Chapter 6 - The Night the Warehouse Burned
When I woke, I was on the pavement outside Pier Nine.
Smoke covered the sky.
Firefighters rushed past.
Someone was screaming.
“Eleanor!”
“I’m here.”
“Rosie?”
“Here!”
I pushed myself up.
“Matteo?”
No answer.
My heart stopped.
I ran toward the burning warehouse.
A firefighter grabbed me.
“You can't go in.”
“My husband is inside.”
“He's not your husband.”
“Then he will be.”
The words left my mouth before I understood them.
The firefighter stared.
I pulled away.
Then a dark figure emerged through the smoke.
Matteo.
He was carrying an injured man.
My father.
I ran to them.
“Are you okay?”
Matteo nodded.
“Your father is hurt.”
I knelt beside him.
My father opened his eyes.
“I told you to run.”
“I don't listen well.”
He smiled weakly.
“Clearly.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Victor escaped.”
My father nodded.
“He'll return.”
“Then we'll be ready.”
“No.”
My father grabbed Matteo's sleeve.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“Victor was never the one in charge.”
Silence.
I felt cold.
“Who is?”
My father looked at me.
“Mr. Ricca.”
I stared.
“He's dead.”
“No.”
My father shook his head.
“The body they found wasn't him.”
Matteo's face hardened.
“Then where is he?”
My father answered:
“Inside Laut.”
We returned to the restaurant.
The building looked abandoned.
Every chair was overturned.
The candles were gone.
The piano was silent.
Mr. Ricca's office door stood open.
Inside, a man sat behind the desk.
I recognized him immediately.
Mr. Ricca.
Alive.
He stood.
“Matteo.”
Matteo raised his gun.
Ricca smiled.
“Put it down.”
“No.”
Ricca looked at me.
“You've been surprisingly difficult.”
I realized something.
He had been watching me from the beginning.
The waitress.
The hungry woman.
The child.
The ledger.
Everything had been orchestrated.
“You sent Eleanor here.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“You killed him.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“He was killed by someone who thought they were working for me.”
“Who?”
“Victor.”
“Then why?”
“Because Daniel had the ledger.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“What is the ledger?”
Ricca's smile widened.
“A record of every illegal shipment your father ever authorized.”
Matteo went still.
“All of them?”
“All.”
“And you wanted it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To destroy the Rourke name.”
Ricca explained.
His father had been cheated by Matteo's grandfather decades earlier.
The resentment had lasted generations.
Ricca had infiltrated the family.
He manipulated Victor.
He recruited Daniel.
He destroyed my father's career.
He even arranged the collapse of my life before I ever walked into Laut.
“Why me?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Because your father hid the ledger where no one would think to look.”
“Where?”
“In plain sight.”
He pointed toward the dining room.
“Table eleven.”
Matteo looked at the table where we had first met.
There was a hollow compartment underneath.
Inside was a metal case.
My father had hidden the real evidence there years earlier.
Ricca smiled.
“You see?”
Everything had come full circle.
The restaurant.
The bowl.
The child.
The table.
The ledger.
The truth.
Ricca reached for the case.
Matteo stopped him.
“Don't.”
Ricca's expression changed.
“You think you can stop me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Matteo looked at me.
“Because I finally have something worth losing.”
Ricca laughed.
“You think love makes you stronger?”
“No.”
Matteo's voice was calm.
“It makes me certain.”
Then the doors burst open.
Police.
Federal agents.
Miss Delaney from the earlier surveillance team entered with evidence.
My father had secretly recorded Ricca's confession.
Everything had been planned.
Ricca was arrested.
Victor was captured three days later at the border.
And the network that had operated for years finally collapsed.
The city newspapers called it the biggest organized-crime investigation in Providence in decades.
But I cared about something else.
Rosie.
She had been sitting outside with Eleanor.
When I walked over, she ran into my arms.
“Mia!”
I hugged her.
“You're safe.”
She nodded.
“Where's Matteo?”
I smiled.
“Coming.”
She looked at me seriously.
“Are you going to marry him?”
I laughed.
“I don't know.”
She frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because people are complicated.”
She thought for a moment.
“So are adults.”
I laughed again.
Then Matteo appeared.
His jacket was dirty.
His cheek was bruised.
But he was smiling.
He crouched beside Rosie.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did you eat?”
“Yes.”
“What did you eat?”
“Three pieces of bread and cake.”
He looked horrified.
I said:
“She had soup too.”
He relaxed.
Then Rosie took his hand.
“Matteo?”
“Yes?”
“Can Mia come live with us?”
He looked at me.
My heart skipped.
“She has a job.”
“She can work at the restaurant.”
He smiled.
“She already does.”
Rosie thought about that.
“Then it's perfect.”
Matteo looked at me.
“For once, I agree with the kid.”
I smiled.
Maybe the little girl who had asked for one bowl of pasta had unknowingly changed all our lives.
But the story wasn't finished.
May you like
Because three months later, my father came home.
And he brought a secret that changed everything about Matteo and me.
