Chapter 5 - Bellini Street
Mara thought she had run out of shocks.
She was wrong.
"My father was murdered because he found the truth," she said. "Now you're telling me he was part of it?"
Evelyn closed both hands around the little key.
"No."
"Then what did you mean?"
"Thomas did something illegal to get the evidence out."
Mara laughed bitterly.
"That's the secret?"
"No."
Evelyn looked at Matteo.
"Your father helped him."
Matteo went still.
"Carlo?"
"Yes."
Evelyn nodded.
"By the end, Carlo knew Vittorio had built the Dragon Circle. He wanted to stop him, but he had spent too many years protecting his brother. Too many people would have gone down with Vittorio."
Matteo's mouth hardened.
"So he hid it."
"He planned to turn everything over to federal prosecutors."
Matteo stared at her.
"My father?"
"Yes."
"He spent his life telling me never to trust the government."
"He spent his last months trying to negotiate a way out for you."
Matteo looked away.
Mara saw the pain cross his face.
Another dead parent.
Another history rewritten by someone else.
Evelyn continued.
"Thomas moved the records. Carlo provided the access codes. Cecilia recorded statements. I was supposed to take Mara and disappear until it was safe."
"And Vittorio found out," Mara said.
"Yes."
"The fire."
Evelyn nodded.
"Vittorio ordered it. Salvatore arranged the men."
Mara remembered the old man's words in the restaurant.
Evelyn should have died that night.
"What happened after?"
"I got Matteo out. Cecilia was trapped upstairs."
Matteo's face tightened.
"I remember."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"She was alive when the firefighters found her. Carlo moved her to a private clinic because he knew Vittorio would try again."
"Why wasn't I allowed to see her?"
"Because she asked him not to let you."
Matteo's face broke for one instant.
"Why?"
"She was burned badly."
Evelyn's voice softened.
"She wanted your last memory of her to be before the fire."
Matteo looked down.
Mara almost reached for him.
She stopped herself.
Evelyn saw it.
She said nothing.
The plan to return to Chicago changed immediately.
Vittorio already knew Mara existed.
He likely knew St. Catherine's location now too.
They moved Evelyn that afternoon.
Not to Matteo's estate.
To a small property owned through one of his legitimate companies outside Geneva, Illinois.
By evening, all five of them—Mara, Matteo, Evelyn, Enzo, and Rosa—sat around a kitchen table while Nico slept upstairs.
Evelyn kept looking toward the baby monitor.
"He has Alessia's mouth."
Matteo's eyes softened.
"You knew her?"
"Not well. She found me four years ago."
Mara looked sharply at her mother.
"You were in contact with her before you staged your death?"
"Yes."
"Did you know she was investigating Vittorio?"
"Yes."
Mara stood.
She had to move or scream.
"Everyone was protecting everyone, and somehow everybody ended up dead."
Evelyn flinched.
Mara kept going.
"You let Alessia carry this. You let her investigate a man you knew was dangerous."
"I begged her to stop."
"Did you tell Matteo?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't trust him."
The room went silent.
Matteo did not react.
That somehow made it worse.
Evelyn looked at his hands.
"Those tattoos were Vittorio's mark."
Matteo's voice was quiet.
"My father put them on me at eighteen."
"Because Vittorio convinced him they represented family."
"I know that now."
Evelyn's expression softened.
"I'm sorry."
Matteo nodded once.
Mara turned away.
She had been angry at Matteo for secrets.
Now she understood that he had been living inside other people's secrets too.
At midnight, after Evelyn went to bed and Enzo left to make calls, Mara found Matteo on the back porch.
Snow had begun to fall.
He stood without a coat.
"You're going to freeze."
"I've had worse evenings."
She stood beside him.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Mara said, "Do you regret the tattoos?"
Matteo looked at his hands.
"Every day since yesterday."
"That's not very long."
"It feels longer."
She smiled faintly.
He looked at her.
"Your mother was right not to trust me."
