Chapter 11 - THE BLOODLINE MATTEO WANTED ERASED
Apparently discovering your mother was murdered wasn’t enough emotional damage for one week.
I was also related to the man who did it.
Nathan Russo had been Matteo’s younger brother.
According to Dominic, he was different.
Quiet.
Studied architecture.
Wanted nothing to do with organized crime.
He met Grace while working on a Vale renovation.
They fell in love.
Daniel Vale hated it.
Matteo hated it more.
Nathan planned to leave New York with Grace.
He never got the chance.
He died when I was two.
Officially, an accident at a construction site.
I no longer believed in accidents.
“Matteo knew about me,” I said.
“Yes.”
“He watched us.”
“Probably.”
“And when Mom started investigating him…”
“She became dangerous.”
My stomach turned.
Dominic stood across the basement.
For once, he had no orders.
No strategy.
Just quiet.
I looked at him.
“You knew Nathan?”
“Yes.”
“What was he like?”
Dominic’s expression softened.
“He drew buildings on every piece of paper he touched.”
I laughed through tears.
“I doodle floor plans.”
“I noticed.”
“When?”
“You reorganized my pantry on your second day.”
“That was necessary.”
“It was terrifying.”
I almost smiled.
Then footsteps sounded above us.
Dominic immediately moved.
Too late.
Matteo appeared at the top of the basement stairs.
He looked exhausted.
Older.
No warm smile now.
“I hoped Grace destroyed those.”
I stepped in front of the metal box.
“You killed her.”
He did not deny it.
That hurt more than denial would have.
“She wouldn’t stop.”
“She was your brother’s wife.”
“She was never his wife.”
“She was the mother of his child.”
His eyes landed on me.
For the first time, I saw hatred.
Not because of anything I had done.
Because I existed.
“Nathan would have abandoned the family for her.”
“So?”
“You don’t understand families like ours.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I understand mine.”
Matteo reached inside his coat.
Dominic moved in front of me.
Security entered behind Matteo before he could do anything.
Julian had tracked us.
Police followed.
Matteo’s expression changed when he saw them.
Dominic had already arranged for the ledgers to be copied and delivered to federal investigators.
The box beneath my hand was no longer Matteo’s only problem.
It was simply the last proof.
Matteo looked at Dominic.
“You’re giving family records to law enforcement?”
Dominic’s voice was cold.
“My father’s crimes are not my inheritance.”
That sentence changed something.
Not only in the basement.
In Dominic.
Matteo was taken away.
But before he reached the stairs, he turned toward me.
“There’s one thing Grace never told you.”
I stared at him.
He smiled.
“The night at Montrose?”
His eyes moved toward Dominic.
“He didn’t just get that scar saving Grace.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
May you like
Matteo finished:
“He got it saving you.”
