Chapter 5 - MATTEO
Matteo Moretti had grown up calling Alessandro Uncle Sandro.
His father, Luca, had died when Matteo was thirteen.
Alessandro paid for school.
First car.
Apartment.
Business degree.
Then gave him responsibility inside the legitimate companies.
Matteo wanted more.
He always had.
“You made me a bookkeeper,” he said when Alessandro confronted him privately.
“You stole from me.”
“I built what you were too afraid to build.”
They stood inside an empty restaurant before opening hours.
Victor had advised against the meeting.
Alessandro insisted.
No guns on the table.
No audience.
Just family.
Matteo poured espresso.
“You're getting sentimental.”
“Because I survived?”
“Because of the woman.”
Alessandro went still.
Matteo smiled.
“There it is.”
“You stay away from her.”
“You think I don't know who found you?”
The threat sat between them.
Alessandro's old instincts returned.
Violence offered clarity.
One command.
Problem gone.
Then Mila’s drawing appeared in his mind.
Purple stitches.
Badly shaped hands.
A child’s version of him.
“Raven Industrial,” Alessandro said.
Matteo’s smile faded.
“You found that too.”
“Daniel Carter.”
“Who?”
That answer infuriated Alessandro more than guilt would have.
“You don't remember him.”
“No.”
“He died.”
“Lots of people die.”
There.
A sentence from Alessandro’s own world.
Something he might have said twenty years earlier.
He heard it differently now.
“You ignored safety reports.”
Matteo shrugged.
“Subcontractor issue.”
“His daughter eats discarded bread.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
Everything.
Alessandro stood.
Matteo watched him carefully.
“Are we finished?”
“No.”
“What do you want?”
“I want the books.”
Matteo laughed.
“You want to audit me?”
“I already did.”
Color left his face.
Alessandro continued.
“I know about Raven. The port skimming. Construction invoices. Protection collections.”
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“You going to kill me?”
Old Alessandro would have enjoyed the question.
New Alessandro hated it.
“No.”
That frightened Matteo more.
“What then?”
“You’re out.”
“You can't remove me.”
“I already did.”
“Men won't follow you after this.”
“Then they can leave.”
Matteo laughed.
“You think some widow and her kid turned you into a businessman?”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“They showed me how ridiculous it is that men like us call fear respect.”
Matteo’s face twisted.
“You're weak.”
“Maybe.”
Then Alessandro said:
“But you’re finished.”
Matteo walked out.
Victor entered two minutes later.
“You let him leave.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because corporate counsel already froze his legitimate accounts.”
Victor stared.
“And the criminal money?”
“Federal financial investigators received anonymous records this morning.”
Victor almost dropped his folder.
“Alessandro.”
“I am cleaning one room at a time.”
“You understand where that leads.”
“Yes.”
“To you.”
“Yes.”
Victor stared.
“You are serious.”
Alessandro thought about Daniel Carter.
His mother.
Mila.
Elena.
“Yes.”
That night, Matteo ordered two men to follow Elena.
They were spotted within six blocks.
Alessandro received the call.
Everything inside him went cold.
This was the moment.
The choice.
Kill Matteo.
Or continue down the slower road.
Then Victor said:
“We can move Elena and Mila.”
Alessandro answered:
“No.”
“What?”
“They shouldn't have to disappear because of my family.”
“So?”
“We remove Matteo.”
Victor waited.
“How?”
Alessandro looked toward the legal files.
May you like
“Completely.”
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