Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Elevator

Marello's men took the fake nurse into a private security room beneath the therapy center.

I refused to let Leo see any of it.

Nico, Marello's head of security, brought a woman named Sofia to sit with him in an office upstairs.

Leo clung to my sleeve.

"You're coming back?"

"Yes."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Marello crouched beside him.

"And I promise too."

Leo looked at him.

"You just met me."

Marello swallowed.

"Then I have seven years of promises to catch up on."

Leo considered this.

"Okay."

He let go.

When the door closed, Marello looked at me.

"You told him nothing about me?"

"What was I supposed to say?"

"The truth."

"The truth would have gotten him killed."

His face hardened.

"We're not doing this here."

"Then stop accusing me."

"I'm trying to understand how my son grew up two miles from my home while I visited a grave with his name on it."

I stared at him.

"You visited a grave?"

"Every year."

The anger went out of me.

"I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't."

He turned away.

I caught his arm.

"Marello."

He looked down at my hand, then at me.

"I am sorry."

His voice was tired.

"So am I."

We went downstairs.

The woman was seated at a metal table.

Her nurse's badge identified her as Melissa Crane, but Nico said the hospital had no employee by that name.

Marello sat across from her.

I stayed near the door.

He placed the syringe on the table.

"What was in it?"

She smiled.

"Vitamin B12."

Nico slid a laboratory field strip beside it.

"Try again."

Her smile disappeared.

Marello leaned back.

"You know who I am?"

"Everyone knows who you are."

"Then you know lying wastes time."

"You think killing me will help?"

"No."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Then why am I here?"

"Because Elena wants answers."

The woman looked at me.

"She's the reason your family suffered."

Marello didn't move.

"Careful."

"It's true."

I stepped forward.

"Who paid you?"

She laughed.

"Still asking the smallest question."

"What is the bigger one?"

"Why were you allowed to disappear?"

I stopped.

Marello's gaze shifted to me.

The woman continued.

"Victor Salvi could have killed you seven years ago."

"Why didn't he?"

"Because dead women create martyrs. Missing women create suspicion."

My skin went cold.

She nodded toward Marello.

"He was supposed to hate you."

"He did."

Marello's eyes flashed.

She smiled.

"Exactly."

I gripped the chair in front of me.

"And Leo?"

"He was leverage."

"Against whom?"

"Against both of you."

Marello leaned forward.

"Who is above Victor?"

For the first time, the woman looked afraid.

Nico noticed.

"That's the right question."

She shook her head.

"You don't understand."

"Explain."

"If Victor had been the top, he would have taken the empire years ago."

Marello's voice became lower.

"Name the person above him."

"No."

Nico placed a phone on the table.

"We found seven encrypted messages on your device."

Her face changed.

"Those are meaningless."

"We broke one."

Marello read from the screen.

"'Bride confirms chapel access. Package survives. Bloodline unresolved.'"

I felt sick.

"Package?"

The woman looked at Leo's floor above us.

Marello's hand flattened on the table.

"Do not look upstairs again."

She looked at him.

"Your son has been watched since birth."

I nearly stopped breathing.

"How?"

"Doctors. school employees. landlords. people you passed in grocery stores. You were never as hidden as you thought."

I shook my head.

"No."

"Did you really believe you escaped Victor Salvi for seven years?"

"I moved six times."

"And every time, you were allowed to."

The word allowed broke something inside me.

"Why?"

"Because they needed Leo alive until Marello married Bianca."

Marello's expression sharpened.

"Why?"

She smiled faintly.

"Succession."

Nico looked at Marello.

"What succession?"

The woman leaned back.

"You don't even know your own family's rules."

Marello said nothing.

She continued.

"The Vitali empire isn't just businesses and crews. There are trusts, holding companies, voting blocks, property transfers. Your grandfather built protections against hostile takeover."

"I know that."

"Do you know what happens if you die without a legally acknowledged heir?"

