The Maid Cut Open Her Daughter's Dress in Front of the Mafia Boss

Lorenzo was moving before Nico finished the sentence.

He pulled a pistol from the locked drawer beneath the hall table, checked the magazine, and handed Anna a smaller one from the same compartment.

She looked at it.

"I don't want that near Sophie."

"Then keep it pointed away from her."

"That isn't what I meant."

"I know."

He turned to Nico.

"How many men?"

"Four cars. Twelve visible. Maybe more. Carlo is in the second car."

"Did he call?"

"No."

"Good."

Nico frowned.

"Good?"

"If he came to talk, he'd call. If he came to kill me, he'd cut the cameras first. He wants us frightened before he enters. That means he doesn't know how much we have."

Anna hated that the logic made sense.

Mrs. Bianca appeared at the top of the stairs in her robe, Sophie in her arms.

The child was awake and confused.

"Mama?"

Anna ran to her.

"We're going downstairs for a little while."

"Why?"

"Because Uncle Nico wants to show us the safe room."

Nico looked at Lorenzo.

Lorenzo did not correct the title.

The safe room had been built after Salvatore's death behind the wine cellar, concealed by shelves of Burgundy nobody in the house drank. It had reinforced walls, filtered air, two cameras, water, medical supplies, and an exterior tunnel that ended beneath the detached garage.

Anna stopped when she saw it.

"You have a bunker under your wine?"

"My father believed in preparing for bad dinner guests."

Sophie looked at Lorenzo.

"Is the bad guest Uncle Carlo?"

Every adult froze.

Children heard the truths people whispered around them and then returned them without manners.

Lorenzo crouched in front of her.

"Carlo is my uncle. He is not yours."

Sophie frowned.

"But you are my uncle?"

Anna's breath caught.

Lorenzo looked at her first.

She gave one small nod.

He turned back to the child.

"Yes."

"Because my daddy was your brother?"

"Yes."

"Was my daddy nice?"

The question broke something behind Lorenzo's ribs.

"He was annoying," he said.

Sophie blinked.

Anna stared at him.

Lorenzo continued, "He stole my shirts, cheated at cards, talked during movies, and once put a frog in my shoe."

Sophie smiled.

"That's funny."

"It was not funny."

"Did you love him?"

Lorenzo's voice lowered.

"More than I knew how to tell him."

Sophie considered this, then held out the gray rabbit.

"You can hold Rabbit until I come back. He helps when people are sad."

Lorenzo took the toy with both hands.

No one in the room spoke.

Then Nico's earpiece crackled.

"Gate opening. Carlo's coming in."

Lorenzo stood.

He gave Rabbit back.

"Keep him. I know another trick."

"What trick?"

"Being very difficult to kill."

Anna glared at him.

Sophie laughed.

It was the only sound that followed them as the safe-room door closed.

Carlo entered the main hall at two twenty-nine in a camel overcoat and black gloves.

He was sixty-two, silver-haired, elegant, and still handsome in the expensive way some men became when money protected them from consequence. He had attended Lorenzo's school plays. He had taught Gabriel how to drive. He had stood beside Lorenzo at two funerals and one empty grave.

Lorenzo met him beneath the chandelier.

Nico stood ten feet behind.

Carlo looked around.

"You seem awake."

"You brought twelve men."

"New York is dangerous."

"Not usually in my driveway."

Carlo smiled.

"I heard something tonight that concerned me."

"About my seamstress?"

The smile held.

"So it is Rossi."

"You said that on the phone."

"Did I?"

Lorenzo watched his uncle's eyes.

Salvatore had once told him that the first lie was rarely in the mouth. It was in the body preparing to support it.

Carlo's left thumb pressed once against his ring finger.

He had done that since Lorenzo was a boy whenever he was calculating.

"Why are you here?" Lorenzo asked.

"To protect you."

"From a seamstress."

"From old ghosts."

Carlo removed his gloves finger by finger.

"Enzo Rossi betrayed your father. We settled that twelve years ago. If his daughter has crawled out of whatever hole she found, it is because she wants money. Or revenge. Probably both."

"You seem certain she's his daughter."

A pause.

Tiny.

Enough.

Carlo smiled again.

"You confirmed it by asking."

Lorenzo smiled back.