Mara turned.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Punish yourself because it's easier than admitting you're angry at the people who lied to you."
His gaze sharpened.
"You've known me one day."
"I'm observant."
"So am I."
"What have you observed?"
He looked toward the warm kitchen window.
"That you make jokes when you're afraid. That you rub the edge of your pendant when you want to run. That you always check where Nico is before you enter a room."
Mara's breath caught.
Matteo continued.
"And that you are angry at your mother because you love her enough to be hurt."
She looked away.
"That's annoyingly accurate."
"I've been told I have flaws."
"By people still alive?"
He laughed softly.
The sound surprised both of them.
Then his expression changed.
"Mara."
"Yes?"
"If we go to Bellini Street tomorrow, you stay beside me."
"No."
His eyebrows lifted.
"I stay where I can see what's happening."
"That is what I meant."
"No, you meant behind you."
"Preferably."
"Not happening."
He stepped closer.
"Vittorio has already killed people for what may be under that house."
"And he killed my father."
"Which is why I would prefer not to add you."
The sentence landed between them.
Mara looked up at him.
His eyes were almost black in the porch light.
For one dangerous second, she forgot about Vittorio.
Then a baby cried inside.
They both moved at once.
They stopped.
Mara looked at him.
Matteo looked at her.
Then they both laughed.
The next morning they went to Bellini Street.
The original property had been fenced for decades.
Most people assumed it was an abandoned lot beside a row of renovated townhouses.
But beneath weeds and snow, a section of the old foundation remained.
Evelyn had drawn the layout from memory.
"Basement stairwell was under the pantry."
Matteo's men cleared debris.
Two hours later, they found the door.
It was steel.
Blackened but intact.
The key from the pendant fit.
The basement smelled of rust, wet stone, and twenty-five years of silence.
Mara followed Matteo down.
Enzo came behind her.
A concrete wall stood at the far end.
Matteo tapped along it until one section sounded hollow.
They broke through.
Behind it was a narrow room.
A safe stood against the wall.
Old.
Heavy.
Untouched.
The pendant key opened the first lock.
Matteo entered a combination Evelyn had remembered from Cecilia.
The handle turned.
Inside were six binders.
Four VHS tapes.
A stack of photographs.
And one sealed envelope.
FOR MATTEO.
His mother's handwriting.
He opened it slowly.
Inside was a letter.
My son,
If you are reading this, then the truth survived longer than I did.
Do not become what Vittorio tells you a DeLuca must be.
Power without love is only fear with better clothing.
The dragons were never ours.
Protect the innocent people our name has hurt. Walk away from anything that requires you to become cruel to keep it.
And if Evelyn's little girl survived, remember that her father died trying to save this family from itself.
Her name is Mara.
She deserves a life untouched by ours.
Matteo stopped reading.
Mara's eyes filled.
He looked at her.
"Apparently I'm doing badly at the last part."
She laughed through tears.
"Extremely."
Enzo made a strangled sound behind them.
They turned.
He was staring at one of the photographs.
"Matteo."
The photo showed Vittorio standing beside a black sedan.
The date stamp was eight months earlier.
The day Alessia died.
Beside Vittorio stood Dr. Hale.
And a man Mara recognized from Matteo's house.
A guard named Luca.
One of the men currently assigned to protect Nico.
Matteo's face went white.
He pulled out his phone.
No signal underground.
He ran for the stairs.
Mara was behind him.
By the time they reached the street, Matteo was dialing.
Rosa answered on the second ring.
Her voice was panicked.
"Matteo—"
Then someone shouted.
A crash.
The call ended.
Matteo dialed again.
No answer.
He called security.
Nothing.
Mara felt ice fill her veins.
"Nico."
Matteo was already moving toward the SUV.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Vittorio's voice came through the speaker.
"Bring me the safe, nephew."
Matteo's hand tightened.
May you like
Vittorio laughed softly.
"And tell Evelyn's daughter that the baby misses her."
