Chapter 8 - THE SECOND ROSSI
No one moved.
Emma buried her face against Sophia.
Luca stood in front of Enzo with his hands tied.
The knife at his throat was enough to control the room.
Enzo looked older than he had that morning.
Not weaker.
Just stripped of the polite mask.
“This could’ve been easier,” he said.
I stared at him.
“You killed Elena.”
“Technically, Moretti men killed Elena.”
“You sent them.”
“I sent them for you.”
Sophia tightened her arms around Emma.
Enzo shrugged.
“I’m not proud of the mistake.”
That sentence almost made me forget Elena’s warning.
Listen before you act.
Almost.
“You stood beside me at her grave.”
“I had excellent manners.”
“You held Isabella.”
“She was family.”
“You drugged her for three years.”
His smile thinned.
“That was Vale’s solution.”
“For what?”
“An unfortunate complication.”
“What complication?”
Enzo looked at Isabella’s medical notebook on the desk.
“She remembered things.”
I went still.
“What things?”
“Children remember sounds. Faces. Moments adults assume they forgot.”
He pressed the knife slightly closer to Luca.
“Vale told me Isabella started talking about a wolf after the accident.”
Emma peeked up.
Sophia whispered, “The ring.”
Enzo smiled.
“Elena saw me. Apparently Isabella did too.”
I remembered Isabella screaming whenever Enzo wore his formal black ring during the first year after the crash.
We thought she associated it with the family funeral.
No.
She associated it with him.
“Why keep her unable to walk?” I asked.
“Vale said immobility, sedatives, and isolation would reduce traumatic recall.”
“That’s monstrous.”
“Don’t pretend morality now, Marco.”
His voice hardened.
“You built an empire on fear.”
“My daughter was six.”
“She was inconvenient.”
Luca suddenly moved.
The knife shifted.
Dante took one step.
“Don’t.”
Enzo pressed the blade closer.
“Brotherhood is touching, but I wouldn’t test me.”
I looked at Luca.
“Rosa said you were involved.”
He met my eyes.
“I was.”
Sophia inhaled.
Luca continued before I could speak.
“I changed your travel schedule that night.”
My chest turned to ice.
“You sent Elena into my car.”
“No.”
His eyes filled with something close to panic.
“I changed your schedule because Enzo told me there was a security threat at your original meeting.”
Enzo laughed.
“Always such an obedient little brother.”
Luca looked at me.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“And Elena died.”
“Yes.”
The word broke.
“I have lived with that every day.”
Enzo rolled his eyes.
“Wonderful confession. Very moving.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“I discovered the truth three weeks later.”
“You said nothing.”
“I had no proof.”
“You had me.”
“You were killing every Moretti you could find.”
His voice rose.
“If I told you Enzo arranged it without evidence, you would have killed him that night. Then every person loyal to him would have come for you, Isabella, everyone.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you.”
That hurt because it was true.
Enzo smiled.
“You see? The family understands each other.”
Sophia stepped forward.
“Why Matteo?”
Enzo looked at her.
For the first time, his expression showed irritation.
“Your husband was curious.”
“You murdered him.”
“He refused to stop looking.”
“My mother?”
“Same problem.”
Emma began crying.
Sophia covered her ears.
“Don’t listen, baby.”
Enzo sighed.
“Rosa should have taken the money.”
“The ledger.”
Dante looked at the TERMINATION entry.
Enzo nodded.
“I offered her enough to disappear.”
“She refused.”
“She always was stubborn.”
Sophia’s face changed.
Grief became something harder.
“My mother wasn’t stubborn.”
She looked directly at him.
“She was brave.”
Enzo smiled.
“Bravery and stupidity are cousins.”
Emma suddenly lifted her head.
“You’re the wolf man.”
Enzo stared at her.
The child pointed.
“Grandma said you were scared.”
His smile vanished.
“Of what?”
Emma thought.
Then smiled.
“Girls.”
I almost laughed.
Enzo did not.
Sophia pulled Emma closer.
“You’re right.”
She looked at Enzo.
“You were scared of Elena. Rosa. Me. Isabella. Now you’re scared of a three-year-old.”
Enzo’s face darkened.
“Enough.”
That second of anger mattered.
Luca drove his heel backward.
Enzo stumbled.
Dante moved.
I grabbed Sophia and Emma and pulled them behind the stone desk.
There was a struggle.
A crash.
The knife slid across the floor.
By the time I looked up, Dante had Enzo against the wall.
Luca was free.
I walked toward my uncle.
Every instinct in me screamed to end it.
One movement.
One order.
Three years of revenge.
Enzo saw it in my eyes.
He smiled.
“There he is.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“The real Marco.”
He leaned closer despite Dante’s grip.
“Elena spent years trying to convince herself you were better than the rest of us.”
His smile widened.
“Prove her wrong.”
My hand curled.
Then Emma’s voice came from behind me.
“Mr. Marco?”
I turned.
She was holding Isabella’s stuffed rabbit.
Not afraid of me.
Not yet.
That changed everything.
I stepped away from Enzo.
“Call the police.”
Everyone stared.
Enzo laughed.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You think courts can hold me?”
“I think evidence can.”
“You don’t use courts.”
“I do now.”
His smile faded.
Luca looked at me as though he didn’t recognize me.
Maybe I didn’t recognize myself either.
But before Dante could make the call, the lights returned.
The security system beeped.
A guard’s voice came over the radio.
“Sir, we have movement outside.”
Then another.
“Multiple vehicles at the east gate.”
Enzo smiled again.
“You’re late.”
My stomach dropped.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t come alone.”
An explosion of sound shook the floor above us.
Not a bomb.
The heavy crash of the estate’s outer gate being struck.
Sophia grabbed Emma.
Enzo twisted against Dante.
In the confusion, Luca lunged.
Enzo slammed into him.
The lights flickered.
Then Enzo disappeared through the narrow passage.
Dante chased him.
I followed.
We emerged into the western corridor.
The front alarms screamed.
Guards ran toward the east wing.
Enzo vanished through a service exit.
By the time we reached the courtyard, a vehicle was racing away.
Luca stood beside me breathing hard.
“You let him escape,” I said.
His face gave nothing away.
“What?”
“You were closest.”
“Marco—”
“You could’ve stopped him.”
Dante looked at Luca.
So did Sophia.
Luca wiped blood from his eyebrow.
Then, slowly, he pulled a tiny tracking device from his pocket.
“I did stop him.”
He held up his phone.
A red dot moved across the screen.
“I slipped this into his coat.”
I stared at him.
“Where is he going?”
Luca watched the dot.
“Queens.”
The same neighborhood where Elena died.
And suddenly I understood.
Enzo wasn’t running from the evidence.
May you like
He was going back for something he had hidden three years ago.
Something he believed could still destroy us.
