“Pack Your Things,” the Mafia Boss Snarled—By Midnight, His Wife Had Vanished Without a Trace
Chapter 9
Michael fired.
Matteo moved.
The bullet struck the mirror.
Elena screamed.
Isabella pulled her behind the wall.
Matteo tackled Michael.
The gun slid beneath the bed.
They struggled.
Michael was older, but desperation gave him strength.
“You don’t understand!” he shouted.
“I understand enough.”
“Your father would still be alive if he had listened to me!”
Matteo froze.
“What did you say?”
Michael pushed him away.
“Robert wasn’t supposed to die.”
Matteo grabbed his collar.
“Then who killed him?”
Michael laughed.
“You think I know?”
“Tell me!”
“The ledger killed him.”
Silence.
Michael’s eyes shifted toward Elena.
“Your mother betrayed us.”
Isabella stepped forward.
“No.”
“You gave the ledger to Robert.”
“I gave him the truth.”
“And people died because of it.”
“People died because you sold them.”
Michael pointed at Elena.
“She was supposed to die too.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
“You threatened my wife?”
Michael smiled.
“She was the key.”
“To what?”
“The final vault.”
Elena looked at the music box.
“What vault?”
Michael laughed.
“Your grandmother’s.”
Matteo looked at Isabella.
“Your family had a vault?”
Isabella nodded slowly.
“I didn’t know where.”
Michael spoke.
“Because Robert hid the location.”
“Where?”
Michael said nothing.
Matteo pressed him.
Michael smiled.
“Ask Elena.”
Everyone looked at her.
Elena felt confused.
“What?”
Michael whispered:
“Your wedding ring.”
She looked down.
The ring Matteo had found on the pillow was not the ring she had worn when she married him.
She suddenly remembered.
On the night she disappeared, Matteo had removed her ring himself.
Why?
She pulled the ring from her pocket.
There was a tiny engraving inside.
A sequence of numbers.
Matteo stared.
“That’s not a date.”
Isabella stepped closer.
“No.”
She touched the engraving.
“It’s a vault code.”
Michael lunged.
Matteo caught him.
Outside, sirens approached.
The police had finally arrived.
Michael’s face collapsed.
“You’ll never reach it.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Where?”
Michael laughed.
“Under the Belladonna docks.”
