Chapter 6 - Matteo’s OfferAllessandro found the tunnel entrance open behind the chapel altar.
The passage smelled of damp stone and old secrets. Marco followed with two guards, flashlights cutting through dust. Somewhere ahead, Isabella was moving through the dark with knowledge she should never have had.
Matteo had given her everything.
The tunnel curved beneath the estate and split in three directions. One path led to the old carriage house. One to the garden crypt. One to the river road.
Allessandro stopped.
“She won’t run to the river,” he said.
Marco frowned. “Why not?”
“Too open.”
“The carriage house?”
“Too obvious.”
Marco understood.
“The crypt.”
Allessandro nodded.
As boys, he and Matteo had hidden there during family parties, listening to drunk uncles argue above them. Matteo used to joke that Romanos kept their dead closer than their living because the dead lied less.
Now he was using the dead to escape.
They moved toward the crypt.
Halfway down the passage, Allessandro’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Matteo’s voice came smooth and amused.
“You always did choose the right hallway.”
“Come back and say that to my face.”
“I would, but you look emotional today.”
“You tried to poison me.”
“I tried to save the family.”
Allessandro almost laughed.
“By handing it to Isabella?”
“By joining with someone who understands ambition.”
“She understands betrayal.”
“So did our grandfather.”
“Our grandfather died alone.”
“And still feared.”
Allessandro moved silently as Matteo spoke, signaling Marco to fan left.
“What do you want?” Allessandro asked.
“The same thing I’ve always wanted. A seat that was never offered.”
“You had one.”
“No. I had proximity. You had power.”
“You could have earned more.”
Matteo’s voice sharpened.
“Earned? I cleaned up your mistakes for fifteen years. I smiled beside you while old men called me useful and called you heir.”
“You were my brother.”
“No,” Matteo said. “I was your shadow.”
The words echoed in the tunnel.
For a moment, Allessandro saw them as boys again. Matteo laughing with blood on his knuckles. Matteo taking blame for broken windows. Matteo standing just outside every photograph.
A shadow can become a knife if left hungry long enough.
“You chose this,” Allessandro said.
“You chose it for me.”
“No. I trusted you.”
Matteo went quiet.
Then he said, “That was your mistake.”
A faint sound came from ahead.
A woman’s breath.
Isabella.
Allessandro signaled again.
Marco moved right.
Matteo continued, “Here is my offer. You leave Providence tonight. You sign over the docks, the restaurants, and the accounts tied to the old family trust. In return, the maid and her child live.”
Allessandro stopped walking.
“You have no access to them.”
“Are you certain?”
At that exact moment, Allessandro heard static over Marco’s radio.
Then Lucia’s voice broke through, terrified.
“The lights went out! Someone is at the door!”
Emma screamed in the background.
Allessandro’s blood turned cold.
Matteo laughed softly.
“You protect strangers better than family. Let us see what that costs you.”
The line died.
Allessandro turned to Marco.
“Safe room. Now.”
“But Isabella—”
“Now.”
They ran back through the tunnel.
Behind them, unseen in the dark, Isabella slipped from a side passage and smiled.
May you like
Because Allessandro had done exactly what Matteo knew he would do.
He had chosen the child.
