Chapter 10 - THE VILLA OF SECRETS
Z
Milan was cold, draped in a thick, gray fog that hung low over the ancient cobblestone streets.
Forty-eight hours after escaping the inferno in Maine, we arrived in Italy under forged diplomatic passports provided by Erica's network. We were taken directly to a private medical facility on the outskirts of the city—a fortress-like villa disguised as a private cardiology clinic, owned by Alessandro’s loyalists.
The air inside smelled of antiseptic, expensive leather, and old money.
I walked down the long, marble-tiled corridor holding Logan's hand. He was quiet, his small face pale, holding Captain Bear tightly against his chest. David walked beside us, wearing a dark suit provided by Erica, looking less like an accountant every passing hour and more like the formidable man whose blood ran through his veins.
At the end of the corridor, behind heavy mahogany doors, lay Alessandro Romano.
He looked shockingly frail. The legendary titan of Baltimore was hooked up to a complex array of heart monitors and intravenous pumps. His deep blue eyes were sunken, his cheeks hollow, but when we walked into the room, those eyes flicked open with a sudden, sharp clarity.
"David..." Alessandro rasped, his voice barely a breath.
David walked to the side of the bed, his hands clenched into fists in his pockets. He stared down at the man who had pulled the strings of his life for four agonizing years.
"Is it true?" David asked, his voice tight, devoid of emotion. "Are you my father?"
Alessandro slowly closed his eyes for a second, a silent tear slipping down his weathered cheek into his gray beard.
"I was young... arrogant..." Alessandro whispered, struggling for every word. "Your mother... Maria... she was the only good thing in my wretched life. I kept you away from this family... to protect you from the poison that killed my brothers."
"You let me believe my father died in a factory accident!" David shouted, his control snapping. "You watched me grow up from afar! You hired me to audit your company knowing who I was!"
"Because I was dying!" Alessandro wheezed, his heart monitor spiking rhythmically. Beep-beep-beep. "My heart was failing two years ago, David! I had no heir! I needed to see if you were strong enough... smart enough... to survive this world!"
"I didn't want your world!" David yelled. "I wanted a normal life with my wife and my son!"
"There is no normal life for a Romano!" a sharp voice declared from the doorway.
We all turned.
Standing at the entrance of the room was a woman in her late sixties, dressed in an immaculate black lace dress, her silver hair pulled back into a tight, severe bun. Her face was carved from cold marble, and her dark eyes held zero warmth. Behind her stood four tall men in tailored Italian suits, their jackets unbuttoned, revealing dark holsters beneath.
Donna Vittoria Romano had arrived.
"Get behind me," David commanded, instantly stepping in front of Logan and me, his hand slipping toward his jacket pocket.
Vittoria smiled coldly, taking three slow steps into the room, her silk skirt rustling against the quiet tiles.
"Don't bother, my dear nephew," she said, glancing dismissively at David's hand. "This entire facility is surrounded by thirty of my men. The local carabinieri have been instructed to ignore any noise from this address for the next two hours."
Alessandro tried to sit up, coughing violently as the monitor wailed. "Vittoria... leave... the boy... alone..."
"Quiet, brother," Vittoria snapped, without even looking at him. "You failed this family. You built an empire in America and filled it with federal rats and half-breed accountants. You let a common nurse dilute our blood."
She turned her dark, predatory eyes toward me. I didn't flinch. I stepped up right beside David, holding Logan behind my back, staring straight into the eyes of the matriarch.
"I am a nurse, Donna Vittoria," I said, my voice echoing clearly off the marble walls. "And I have treated hundreds of people just like you. Rich, arrogant, and terrified of dying alone."
Vittoria’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "You have a sharp tongue, girl. It will make cutting it out all the more satisfying."
She turned back to David. "Here is the arrangement, David. You will sign the renunciation papers transferring the full ownership of Romano Holdings, the shipping lines, and the Swiss accounts to my sons. In exchange, I will grant you, your wife, and the child a comfortable house in South America... under permanent supervision, of course."
"And if I refuse?" David asked calmly.
Vittoria raised her hand, and one of her guards pulled a small silver remote from his pocket.
"If you refuse," Vittoria whispered, "the life support systems in this room will be turned off, the backup generators will be destroyed, and your precious wife and son will never leave this country alive. You have five minutes to sign."
She pulled a thick legal document from her leather handbag and tossed it onto the edge of Alessandro's bed.
David looked down at the paper, then looked at his dying father, and finally turned his head to look at me.
In his eyes, I didn't see defeat. I saw the calculated, sharp intellect of a forensic accountant who had spent his entire life finding the one hidden flaw in an ironclad system.
"Five minutes?" David asked softly, a strange, cold smile touching his lips. "Vittoria... you made the same mistake Sterling made."
Vittoria froze. "What?"
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David pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen once.
"You assumed I came to Milan to fight you with guns," David said smoothly. "I am an accountant, Vittoria. Five minutes ago, while you were walking up those stairs, my automated code executed a global freeze on every Swiss account registered to the Romano name. You don't own this family anymore. You are broke."
