Chapter 3 - The Man Ordering My Maid’s Death Was My Cousin Matteo, the Relative Everyone Believed Had Died During the MassacreThe attack lasted less than five minutes.
Five minutes was enough.
Three windows shattered.
Two guards went down.
The east wall was breached.
My men drove the attackers back.
But Matteo never entered.
He had only wanted us to know he could.
When the shooting stopped, I stood in the ruined hallway.
Marina was beside me.
Bella was crying.
I pulled her into my arms.
“Is she hurt?”
Marina shook her head.
“No.”
I looked toward the shattered glass.
Matteo had made his message clear.
He could reach us whenever he wanted.
I needed the truth before the next attack.
I moved Marina into my study.
“Tell me everything.”
She sat.
Bella stayed beside her.
Marina stared at the floor.
“Your father knew someone had been selling information.”
“To whom?”
“An organization called the Black Circle.”
I knew the name.
My father had once called them parasites.
“They weren't just criminals,” she said. “They were financiers.”
“Money?”
“Money, weapons, politicians.”
“Who ran them?”
“Your uncle.”
I clenched my jaw.
“Matteo's father.”
She nodded.
“Your uncle believed the Duca family was too weak to control the city.”
“So he attacked us.”
“He wanted your father's empire.”
“Then why kill everyone?”
“Because your father refused to give it to him.”
I looked at the pendant.
“Where did the evidence go?”
“Your father hid it.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You must.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“I only knew he had something.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
“The names of everyone involved.”
“Where is it?”
Marina shook her head.
“Your father never told me.”
I stared.
“Then why were you carrying the pendant?”
“Because he told me one day you would need it.”
I reached for my own pendant.
The symbol on the back had a tiny screw.
I had never noticed.
I removed it.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
My blood went cold.
A coordinate.
Nothing else.
Marina looked at it.
“I've seen that.”
“Where?”
“On your father's desk.”
“Do you know what it means?”
She shook her head.
I called my security chief.
“Find the location.”
He came back twenty minutes later.
“Old Saint Gabriel's Cemetery.”
I looked at Marina.
“Your father was buried there?”
“Yes.”
“Then that's where the ledger is.”
We went at dawn.
The cemetery was covered in snow.
My father's grave had been untouched.
Or so we thought.
Marina walked toward it.
Then stopped.
“The stone is wrong.”
I looked.
The family crest was upside down.
Someone had tampered with it.
We moved the stone.
A small metal box appeared.
Inside:
The ledger.
Photographs.
A cassette.
And one letter.
To Lorenzo.
My hands shook.
I opened it.
If you're reading this, you survived.
I couldn't breathe.
The letter continued.
The person responsible is closer than you think.
Then one sentence:
Do not trust the woman who tells you she is protecting your house.
I looked at Marina.
Then Renata's name entered my mind.
The housekeeper.
But before I could say anything, the cassette player clicked.
A voice came through.
My father.
Alive.
“Lorenzo, if you hear this, listen carefully.”
I froze.
His voice was weaker than I remembered.
“Matteo isn't working alone.”
The recording crackled.
Then:
“Your greatest enemy is the person you allowed to raise you after I died.”
The tape ended.
I looked at Marina.
“Who raised me?”
She whispered:
“Renata.”
My blood turned cold.
Renata had been in my household for fifteen years.
She had dressed my wounds.
Managed the staff.
Prepared my meals.
Raised me after my father's death.
She had been there when I became a monster.
May you like
She had helped shape the empire.
And my father had warned me against her.
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