Chapter 4 - The Boarding Pass and the Secret Sister
I didn’t scream. I couldn’t. The barrel of the gun looked massive, a black void pointed squarely at my heart.
Nico didn't flinch, but his body coiled with explosive tension. He placed himself halfway between Carlo and me, shielding Antonio.
“Put the gun down, Carlo,” Nico said, his voice dangerously calm. “You shoot my maid, and you don’t leave this room alive. You know my men are in the hall.”
“Your men answer to whoever pays them,” Vanessa said, stepping behind Carlo. The fear was gone from her face, replaced by a triumphant, ugly sneer. “And I emptied the offshore accounts this morning. Your men are mine now.”
Carlo kept the gun raised, but his eyes were wide, panicked. He was sweating through his collar.
“I didn’t want to hurt your mother, Boss,” Carlo choked out. “I swear to God. Vanessa told me she just wanted to scare her. Make the brakes soft so she’d bump a guardrail and get too afraid to drive over for Sunday dinners.”
“She died, Carlo,” Nico said. “Her car flipped three times.”
“I know!” Carlo yelled, his hand trembling so hard the gun wavered. “But I had to do it. Vanessa gave me no choice.”
“Because of an envelope of money?” Nico asked in disgust.
“Because she has my daughter!” Carlo screamed, a sob breaking in his throat.
The room went still again.
“What?” Nico asked, stepping forward.
“Sophia,” Carlo wept. “She was at her boarding school in Switzerland. Vanessa had her people pick her up for a 'weekend trip' three days before the crash. She told me if I didn’t pay off the mechanic, I’d receive Sophia in pieces.”
Nico slowly turned his head to look at his fiancée.
Vanessa just shrugged. “Leverage is leverage, Nico. You rule with loyalty. I rule with results.”
Antonio tugged hard on my apron strings.
I looked down, forcing my eyes away from the gun.
She is lying about the accounts, Antonio signed rapidly. The offshore money requires two physical security keys to transfer. Nico has one. I have the other.
I translated aloud, my voice remarkably steady despite the adrenaline surging through my veins.
Vanessa’s smirk vanished. “Shut her up, Carlo.”
But Carlo was looking at Nico. “Is it true, Boss? Did the money not clear?”
“It didn’t clear,” Nico said, seizing the opening. “She can’t pay the men in the hall, Carlo. But I can. Put the gun down, and I will get Sophia back for you. You have my word. As a Morelli.”
Carlo stared at him, the heavy weight of his betrayal warring with the desperate love for his child. He looked at Vanessa, who was suddenly backing toward the side exit, realizing she had overplayed her hand.
Slowly, Carlo lowered the gun.
He dropped it onto the carpet with a soft thud.
Before Vanessa could reach the door, Nico moved. In three massive strides, he crossed the room, grabbed her by the arm, and shoved her into a heavy oak chair.
“You don’t leave until I have the location of his daughter,” Nico said.
Vanessa glared at him, straightening her dress. “You can’t touch me, Nico. If I don’t check in with my people by midnight, Sophia disappears. And worse, my brother will rain fire on this entire family.”
“Your brother is a coward,” Nico said.
He reached into Vanessa’s designer purse, which had been abandoned on a side table. He bypassed her wallet and pulled out a folded piece of heavy cardstock.
He opened it up. It was a first-class boarding pass.
“You weren't planning on staying to rule beside me, were you?” Nico said, looking at the ticket. “You were fleeing. You knew the accounts would lock, and you were running before I figured it out.”
He tossed the boarding pass onto the table in front of me.
I looked down at the destination printed in bold black letters.
Seattle, Washington.
My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t help it. My hand shot out and touched the ticket.
Nico noticed immediately. “Elise? What is it?”
I looked up at him, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
“My sister,” I whispered.
“What about her?”
“My younger sister, Maya. She’s Deaf. She lives in Seattle. She attends a specialized residential school there.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward me, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.
“Seattle is a big city, Elise,” Nico said gently. “It’s a coincidence.”
“No,” I said, picking up the boarding pass. I flipped it over. Written in blue ink on the back was an address. “This is the address of Maya’s school. Why does she have the address of my sister’s school on her ticket?”
Nico looked at Vanessa, his expression darkening into something lethal.
“Who else goes to that school, Vanessa?” Nico asked softly.
Vanessa smiled, a thin, cruel curve of her lips. “Sophia. Carlo’s daughter isn’t in Switzerland, Nico. She hasn’t been there for a year. I moved her to a quiet little Deaf academy in Seattle.”
May you like
She looked directly at me.
“And I didn’t just move Sophia there,” Vanessa sneered. “I bought the building. And I instructed the headmaster that if anything happens to me tonight... he is to take care of the loose ends. Both Carlo’s daughter, and yours, Elise.”
