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Chapter 5 - THE DEAD BROTHER

Matteo didn't hug him.

He punched him.

Salvatore hit the floor.

“That seems fair,” he said.

Matteo grabbed him.

“Six years.”

“I know.”

“You let us bury an empty coffin.”

“I know.”

“You had a daughter.”

Salvatore looked toward Maya.

His face broke.

“I know.”

Maya hid behind Leah.

Salvatore didn't approach.

Good.

Leah would have kicked him.

The truth was complicated.

Salvatore had disappeared intentionally after discovering the surveillance network.

But he hadn't built it.

He had infiltrated it.

Someone else inside the Rinaldi organization had been selling access.

Someone Matteo trusted.

“Who?”

Salvatore looked at Luca.

“Your godfather.”

Matteo froze.

Vincenzo Moretti.

His consigliere.

His oldest friend.

The man currently controlling security at Matteo's estate.

The man who had selected Nico's nanny.

The man who had arranged their original commercial flight.

Everything connected.

Then gunfire erupted outside.

Moretti had found them.

Salvatore pushed Leah and Maya into an old stone passage.

“Run!”

Matteo stayed.

Elena stayed.

Leah didn't.

For once, she obeyed.

She took Maya and ran.

Behind them came gunfire.

Then silence.

Leah reached the end of the tunnel.

A car waited.

Driver's door open.

She put Maya inside.

Then someone grabbed her.

Vincenzo Moretti.

He smiled.

“You are exactly like your mother.”

Leah bit him.

Hard.

He cursed.

Maya screamed.

Then a gunshot.

Moretti fell.

Luca stood behind him.

Hands shaking.

He had fired.

Moretti wasn't dead.

The bullet hit his shoulder.

Police sirens approached.

But Moretti laughed.

“You think this ends with me?”

Matteo emerged from the tunnel.

Blood on his shirt.

Not his.

“No.”

He looked down at Moretti.

May you like

“It starts with you.”

---

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