Chapter Six #2
The drive up the driveway is a long one before I pull up in front of the house, an old, magnificent estate that’s been in the Rossi family for generations. My mother is standing on the steps when we pull up, a beaming smile on her face when she sees me.
“Amore,” she calls out, her arms open wide as we walk up the short steps and towards her. “This is a pleasant surprise.
“Ciao, Mamma,” I say, leaning into her tight embrace. “How are you doing?”
“Good, perfect,” she says, turning to Matilde, who receives the same treatment. “Ciao, cara. You look so skinny. Have you been eating? Oh, what a stunning girl, Luca. You need to start cooking for her! I thought I taught you better. Come, come—let’s get you both fed. I just made fresh bread.”
Matilde’s eyes widen at my mother’s fussing, and she turns to me.
If she’s hoping for me to rescue her, it won’t be happening.
I’ve made it obvious to my mother and sister that Matilde is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
The one I want walking down the aisle to me.
Carrying our children. When she doesn’t get much of a reaction from me, Matilde turns back to my mother.
“Signora Conti,” she says, holding out the pastry box she brought with her. “I’m sorry we came here on such short notice, but I hope you like these.”
“Oh, cara, I am sure I will love them.” She takes the box from Matilde and brings it to her nose, smiling at the smell of the baked goods. “And call me Silvia. I hope you two will stay for dinner. I made brasato al Barolo. It's one of Luca's favorites."
“Sì, Mamma. We’ll stay for dinner,” I tell her even if it was more of an order than a request. “But we need to speak to Leonardo first.”
“Of course,” she says, leading us up the steps and into the main house.
Growing up, Leonardo Rossi treated my sister and me like his own children.
We never met our father, and my mother never really spoke about him, so we all pretended he never existed.
Her pregnancy had gotten her kicked out of her own family, but the Rossis welcomed her in.
As a kid, I used to hope my mother would marry Leonardo Rossi so the man could become my permanent father, but although that never happened, the man treated us like his own children.
It was a no-brainer that I would work for the family.
When we arrive at Leonardo’s office, my mother excuses herself. Leonardo appears equally excited to see us, hugging us and exchanging a few pleasantries before we get down to business.
“I was surprised to see your call, Luca,” he says. “Tell me now, what is this you wanted to talk about? Did you come here to tell me you’re marrying this young lady?”
“Soon,” I tell the older man. “But this is not about that. Matilde and I came across some…sensitive information.” I take out the picture I took of the painting and show it to Leonardo. “What do you know about this?”
Leonardo grabs his glasses and leans closer for a better look at the picture, and I see the moment he recognizes it because my eyes are on him.
"Aaah," he says, leaning back in his chair. He's silent for a moment, scratching his beard with a faraway look in his eyes. "Twenty years ago, you must have been only a child, so you wouldn’t remember. There was a museum heist that shook the city. Two hundred million dollars’ worth of art pieces were stolen from a museum here in New York. Some of the artwork turned up on the black market, others were recovered by the cops, and most of them somehow made their way back to the museum—except one painting. They never found the painting, and the thieves were never caught.”
“My father?” Matilde speaks for the first time since stepping into the room.
“It was rumored that Alessandro and Giovanni Marino were part of the group that stole those art pieces but no one could prove it. Your mother, Carina Marino, God rest her soul, was already from a wealthy family. She’d inherited multiple properties in New York City, so no one could attribute your family’s wealth to that heist.”
“Oh God,” Matilde whispers, getting up from her seat to start pacing.
It's a lot for a child to learn about their parents, and even worse, they're not here for her to question.
“The man who killed…” She stops, grabbing the back of her chair and squeezing her eyes tight, shaking her head when she hears me start for her.
“I was hiding in the closet when the intruder shot my parents.
I remember him asking about where something was, I believe.
They ransacked my parents' office and bedroom and almost caught me, but then they heard the sirens… That's what saved me that night.”
We stay for dinner, but Matilde doesn’t say much. I figure that it’s going to be a silent ride back to the apartment. Seeing her this sad and stressed bothers me, so I try to break the silence. “I guess you have something really important to tell your sister now.”
“How?” Matilde turns to me, her brows furrowed in pain. “How do I tell her that our father was a thief? All these years, I thought my father was better than Giovanni.”
I reach for her hand and squeeze it. "He was. Your father would have never tried to keep his niece’s inheritance from them.”
“You’re probably right,” she whispers, turning to stare out the window. I vow to find all the ways to distract her when we get to her place. I’ll make her forget all about it all the second we step in until mine is the only name on her lips and in her mind.
However, I don’t get to live out that fantasy.
Whatever sadness and anxiety plaguing Matilde increases tenfold when we find her bakery broken into and ransacked.
I quickly take her upstairs and check her apartment, but that part of the building is untouched.
I get her to lock herself inside before making my way back to the bakery.
My gun sits firmly in my hand as I search the place, and it’s only when I’m certain it’s empty that I call Lorenzo.
“The security system didn't alert me to anything,” he says when I explain the situation. “I’m looking at the feed, and the cameras caught a man dressed in black approaching the security console and…fuck.”
“What?” I ask, tempted to end the call and check the feed my damn self. “Lorenzo!”
“He enters the code to the fucking security console to turn it off. How the fuck does he know the code?” He’s angry.
I can hear it in his voice before the clicking sound of his fingers flying over the keyboard comes over the line.
“Goddamnit. He used the employee’s security code to get in.
The cameras inside catch him ransacking the bakery.
He’s not looking for anything, son of a bitch.
He’s just destroying the place. Who the fuck is this guy? ”
“Does it show his face?”
“No, because the fucker knows just where all the cameras are and he’s avoiding them.”
My fingers clench on the gun as I rack my brain for people who could have accessed the security codes. "There's Sally and Mr. Davis, her contractor, and…fuck. There’s also this real estate agent that has been pressuring Matilde and Arianna to sell the building.”
“What’s the name?”
“Will…fuck, Winston Hill,” Matilde mentioned him a few times over dinner, complaining about his persistence. “Yeah, that’s the name. I was waiting for him to show up again so I could deal with the fucker, but he hasn’t.”
“Okay, I’ll look into him,” Lorenzo says, hanging up. I shoot a text to Santino to check on Sally and find out how the fucking intruder got the security code.