"And you confirmed you knew before you arrived."

The smile left Carlo's face.

For the first time, uncle and nephew looked at each other without family between them.

"Where is she?" Carlo asked.

"Safe."

"Where is the ring?"

Nico shifted his weight.

Lorenzo did not.

"What ring?"

Carlo's gaze hardened.

There it was.

The mistake.

Lorenzo felt grief become certainty.

"I never said she had a ring."

Carlo was silent.

Then he sighed.

"Lorenzo, listen to me carefully. Your father was dying. Dying men say many things. Enzo manipulated him. That ring belongs to this family. Give it to me before that woman turns a relic into a weapon."

"You knew my father was alive after the alley."

Carlo's eyes flickered.

"Of course I knew he might have been."

"You told me he died at the scene."

"I was protecting you."

"You keep using that word."

Lorenzo stepped closer.

"You should find another."

Carlo's men moved in the doorway.

Nico's hand lowered toward his jacket.

Carlo lifted one palm.

"Not tonight."

His gaze returned to Lorenzo.

"You are emotional. That is when you make mistakes."

"You taught me that."

"Your father taught you that."

"My father also told me not to trust you."

Carlo's face emptied.

Lorenzo knew then that the recording had hit its mark even without being played.

Carlo reached for his glove.

"Tomorrow. Eight o'clock. Come to dinner. Bring the ring. We will settle this as family."

"Family is exactly what we're settling."

Carlo paused at the door.

"Be careful what you believe about Gabriel."

The hall seemed to lose temperature.

Lorenzo's voice did not change.

"What about Gabriel?"

Carlo looked over his shoulder.

"He inherited Salvatore's weakness for women with secrets."

Then he left.

Lorenzo waited until the last vehicle cleared the gate.

He turned to Nico.

"He knew about Anna. He knew about the ring. He knew Gabriel was involved."

Nico nodded.

"We need proof that survives a room full of men who owe Carlo favors."

"We need more than a room," Lorenzo said.

He looked toward the hidden stairs leading to the safe room.

"We need something that survives me."

Anna came out ten minutes later with Sophie asleep against her shoulder.

Lorenzo told her what Carlo had said.

At Gabriel's name, she went pale.

"He knew."

"Yes."

Anna's fear hardened into something else.

"Then we go to Saint Cecilia."

"No."

"Gabriel died trying to get into that wall. I am done letting dead men carry the entire weight of the truth."

"You have Sophie."

"Exactly."

She looked at him.

"I want her to grow up without learning how to pack a bag in ninety seconds."

Lorenzo had no answer to that.

Sophie stirred against her shoulder.

Her eyes opened halfway.

"Mama?"

"I'm here."

"Is Uncle Lorenzo coming with us?"

Anna looked at him.

Lorenzo looked at the child who carried his brother's face in fragments.

"Yes," he said. "I'm coming."

Before they left for Saint Cecilia, Mrs. Bianca asked Lorenzo to remain in the kitchen.

Anna was upstairs changing Sophie's clothes. Nico was checking vehicles.

Bianca placed a yellowed envelope on the table.

"I was going to take this to my grave if Anna never needed it."

Inside was the second witness copy of Gabriel and Anna's marriage certificate.

Lorenzo stared at her.

"You stood beside my brother while he married her and never told me."

"Yes."

"He was twenty-nine. I was his brother."

"And Carlo was in your house three nights a week."

"So you decided for me."

Bianca's face tightened.

"No. Gabriel did. I disagreed with him. I told him secrets rot when kept too long. He said he needed one more week. He did not get one more week."

Lorenzo sat slowly.

The old woman touched the envelope.

"After he died, Anna was pregnant. Carlo's men were asking questions. You had Matteo beside you day and night. Matteo knew more than you did. What would you have had me do?"

"Come to me."

"Would you have believed me over your consigliere and your uncle?"

Lorenzo opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Bianca nodded.

"That is why I kept quiet. Not because I thought you were evil. Because I did not know if you were free."

The distinction followed him all the way to the garage.

At the car, Anna buckled Sophie into a booster seat only for the short ride to the alternate safe house where Bianca would remain with her.

Sophie caught Lorenzo watching.

"Why are you staring?"

"I am thinking."

"Mama says staring is rude."