Chapter 10 - WHY I WAS HIRED INTO THE ROSSI HOUSE
My job application wasn't coincidence.
Sofia arranged it.
Three years before I was hired.
Before her death, she created a sealed employment instruction through a household-management firm.
If Elena Hart ever applied for domestic work within a two-hundred-mile radius, refer her to the Rossi estate.
That was absurdly specific.
“She knew what work I'd do?”
Not exactly.
She knew I had left community college.
Knew I had worked hotel housekeeping with my mother.
Knew I might return to domestic work.
Then why wait?
The agency flagged my name only when I applied.
Gabriel personally approved me because Catherine's name looked familiar.
Neither of us understood we were walking into Sofia's contingency plan.
She had wanted me near Leo.
Why not simply tell me?
Because at the time of writing, Marco was still watching every Bellini and Marino relative.
A sealed placement was safer.
Maybe.
Or just another adult making choices for someone else.
I was getting tired of dead people's protection.
Then Gabriel asked:
“Do you want to leave?”
The question startled me.
We were sitting inside the Vermont safe house, Leo asleep upstairs.
“Leave what?”
“My household.”
He looked serious.
“After this ends. You never agreed to any of it.”
For two years, I'd been invisible in his home.
Now he was giving me a door.
“I don't know.”
“That's fair.”
Another surprising answer.
Then Mara entered.
They found Dr. Shaw's vehicle.
Abandoned near Albany.
Inside was blood.
Not much.
And a child's sneaker.
Size twelve.
Leo wore twelve.
Gabriel went pale.
The blood belonged to Dr. Shaw.
The sneaker had a name written inside.
MATTEO.
We tracked highway cameras.
Another vehicle picked them up.
Black Chevrolet Tahoe.
Registered to Rossi Estate Holdings.
One of Gabriel's fleet vehicles.
Driver identified:
Vincent Hale.
The security chief Leo had accused in the hospital.
Vincent's alibi during the attack was real.
Because he hadn't used his own credentials.
Someone used them.
But now he was physically transporting Matteo.
Which meant he was involved after all.
Gabriel stared at the image.
“Where is he going?”
Vehicle last ping:
Rossi estate.
Our own house.
The place attacked days earlier.
The place we believed had been compromised.
Vincent had taken Matteo directly into it.
Then Leo woke upstairs screaming.
I ran.
He sat upright, sweating.
“Dad?”
Gabriel followed.
Leo clung to him.
Then whispered:
“The other me is home.”
Gabriel and I looked at each other.
“What did you say?”
Leo pointed toward the window.
“The boy from Mommy's dreams.”
Sofia had shown Leo photographs of Matteo.
May you like
Secretly.
He remembered his twin.
