf.
A photograph showed two teenage brothers standing beside an old fishing boat, Alessandro looking annoyed while Matteo grinned.
Elena saw Alessandro’s face soften.
“He drove me crazy,” he said.
“You loved him.”
“More than I knew how to say.”
Rosa unlocked a small wall safe.
Inside lay an envelope and an external drive.
Alessandro took the envelope.
His name was written across it.
He opened it.
The letter inside was handwritten.
Alex,
If you’re reading this, I ran out of time.
First: none of this is your fault.
Second: don’t trust the evidence that looks easiest.
Someone wants you angry because angry men stop asking complicated questions.
Charles Hale is financing the operation.
Marcus is not your enemy.
And the person closest to the center is someone you would never suspect because he has spent years making himself useful.
Follow the money going through Moretti Development.
Not shipping.
Development.
Alessandro stopped reading.
Elena watched his face.
“What?”
He whispered one name.
“Victor.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
Victor Salerno was Alessandro’s godfather.
His father’s oldest friend.
Chairman of Moretti Development.
A man who had attended every birthday, funeral and wedding the family had held in thirty years.
Alessandro sat on the bed.
“No.”
Elena had never heard that tone from him.
Not disbelief.
Grief.
Rosa sat beside him.
“Your father trusted Victor.”
“He saved my life.”
“When?”
Elena asked gently.
Alessandro stared at the floor.
“I was twenty-three. A deal went wrong in Brooklyn. Someone fired through the windshield. Victor pulled me out.”
Elena understood immediately.
That kind of loyalty became religion in families like this.
Alessandro looked at Matteo’s letter again.
“He can’t be the traitor.”
“Then prove Matteo wrong,” Elena said.
Alessandro looked up.
She continued.
“But don’t protect Victor from questions just because you love him.”
His jaw tightened.
“Love.”
“Yes.”
“Interesting word.”
Elena’s pulse changed.
“This is not the moment.”
“It never seems to be.”
Rosa stood.
“I’m suddenly very tired.”
“Aunt Rosa.”
“Extremely tired.”
She left.
Elena stared after her.
“That woman is shameless.”
“She likes you.”
“She likes interfering.”
“Same thing.”
For half a second they smiled.
Then Alessandro’s expression changed.
“I meant what I said earlier.”
Elena looked away.
“Which part?”
“Wanting you.”
She folded Matteo’s letter carefully.
“You’re engaged.”
“Not after tonight.”
“That doesn’t erase what happened.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“What are you asking?”
“Nothing.”
That surprised her.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“For most of my life, when I wanted something, I took action. Bought it. Protected it. Removed whatever stood in the way.”
“I’m not something.”
“I know.”
He spoke softly.
“That is why I’m not asking.”
Elena’s defenses weakened despite herself.
“I’m going to dismantle the engagement. I’m going to find out who killed Matteo. I’m going to protect Lena and Noah.”
He paused.
“And then, if you still want to leave, I will let you.”
Elena’s throat burned.
“You make that sound noble.”
“It isn’t. I hate every word.”
She laughed.
He smiled.
Then something shattered downstairs.
Alessandro moved instantly.
He pulled Elena behind him.
A second crash sounded.
Lena screamed.
They ran.
The rear kitchen window had exploded inward.
Security alarms screamed through the house.
Dominic appeared from the hallway with a weapon drawn.
“Everyone down!”
Alessandro pushed Elena behind the stone island.
Outside, headlights vanished among the trees.
No shots followed.
Only silence.
Then Dominic saw something lying on the broken glass.
A phone.
He picked it up carefully.
The screen lit.
One video file.
Alessandro played it.
Security footage appeared.
It showed the Moretti mansion from earlier that evening.
Victoria walking upstairs.
Entering Alessandro’s office.
Opening a drawer.
Then Victor Salerno stepped into frame.
He kissed her.
Not affectionately.
Possessively.
And handed her a small black device.
The video ended.
A message appeared beneath it.
YOU’RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG ENGAGEMENT.
Elena stared at Alessandro.
Somebody outside the house had just exposed Victor.
May you like
But that meant someone else knew everything.
And if they had been close enough to throw the phone through the window, the lake house was no longer secret.
