Chapter 12 - The Waitress They Had Been Watching
Marco Bellini had spent eight months ordering me around at Bellarosa.
He criticized my work.
Changed my shifts.
And constantly assigned me to customers who complained the most.
I'd believed he simply disliked me.
Now I understood something much darker.
He'd been watching me.
Every day.
For eight months.
Antonio stared at the photograph.
"Marco is Luca's younger brother."
My stomach tightened.
"How did you not know?"
"He changed his surname in the business records years ago."
Dad leaned forward.
"Vincent placed him near Sophie."
I covered my mouth.
"Why?"
"Because he knew you'd eventually start asking questions."
I thought about Marco's behavior.
The way he sometimes appeared outside the staff entrance.
The questions he asked about Grandma.
The shifts he'd changed without explanation.
My chest tightened.
"He knew where I lived."
Antonio nodded.
"That's likely how Vincent's people found you."
I felt sick.
Then I remembered something else.
Marco had insisted I serve Maria Russo that evening.
At the time, I assumed he wanted me to handle a wealthy customer.
Now I wasn't so sure.
"Antonio, why was your mother at Table Seven?"
He frowned.
"She asked to have dinner with me."
"Did Marco assign the table?"
Maria nodded slowly.
"He greeted me at the entrance and escorted me there."
I looked toward Antonio.
"Then maybe none of this was an accident."
Silence.
Dad's expression changed.
"What do you mean?"
"Marco made sure I was assigned to your mother."
Antonio looked at me.
"And?"
"And someone wanted us to meet."
The room became quiet.
Then Gabriel Shaw, Antonio's head of security, entered.
He carried a tablet.
"Boss, we've reviewed the restaurant footage."
Antonio stood.
"What did you find?"
Gabriel played a recording.
The camera showed Maria entering Bellarosa.
Marco approached her.
Then he slipped something into his pocket after handling her coat.
Antonio's expression darkened.
"What was that?"
Gabriel enlarged the image.
A small medication organizer.
My heart stopped.
Maria looked down at her purse.
"The pills."
Everyone turned toward her.
She whispered:
"Marco offered to help me with my medication before Sophie came."
I stared.
Then I remembered Maria struggling to open her beaded purse.
Her hands trembling.
Her breathing becoming strained.
I'd opened the evening compartment of her organizer.
Two pills.
Exactly as she'd requested.
But now I wondered whether those pills were what they appeared to be.
Antonio immediately called her physician and arranged medical evaluation.
Investigators preserved the medication organizer.
Then the laboratory report arrived.
One of the pills was not Maria's prescribed medication.
Someone had replaced it.
My hands began shaking.
If Maria had swallowed the substituted pill, she could've suffered a serious medical emergency.
And I would've been the waitress who handed it to her.
Antonio looked at the footage.
Then at me.
For the first time, I understood why the most feared mafia boss in Brooklyn had looked so shocked when he found me beside his mother.
Someone hadn't merely wanted Maria harmed.
May you like
They'd wanted me blamed.
And Marco Bellini had arranged the entire scene.
