Chapter 9 - MATTEO
Alessandro wanted me nowhere near Matteo.
I wanted exactly the opposite.
For seven years, Matteo Vitali had been a name.
A photograph.
A shadow behind other people’s deaths.
I needed to see him.
My chance came two days later.
Matteo requested a private meeting with Alessandro at Vitali Tower.
The message was almost insulting in its normality.
Family discussion.
Thirty minutes.
No attorneys.
Alessandro refused.
I changed his mind.
“If you avoid him now, he knows we found something.”
“He already knows.”
“He suspects.”
“That blanket was not suspicion.”
“He wants us afraid.”
“You are afraid.”
“Yes.”
I stood in front of him.
“That does not mean I want to hide.”
His jaw tightened.
“You are six weeks pregnant.”
“Stop using that like a prison sentence.”
“I am using it like a fact.”
“And the fact is I survived seven years without you.”
His face hardened.
“That was before someone threatened my child.”
“Our child.”
The words came out sharper than I intended.
He went silent.
I inhaled slowly.
“Our child.”
Something in his expression shifted.
I had given him almost nothing since the clinic.
No promises.
No future.
No right to touch me.
But those two words mattered.
Finally, Alessandro agreed to let me observe the meeting from an adjoining security room.
Matteo arrived at exactly four.
He looked nothing like a monster.
That disturbed me more than if he had.
He was sixty-one.
Silver-haired.
Expensively dressed.
Calm.
He embraced Alessandro.
Actually embraced him.
“My boy.”
I almost vomited.
Alessandro did not return the hug.
Matteo noticed.
“So the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?”
“That a woman has finally complicated your life.”
Alessandro sat.
“My personal life is not your concern.”
“Everything affecting Vitali succession is my concern.”
There it was.
No hesitation.
Matteo poured himself water.
“Is she pregnant?”
Alessandro did not answer.
Matteo smiled.
“Then she is.”
My hands curled into fists.
“Who is she?”
“A private citizen.”
“Emma Reed?”
Alessandro’s eyes became cold.
“Do not say her name.”
Matteo studied him.
Then he leaned back.
“You always become possessive when frightened.”
“I am not frightened.”
“No?”
Matteo smiled again.
“Then perhaps I should say another name.”
My heart stopped.
“Elizabeth Shaw.”
Alessandro did not move.
That alone saved us.
Matteo watched carefully.
“Never heard of her?”
“Should I have?”
“She died years ago.”
“Then why are we discussing her?”
“Because dead girls occasionally become inconvenient.”
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
“If your woman is Elizabeth Shaw, you are sleeping beside a threat to this family.”
Alessandro’s voice remained level.
“What kind of threat?”
“The kind her father became.”
Matteo realized his mistake a fraction too late.
Alessandro leaned forward.
“You knew Thomas Shaw.”
Silence.
Then Matteo smiled again.
“Everyone in our position knows accountants.”
“You knew him.”
“I knew of him.”
“Interesting.”
Matteo stood.
“You should send the girl away.”
“No.”
“I’m giving you advice.”
“And I am ignoring it.”
Matteo walked toward the door.
Then he stopped.
“You know what your father’s greatest weakness was?”
Alessandro did not answer.
“He believed truth had value by itself.”
Matteo looked back.
“It doesn’t.”
“Power decides which truth survives.”
He left.
I stared at the screen.
My hands were shaking.
Then Gabriel’s voice came through the security headset.
“Elizabeth.”
“Yes?”
“Do not leave that room.”
“Why?”
A pause.
May you like
“The building’s internal cameras just went offline.”
Then the lights went out.
