Chapter 8 - WHY THEY WATCHED MILA
Elena nearly dropped the phone.
“What does my daughter have to do with Gianni Conti?”
Matteo refused to answer until they reached the church.
Alessandro argued.
Elena went anyway.
This was about Mila.
Nobody was making that decision for her.
Mila stayed with Tommy and Father Grady under protection Alessandro arranged through people outside his usual organization.
The church had been abandoned for years.
Broken stained glass.
Dusty pews.
Cold enough to see their breath.
Matteo emerged from behind the altar.
Bruised.
One arm in a sling.
Sofia followed.
Alessandro crossed the room and pulled his niece into his arms.
No words.
For almost a minute, the feared man simply held her.
Then he turned toward Matteo.
“Talk.”
Matteo looked at Elena.
“Michael came to me six years ago.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“He said Gianni had ordered someone to run a DNA search.”
Elena stared.
“On Mila?”
“On Michael.”
“Why?”
Matteo removed a file.
Old records.
Birth certificates.
Photographs.
Michael Carter had been adopted.
Elena knew that.
He had never known his biological father.
Apparently Gianni did.
Michael’s birth father was Antonio DeLuca.
That name changed Alessandro.
“Who?”
Elena asked.
Alessandro sat down.
“Antonio DeLuca controlled half the Boston waterfront before my father.”
“He was mafia?”
“Yes.”
Elena felt sick.
Michael had spent his life trying to avoid a history he never even knew he inherited.
Antonio had no acknowledged children.
But Michael was his son.
And Mila was his granddaughter.
“So?”
Elena demanded.
“What does that mean?”
Matteo looked toward Alessandro.
“It means certain old DeLuca holdings never legally passed to the Contis.”
Property.
Shipping rights.
A trust tied to several legitimate waterfront companies.
Worth almost two hundred million dollars.
The beneficiary line followed direct descendants.
Michael never knew.
After his death:
Mila.
Five-year-old Mila Carter technically controlled wealth powerful men had spent decades assuming belonged to them.
Elena laughed from disbelief.
“We have eighty-six dollars.”
Nobody answered.
Her laugh became almost hysterical.
“My daughter’s boots are falling apart.”
Alessandro looked stricken.
Michael had known shortly before his death.
That was why he recorded everything.
Not to make Mila rich.
To protect her from becoming a target.
“Gianni found out.”
“Yes.”
“Did Michael tell him?”
“No.”
“How?”
“A lawyer handling DeLuca’s dormant estate found the birth link.”
Gianni wanted Michael to sign away any claim.
Michael refused.
Not because he wanted the money.
Because signing would confirm Mila’s identity.
“He knew they’d use her.”
Matteo nodded.
Elena’s anger became almost unbearable.
“Did Gianni order Michael killed?”
Matteo swallowed.
“I believed so.”
“Believed?”
“Until yesterday.”
He handed Alessandro his phone.
A recording.
Carlo’s voice.
Clear.
Agitated.
You were supposed to scare Carter into signing.
Then another voice answered.
Older.
Cold.
Gianni.
He forced our hand.
Carlo:
You said no bodies.
Gianni:
And yet we have one.
Elena’s knees weakened.
Michael died because he refused to surrender Mila’s future.
Then the recording continued.
Gianni said one final thing.
Find the child before Alessandro learns what she is.
Alessandro looked at Elena.
“What she is?”
Matteo shook his head.
“That’s the part I didn’t understand.”
Then Sofia spoke.
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward the sixteen-year-old.
She had been searching Gianni’s stolen files while hiding with Matteo.
She held up a photograph.
Two little girls.
One was Elena.
The other looked almost identical.
Elena’s breath stopped.
“I don’t have a sister.”
Sofia whispered:
“Yes, you do.”
And beneath the photograph was a name Elena had heard exactly once in childhood.
May you like
Lucia DeLuca.
Gianni Conti’s current wife.
