Chapter 14 - The Last BellandiOne Family Entered the Warehouse. Only One Would Leave It.
The warehouse stood near the old port.
Rain battered the roof.
Containers formed narrow corridors around the main structure.
Sophia wore a small earpiece.
Matteo stayed beside her.
Twenty armed men surrounded the area.
Elena remained in the car.
"I want you alive," Matteo told Sophia.
"You don't control that."
"I control everything in here."
Sophia almost smiled.
"You sound like a man who hasn't learned anything."
Matteo looked at her.
"I learned one thing."
"What?"
"People are more dangerous when they have something to lose."
The doors opened.
Marco stood inside.
Luca sat behind him, bruised but conscious.
Sophia stepped forward.
"Luca."
He looked at her.
"Don't."
Marco pressed a gun against his head.
"You have the ledger?"
Sophia held up the drive.
"Yes."
"And the ring?"
She swallowed.
"Not with me."
Marco smiled.
"You don't understand."
"I understand perfectly."
"You don't."
He gestured.
Two men brought out a television.
The screen displayed bank records.
Politician payments.
Police transfers.
Judge accounts.
Names.
Hundreds.
Then Marco revealed the final page.
A signature.
Matteo's father.
But below it was another.
Elena Romano.
Sophia stared.
"What is that?"
Marco smiled.
"Your mother didn't try to destroy the empire."
"She built it."
"No."
Marco shook his head.
"She owned it."
Matteo stepped forward.
"Enough."
Marco laughed.
"You still don't see."
"See what?"
"Your father didn't control your mother."
"My mother controlled him."
The warehouse fell silent.
Marco looked at Sophia.
"Your grandmother chose Elena because she knew Elena could turn money into power."
Sophia stared at her mother.
"Mom?"
Elena stepped from the shadows.
Marco froze.
"No."
Elena looked at him.
"Hello, Marco."
He lifted his weapon.
Matteo fired first.
Marco dropped behind a crate.
Gunfire erupted.
Men scattered.
Sophia dragged Luca behind cover.
Matteo moved through the warehouse with terrifying precision.
One man fell.
Then another.
Marco disappeared.
"Where is he?"
Sophia shouted.
Matteo looked around.
"Find him."
A shot cracked.
Elena fell.
"Mom!"
Sophia ran.
Matteo caught her.
"Stay down!"
Elena pressed a hand to her side.
Blood.
Too much.
Sophia dropped beside her.
"No."
Elena grabbed her wrist.
"Listen."
"I'm here."
"The ledger isn't the drive."
Sophia froze.
"What?"
"The drive is a copy."
Matteo looked at Elena.
"Then where is the original?"
Elena smiled through pain.
"Inside the house."
"Which house?"
"The first one."
Matteo understood.
"My father's mansion."
Elena nodded.
"Under the chapel."
A slow clap echoed through the warehouse.
Marco stepped from the shadows.
He was holding Luca.
A gun pressed beneath the boy's chin.
"You really thought I came for money?"
Matteo raised his gun.
Marco smiled.
"I came for the truth."
He looked at Sophia.
"And the truth is..."
He removed the black ring from his finger.
"The woman you called your mother isn't Elena Romano."
Sophia's face went blank.
Marco pointed at Elena.
"She's somebody else."
Matteo stared at Elena.
"What did he mean?"
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
And she finally said the name she had hidden for twenty years.
"Lucia Bellandi."
Matteo's blood ran cold.
His mother.
The woman he believed was dead.
The woman whose voice had come through the speakers.
May you like
The woman who had supposedly been controlling everything.
She had been standing in front of him all along.
