Chapter 16 - THE EMPTY BASSINET
Julian ran from the truck before the plan could recover.
Matteo’s men opened fire.
Julian moved behind a steel column.
Elena dropped to the floor.
Clara struggled against the chair.
“Where is Luca?” Julian shouted.
Matteo held the flare above the open fuel channel.
“Safe.”
“For now.”
“You were never interested in the ledger.”
“I already copied it.”
“Then why bring us here?”
“To teach you.”
“Teach me what?”
“What it feels like to have everything belong to someone else.”
Julian fired toward one of Matteo’s guards.
The man dropped his weapon.
Elena crawled behind a stack of cargo pallets.
She found a metal tool on the floor and slipped it into her sleeve.
Matteo dragged Clara’s chair closer to the fuel.
“Your father chose you.”
“Mother chose the family name.”
“Even Camila chose Elena’s child over me.”
“You made everyone your enemy.”
“No.”
Matteo looked toward Julian’s hiding place.
“You needed them to be guilty because admitting you caused this would destroy you.”
Julian stepped partially into view.
“You are right.”
Matteo hesitated.
“I brought you into every part of the company.”
“I defended you when the board questioned your judgment.”
“I ignored missing money because I believed you would never betray me.”
“I caused part of this.”
Elena looked toward Julian.
His voice remained steady.
“But acknowledging that does not make your choices mine.”
Matteo’s face twisted.
“You always speak as if you are above me.”
“I am not above you.”
“Then stop judging me.”
“I am standing before you because I finally judged myself.”
The words unsettled Matteo more than anger could have.
He wanted Julian arrogant.
Controlling.
Predictable.
Julian had changed.
Elena reached Clara.
She cut the restraints with the hidden tool.
Matteo noticed too late.
Clara struck his injured shoulder.
The flare fell.
Elena caught it before it hit the fuel.
Julian rushed forward.
Matteo fired.
The bullet struck Julian’s side.
He fell near the cargo pallets.
Elena screamed his name.
Matteo ran toward the eastern exit.
Clara kicked the fuel valve closed.
Federal agents broke through the surface entrances.
Marcus emerged from the flooded maintenance tunnel, bleeding from one arm.
He pursued Matteo.
Elena reached Julian.
Blood spread beneath his hand.
“Stay with me.”
“Luca.”
“We will find him.”
“Go.”
“I am not leaving you.”
Julian tried to stand.
He could not.
“Elena, listen.”
“No.”
“You said protecting one person does not require abandoning another.”
“I remember.”
“Then let Marcus find Luca.”
“You stay.”
Her hands pressed against Julian’s wound.
Medics entered.
They carried him toward the ambulance.
Elena remained beside him until Reeves arrived with security footage from the lake house.
Matteo’s men had taken the nanny.
They had not taken Luca.
The bassinet had been empty because Camila moved him minutes earlier.
She had intercepted a coded message indicating the attack.
Luca was safe in a federal vehicle.
Elena nearly collapsed with relief.
Camila brought the baby to the hospital while Julian underwent surgery.
The bullet had damaged his spleen but missed major arteries.
Doctors expected him to survive.
Elena sat beside his bed holding Luca.
Camila remained near the door.
“You saved him,” Elena said.
“I finally arrived before the damage.”
Elena looked at her.
“That matters.”
“Does it erase anything?”
“No.”
Camila nodded.
“I did not think it would.”
Julian woke the following morning.
His first word was Luca’s name.
Elena placed the child carefully beside him.
Julian touched the baby’s cheek.
Then he looked at Elena.
“You stayed.”
“You were shot.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
She adjusted Luca’s blanket.
“It is not.”
Julian understood she was not ready.
But she had stayed.
For now, it was enough.
Marcus found Matteo’s escape vehicle abandoned near the border.
Inside was Sofia’s private attorney.
The man carried documents transferring hidden Rossi assets to Matteo.
Sofia had arranged the transfer before her arrest.
Even after Matteo discovered she had manipulated him since childhood, he still accepted her help.
“He cannot survive without believing she chose him eventually,” Clara said.
Julian listened from his hospital bed.
“Where would he go?”
Clara placed a map before him.
“Augusto maintained an emergency estate in northern Italy.”
“It was removed from official records after his death.”
“Matteo knows about it?”
“Marcus and I believed he did not.”
Julian looked at the map.
“I told him.”
“When?”
“We were teenagers.”
Matteo had been frightened after the Monaco collapse.
Julian had taken him to the hidden estate.
He had promised their father would always protect them.
The memory tasted poisonous now.
Federal agents surrounded the property.
They found food, weapons, cash, and multiple passports.
Matteo was not there.
However, he had left a video.
In it, he sat at Augusto’s old desk.
“You told me this place meant family,” Matteo said.
“You promised no one would ever find us here.”
“You were wrong.”
“Family was never safety.”
“It was merely the first prison.”
The recording shifted.
Sofia appeared on another screen behind him.
She was speaking from a detention room through a secret video connection.
Matteo had compromised the prison communication system.
Sofia gave him instructions.
She named judges.
Bankers.
Politicians.
People still loyal to the Rossi name.
Then she told him where the final reserve account was hidden.
The account contained enough money to disappear permanently.
Matteo looked into the camera.
“I could run.”
“But that would mean allowing you to win.”
“So I will use Mother’s money for something better.”
Julian watched his brother smile.
“I am going to make certain no Rossi empire survives for Luca to inherit.”
The screen displayed plans for twelve Rossi buildings.
Explosive charges had already been planted.
May you like
Thousands of people were inside them.
And the first device was scheduled to detonate in six hours.
