Chapter 8 - MATTEO
Matteo Bellini disappeared at 6:03 p.m.
By midnight, Chicago police, federal agents and Moretti security had all failed to locate him.
Vanessa insisted she did not know where he was.
Luca believed she was scared.
That did not mean he believed she was innocent.
Emma sat in the study with Bruno asleep at her feet.
Her shoulder had begun itching beneath the bandage.
Mrs. Carter said itching meant healing.
Emma thought healing was too generous a word for any part of the week.
Agent Walsh entered carrying a laptop.
“We recovered footage from the Palmer House.”
Luca looked up.
“Caleb?”
“Yes.”
The video showed Caleb entering Matteo’s room.
Then, forty minutes later, Vanessa.
Emma stared.
“She was there?”
Walsh nodded.
Time stamp: 3:12 p.m.
The same afternoon Bruno was taken.
Vanessa left at 3:31.
Caleb left at 3:48.
Matteo did not appear again.
Luca asked, “What happened inside?”
“No room camera.”
“Key records?”
“Only Matteo’s key was used.”
“So he was there.”
“Probably.”
Emma frowned.
“Why meet before Bruno was taken?”
Walsh opened recovered text messages.
Vanessa to Matteo:
TONIGHT. DOG FIRST. LOCKER AFTER DINNER.
Matteo:
VALE SAYS DO NOT MOVE UNTIL CALEB CONFIRMS.
Vanessa:
I AM DONE WAITING.
Emma looked at Luca.
“She moved Bruno without approval.”
“Yes.”
Walsh continued.
Matteo:
IF EMMA GETS HURT, THIS BECOMES A PROBLEM.
Emma stared.
“What?”
Vanessa:
SHE WON’T.
Then, twenty minutes later:
SHE FOUGHT BACK.
Matteo:
WHAT DID YOU DO?
Vanessa:
NOTHING SERIOUS.
Emma’s shoulder burned again as if remembering.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“What was Matteo trying to stop?”
Walsh scrolled.
Final message from Matteo to Vanessa:
YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHO EMMA IS.
Vanessa:
I KNOW EXACTLY WHO SHE IS.
Matteo:
NO. YOU KNOW WHO GABRIEL WAS. NOT HER.
Emma frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Walsh looked at her.
“We’re still working on it.”
Daniel entered.
“We found Matteo’s car.”
“Where?”
“Near Montrose Harbor.”
“Blood?”
“No.”
“Phone?”
“Inside.”
Emma said, “He left voluntarily.”
“Maybe.”
The phone contained a draft email.
Unsent.
To Emma.
Walsh opened it.
Emma,
If you are reading this, Vanessa has gone too far.
My father spent years convincing us the Morettis were our enemy.
That was never fully true.
Gabriel saved my life once.
Emma looked up.
“Matteo knew Gabriel?”
Luca stared.
Walsh continued.
When I was sixteen, I overdosed at a party. Gabriel found me and got me to a hospital before anyone else knew.
My father hated owing him.
Maybe that is why he hated him more afterward.
Emma read.
I knew about you before Vanessa did.
Gabriel told me once that he had a daughter and that Peter Collins was raising her.
He made me promise if anything happened to him, I would make sure Victor never found you.
Emma’s hands began shaking.
Luca moved closer but did not touch her.
The draft continued.
I broke that promise when my father found Claire’s files.
I told myself you were safer if Vanessa hired you at the estate, because Luca would protect his own staff.
I was wrong.
Emma stared.
Matteo had helped bring her into the house.
Not only Vanessa.
Why?
Then the final paragraph:
There is one thing Vanessa does not know.
Gabriel did not die at the Lake Geneva hotel.
Emma looked at Luca.
“What?”
Walsh scrolled.
The next line:
Caleb shot him, but Peter got Gabriel out through the service tunnel before collapsing.
Emma stopped breathing.
Peter had been shot first.
Yet helped Gabriel escape.
The email continued.
Gabriel survived another six months.
He contacted me once.
He said he was going to expose Victor and Salvatore together.
Then he vanished for good.
The original ledger went with him.
Luca stood.
“So the ledger Claire has is not original.”
Claire had joined them.
She shook her head.
“Copy.”
“Then where is the original?”
“No one knows.”
Emma stared at the email.
Matteo knew more.
Maybe that was why Caleb had his hotel key.
“Did Caleb kill Matteo?”
Walsh said, “We don’t know.”
“Then who killed Caleb?”
“No.”
A voice from the doorway.
Vanessa.
Two federal agents stood behind her.
She looked exhausted.
No red dress.
No diamonds.
Just gray sweats and a bruise beneath one eye from the previous chaos.
Luca’s expression hardened.
“You’re supposed to be in your room.”
“I was.”
She looked at the email.
“Matteo is alive.”
Walsh said, “How do you know?”
“Because Caleb couldn’t kill him.”
“Why?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Caleb was Matteo’s father.”
Silence.
Emma stared.
“What?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Welcome to the Bellini family.”
Luca looked at her.
“Victor wasn’t Matteo’s father?”
“No.”
“Did Victor know?”
“Yes.”
“And raised him anyway?”
“Because my mother refused to leave.”
Emma thought of Peter.
Another man raising another man’s child.
Different motivations.
Different family.
Same secret.
“Did Matteo know?”
“Only recently.”
“How?”
“Gabriel told him.”
Emma stared.
“Six months after the hotel?”
Vanessa nodded.
“Gabriel met Matteo before disappearing.”
“Why?”