Marello froze.

I looked between them.

"What?"

Nico answered quietly.

"Control transfers to the spouse."

My stomach dropped.

Bianca.

Marello stared at the woman.

"And if I have a son?"

"Your spouse becomes temporary guardian of the estate until the heir reaches twenty-five, but she cannot sell the core holdings without court approval."

"So Leo prevents a clean transfer."

"Yes."

I stepped closer.

"Then why keep him alive?"

The woman's eyes moved to me.

"Because Bianca needed proof he existed."

"What proof?"

"Blood."

Marello's face turned stone cold.

"DNA."

She nodded.

"Once she married Marello, she planned to challenge the boy's legitimacy publicly, then produce falsified evidence that he was not Marello's son."

I stared at her.

"Why?"

"To erase competing claims before Marello died."

Nico paced once.

"And the real DNA?"

"Destroyed."

Marello's voice cut through the room.

"Not anymore."

The woman smiled.

"You think a test saves him?"

"I think you've said enough to tell me Bianca is scared of a seven-year-old."

"She should be."

"Why?"

The woman's eyes shifted toward the security camera.

Then the lights went out.

Nico cursed.

Marello grabbed my arm.

"Down."

A burst of glass shattered behind us.

Someone fired through the observation window.

Nico returned fire.

The woman screamed.

Emergency lights blinked red.

Marello pulled me beneath the table.

"Are you hit?"

"No."

Another shot.

Then silence.

Nico shouted into his radio.

"Lock the stairwells!"

I crawled toward the woman.

She was slumped against the chair.

Blood spread across her blouse.

"She's hit."

Marello pressed two fingers to her neck.

"Still alive."

Her eyes opened.

She grabbed my wrist.

"Elena."

"I'm here."

"Your mother."

My heart stopped.

"What about my mother?"

"She knew."

"What did she know?"

"Seven years ago."

"Tell me."

The woman struggled to breathe.

"She tried to warn you."

"My mother died before I disappeared."

She shook her head weakly.

"No."

I stared at her.

"What?"

"Car crash was staged."

Marello leaned closer.

"Who staged it?"

Her gaze shifted to him.

"Someone inside your house."

Then her grip loosened.

Nico checked her pulse.

"She's gone."

The room became very quiet.

I pulled my hand back.

"My mother's accident."

Marello looked at me.

"You never told me you suspected anything."

"I didn't."

"When did she die?"

"Two weeks before I was taken."

His jaw tightened.

"What did she do for work?"

"She was an accountant."

"For whom?"

"Different private clients."

Marello studied my face.

"Elena."

"What?"

"Was one of them my father?"

I froze.

I had forgotten.

Not because it was unimportant.

Because it had seemed ordinary at the time.

"My mother handled tax records for your family foundation for six months."

Nico swore under his breath.

Marello stood.

"Which foundation?"

"The Aurora Foundation."

His face changed.

Nico stopped moving.

I looked between them.

"What?"

Marello's voice was barely audible.

"The Aurora Foundation controls the legal trusts tied to succession."

I felt the room tilt.

"My mother found something."

"Probably."

"And they killed her."

Marello looked toward the broken window.

"Probably."

I shook my head.

"No more probably."

He met my eyes.

"For once, we agree."

Nico's radio crackled.

A guard's voice came through.

"Boss, we found the shooter."

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Bring him."

A minute later, two men dragged in a wounded attacker.

He wore a gray maintenance uniform.

Marello stared at him.

The man's eyes found me.

Then he laughed.

"Still alive."

I stepped toward him.

"Who killed my mother?"

He grinned through blood.

"Ask the man who signed her audit."

Marello's expression changed.

"Name him."

The attacker looked at Marello.

"You really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

The man smiled.

"Your father never retired from the empire."

Marello went still.

"My father died ten years ago."

The attacker laughed again.

"No."

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

He looked at me.

"Antonio Vitali is alive."