Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO GUARDED EVERY DOOR
The bullet struck Alessandro below the shoulder.
It missed his heart but tore through muscle and blood vessels.
I pressed both hands against the wound while the county investigator called emergency medical support.
Alessandro remained conscious.
“Marco,” he said.
“I know.”
“No. You do not.”
His breathing became shallow.
“Marco was with us the night Father died.”
Don Salvatore Moretti had been killed during an attack at the Chicago freight yards four years earlier. The families believed Matteo sold the route.
Marco Bell had been the only guard to survive beside Alessandro.
He testified that Matteo’s access code opened the gate.
That testimony transformed suspicion into certainty.
Marco had not merely betrayed Daniel.
He created the story that made everyone stop searching for the truth.
Alessandro gripped my wrist.
“Go back to Emma.”
“I am not leaving until the ambulance reaches you.”
“You are not one of my soldiers.”
“No.”
That was exactly why I stayed.
I did not obey simply because a powerful man gave an order.
The ambulance arrived under police protection.
Alessandro was transported to a private surgical unit.
His men wanted revenge immediately.
I returned to Villa Moretti and found twelve family leaders arguing inside the hall.
News of Marco’s betrayal had spread.
Some believed it.
Others called the hospital attack a Moretti performance designed to break the Romano alliance.
Don Carlo Romano arrived before dawn with thirty armed men waiting beyond the gates.
He demanded Vivian’s release.
“She is my daughter.”
“She assisted in unlawful confinement,” the investigator answered.
“She acted under Alessandro’s authority.”
Vivian stepped into the hall under guard.
“My father is lying.”
Carlo stared at her.
She continued.
“He knew Matteo was alive.”
The gathered families reacted.
Carlo’s expression remained controlled.
“You are frightened and confused.”
“I saw him at St. Gabriel’s.”
“You visited a treatment facility.”
“I heard you order Marco to move him after the warehouse fire.”
Carlo’s calm slipped.
Only slightly.
Vivian looked toward me.
“I knew Elena’s husband was Matteo. I knew Emma might carry the family mark. I was told to recover anything hidden inside the rabbit.”
“Why confess now?” Don Ricci asked.
Vivian looked around the hall.
“Because my father already decided I know too much.”
She held up her phone.
A message from Carlo remained on the screen.
IF THE ENGAGEMENT FAILS, VIVIAN BECOMES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENTIRE OPERATION.
Carlo had prepared to sacrifice his daughter if the conspiracy collapsed.
Vivian’s cooperation did not erase the slap, threats, or attempted strike against Emma.
It placed her inside the same machinery she had willingly helped operate.
“Where did Marco take Matteo?” I asked.
“The council chapel.”
The old stone chapel stood beyond the Moretti estate gardens. Family leaders used it for oath ceremonies and private judgments.
Beneath the altar was a sealed chamber created during Prohibition.
Matteo had mentioned it once during our marriage.
He told me his family buried promises more carefully than bodies.
Marco had access to the estate through every security passage.
He could hold Daniel beneath the chapel while twelve families argued above him.
Don Ricci demanded a council vote before any search.
“We cannot violate the oath chamber without evidence.”
“My husband is the evidence,” I said.
“You are an outsider.”
Emma entered the hall holding Rosa’s hand.
“No, she is my mommy.”
Every face turned.
I rushed toward her.
“You were supposed to remain in the kitchen.”
“Blue heard Daddy.”
She held up the rabbit.
A faint sound came from inside it.
Not the memory wafer.
A new transmission.
Static.
Then Daniel’s voice.
“Emma?”
My daughter pressed the rabbit against her ear.
“Daddy?”
The families froze.
Daniel sounded weak.
“Listen to Mommy.”
I took the rabbit.
“Daniel, where are you?”
A chain moved near the microphone.
“Beneath the place where Alessandro was crowned.”
The chapel.
“Marco has the original port ledger. He plans to make me confess before the families.”
“Why?”
“If I confess, Alessandro loses authority. Carlo takes the council. Marco takes Moretti security.”
A door opened near Daniel.
Marco’s voice entered.
“You always speak too much when your family is listening.”
The transmission cut off.
The rabbit contained a second device.
Daniel had built a receiver into the toy before Emma was born.
Someone near him had activated the matching transmitter.
He was trying to guide us.
Don Ricci still refused entry without council approval.
I looked toward the twelve men seated beneath the chandeliers.
“My husband was condemned because you believed one guard and one forged code.”
No one answered.
“You now have his voice, a living witness, and a child asking for her father. How much evidence does a powerful family require before helping someone it already decided was disposable?”
The old men looked at one another.
Don Ricci lowered his face.
Then raised his hand.
“Open the chapel.”
Eleven family leaders followed.
Carlo did not.
His men moved toward hidden weapons.
The gates outside exploded inward.
May you like
Marco’s loyal guards had arrived.
Continue to the next part: The twelve families are trapped inside the estate while Elena follows Emma’s rabbit toward the chamber where Daniel is being forced to confess.