“To give him something.”
“The ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what?”
“A key.”
Of course.
Always a key.
Vanessa continued.
“Matteo kept it hidden.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca said, “Caleb went to his hotel room for it.”
“Yes.”
“Did he take Matteo?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Vanessa looked toward the window.
“Matteo left after I told him what I had done with Bruno.”
“Why?”
“He said I had become Victor.”
That hurt her.
Emma saw it.
“He told me he was going to fix what our family started.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca stared at her.
“Do better.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved to Bruno.
Then the kennel map on the desk.
“Gabriel used to talk about one place.”
“What place?”
“The old church in Pilsen.”
Luca frowned.
“What church?”
“St. Michael’s.”
Daniel looked up.
“That burned down.”
“Partly.”
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
The year Gabriel returned.
Vanessa nodded.
“My father owned the adjacent lot.”
Emma felt the pattern.
Fire.
Property.
Records.
Luca said, “We go now.”
Agent Walsh held up a hand.
“Federal team first.”
Luca looked at her.
“Fine.”
Emma stood.
Walsh looked at her shoulder.
“You are not federal team.”
Emma stared.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
Luca almost smiled.
Emma turned.
“Do not enjoy this.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
Walsh sighed.
“Protected vehicle.”
Emma pointed at Luca.
“She learns quickly.”
They arrived in Pilsen near two in the morning.
St. Michael’s had been abandoned after fire damaged the roof.
Graffiti covered boarded windows.
The adjacent Bellini lot held an empty warehouse.
Federal agents entered first.
No shots.
No movement.
Then one agent called.
“We found someone.”
Matteo sat inside the ruined church.
Alive.
Bleeding from the forehead.
Hands bound.
Next to him lay a metal box.
Emma rushed forward despite orders.
Matteo looked at her.
“Gabriel’s daughter.”
“You could use Emma.”
He smiled weakly.
“Fair.”
Luca cut the restraints.
“What happened?”
“Caleb.”
“Caleb is dead.”
“I know.”
“Who killed him?”
Matteo looked toward Vanessa.
She had entered behind the agents.
Her face changed.
“Matteo.”
He stared at his sister.
“You did.”
Everyone went still.
Vanessa’s mouth opened.
“No.”
Matteo’s eyes filled with tears.
“You told Vale where Caleb was.”
Vanessa stepped back.
“I didn’t know Vale would kill him.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Again.
I didn’t know.
Always.
Matteo laughed bitterly.
“Of course you didn’t.”
Luca looked at the metal box.
“What’s inside?”
Matteo handed him a small key.
“Gabriel’s last insurance policy.”
Luca opened the box.
Inside were videotapes.
Photographs.
Original ledgers.
And one sealed envelope.
For Emma Collins.
Emma took it with shaking hands.
She opened it.
Gabriel’s handwriting.
Daughter,
If this reaches you, then I failed twice.
First as a man.
Then as a father.
She stopped.
Tears came.
Luca stood beside her.
Emma continued.
Peter is your father in every way that matters.
Never let anyone take that truth from you.
But I need you to know why I disappeared.
Victor wanted the ledger.
Salvatore wanted silence.
I wanted revenge.
All three of us were wrong.
The only person who chose correctly was Peter.
He wanted to go to the police.
I stopped him.
Emma’s breath caught.
Gabriel wrote:
If Peter dies because of what happens tonight, understand this:
I brought him into danger.
No one else gets to carry that blame for me.
Emma cried.
Then read the final lines.
There is one person I trust to tell you the rest if I cannot.
Matteo Bellini.
Emma looked up.
Matteo’s face went pale.
Luca turned.
“What rest?”
Matteo swallowed.
Then said:
“Gabriel didn’t disappear six months later.”
Vanessa stared.
“What?”
Matteo looked at Emma.
“He changed his name.”
“Where did he go?”
Matteo’s eyes filled.
“California.”
Emma stopped breathing.
“He lived another eleven years.”
Luca stared.
“That would mean he died four years ago.”
Matteo nodded.
Emma whispered:
“How?”
“Cancer.”
The room fell silent.
“And he never contacted me?”
“He watched you.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“I know.”
“Did he have a family?”
Matteo hesitated.
That was enough.
Emma’s heart sank.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“A wife?”
“Yes.”
“Children?”
“One son.”
Emma closed her eyes.
A half-brother.
Somewhere.
Alive.
Then Matteo added:
“And he came to Chicago once before he died.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Why?”
“To see you.”
Emma stared.
“Did he?”
Matteo shook his head.
“He stood across the street from your apartment for two hours.”
Tears rolled down Emma’s face.
“Why didn’t he come up?”
“Because you were with Peter’s mother.”
Emma’s grandmother.
The woman who had raised her after Peter vanished.
Matteo’s voice softened.
“He said you looked happy.”
Emma laughed through tears.
“He had no right.”
“No.”
“He had no right to decide that.”
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
Gabriel’s letter had warned exactly that.
People deciding for her.
Again.
Emma folded the letter.
“Where is his son?”
Matteo looked at Luca.
Then Emma.
“Chicago.”
Emma froze.
“What?”
“He moved here last year.”
“Name?”
Matteo answered.
“Evan Reed.”
Emma had never heard it.
Then Vanessa whispered:
“I have.”
Everyone turned.
Her face had gone white.
“He applied for a job at the Moretti estate.”
Emma stared.
“When?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Two weeks ago.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What job?”
May you like
Vanessa looked at Bruno.
“Kennel assistant.”
