Chapter 4 - THE ROSARY BEADS
The gunshot echoed through the concrete garage like a bomb.
The bullet shattered the window of the car right where Matteo’s head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
Glass rained down on us. I threw myself over Sofia, covering her small body with my apron and arms, burying my face against the cold cement floor. My bad ear rang with a piercing, high-pitched frequency that made me dizzy.
Matteo didn't hesitate. He rolled to his knees and fired twice.
Thomas dropped his weapon and collapsed against a concrete pillar, clutching his shoulder.
Silence rushed back into the garage, heavy and suffocating.
"Lily. Are you hit?" Matteo’s voice cut through the ringing in my ear.
I sat up slowly, checking Sofia. She was trembling, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, but she wasn't bleeding. I checked myself. Nothing but a scrape on my knee from the fall.
"We're okay," I gasped.
Matteo walked over to Thomas and kicked the man's gun out of reach. He grabbed the bleeding guard by the collar and slammed him against the concrete.
"Who do you work for?" Matteo snarled. "Vincent?"
Thomas coughed, a wet, rattling sound. He looked up at Matteo, his face pale, sweating profusely. "Not... not Vincent."
Matteo pressed the barrel of his gun under Thomas’s chin. "Try again."
"Vincent is a middleman," Thomas choked out. "He doesn't have the power to take you down. He's working for them. They promised us... they promised us peace if we just handed over the girl."
"Who is them?" Matteo roared.
Thomas smiled. A terrifying, hopeless smile. "You're already dead, boss. They're already inside the walls. They've been inside for years."
Matteo hit him with the butt of the gun, knocking him unconscious.
He turned back to us. His chest heaved. The polished, controlled businessman was gone. This was the Mafia Boss people whispered about in the dark.
"Come on," Matteo said, grabbing my arm. "The cars are compromised. We use the panic room."
He scooped Sofia up again. We ran toward the private elevator bank, bypassed it, and headed for a heavy, unmarked steel door hidden behind a fake utility panel. Matteo keyed in a long code, placed his thumb on a scanner, and the door hissed open.
We hurried inside.
The safe room was built to withstand a siege. Thick steel walls, independent ventilation, monitors displaying camera feeds from all over the estate.
Matteo locked the door behind us. The heavy thud of the deadbolts engaging felt incredibly final.
Sofia was crying softly now.
"Daddy, I don't like this game," she sobbed.
Matteo knelt, his face softening instantly. "I know, baby. I know. But we're safe here. Nobody can get in. I promise."
I sat on a small cot in the corner, my hands shaking uncontrollably. The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind a bone-deep exhaustion and a sharp, throbbing pain in my head. I pressed my hand behind my ear.
When I pulled it away, my fingers were covered in fresh blood.
The cut had reopened.
Sofia noticed. She pulled away from her father and walked slowly over to me.
"You're bleeding," she said, her small voice full of concern.
"I'm okay, sweetie," I tried to smile, wiping my hand on my dark skirt to hide it from her. "Just a scratch."
Sofia reached into the pocket of her pink nightgown.
"This will help," she said seriously. "It keeps the bad things away."
She held her hand out.
I expected a band-aid. Or maybe her stuffed bear.
Instead, she placed a wooden rosary in my palm.
It was old. The wooden beads were worn smooth from years of touch, and the silver crucifix at the end was slightly tarnished.
I looked at it, confused. "Thank you, Sofia. That's very sweet."
Matteo turned around to see what she had given me.
When his eyes landed on the rosary in my hand, he stopped breathing entirely.
The color drained from his face. He looked like he had just been shot.
He crossed the room in two strides and grabbed my wrist, his grip painfully tight.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded, his voice thick with an emotion I couldn't identify.
"She just gave it to me," I winced, trying to pull back.
Matteo dropped to one knee, looking at his daughter. "Sofia. Where did you find this?"
Sofia shrank back slightly. "In Lily's room. Yesterday. I was playing hide and seek and I found it under her pillow."
Matteo stood up slowly. He turned his eyes on me. The warmth he had shown his daughter was completely gone, replaced by a dark, terrifying suspicion.
"Under your pillow," Matteo repeated.
"Mr. Romano, I can explain," I stammered, my heart racing again.
"This rosary," Matteo said, pointing a shaking finger at the beads in my hand, "belonged to my wife, Elena. She was holding it the night she died in a car accident five years ago."
My blood froze.
"The police gave it back to me," Matteo continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous, deadly whisper. "I locked it in her vanity. A room that has been sealed for five years. A room you do not have the key to."
May you like
He pulled his gun and pointed it directly at my chest.
"So tell me, Lily. Why is the maid sleeping with my dead wife's rosary?"
