Chapter 17 - THE WOMAN IN EMERALD
Panic spread across three countries.
Authorities evacuated every building named in Matteo’s video.
Subway lines closed.
Hospitals near Rossi properties prepared for mass casualties.
Julian attempted to leave the hospital.
His doctor threatened to restrain him.
Elena supported the doctor.
“You can barely walk.”
“Those buildings belong to me.”
“Then help from here.”
Julian contacted engineers, security chiefs, and city officials from his hospital bed.
Every construction plan was opened.
Every maintenance worker was questioned.
No explosives were found.
Clara studied Matteo’s language.
“He said charges were planted.”
“He did not prove it.”
Julian understood.
“It may be psychological.”
Reeves disagreed.
“We cannot assume that.”
Camila entered wearing a dark sweater and plain trousers.
Without emerald silk or diamonds, she looked younger.
“I know the first target,” she said.
Everyone turned.
“Matteo contacted me.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked me to meet him.”
“Where?”
“The Grand Alcazar.”
The hotel had been evacuated after its sale was announced.
Only security and investigators remained inside.
“Why you?” Elena asked.
Camila looked at her.
“Because he believes I betrayed him for Julian.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Camila’s answer was honest.
“I betrayed him because I finally understood what he was.”
She handed Reeves the phone.
Matteo had instructed her to wear the emerald gown from the night Julian found Elena.
He wanted the scene recreated.
The hotel lobby.
Camila beside Julian.
Elena in her gray uniform.
“He wants all three of us there,” Camila said.
Julian shook his head.
“No.”
“If we refuse, he claims the first building falls.”
“It could be a bluff.”
“It could.”
Camila looked at him.
“But the Alcazar has a concealed control center beneath the lobby.”
“My father used it to monitor the hotel.”
“Matteo may be operating the threat network from there.”
Reeves prepared a tactical operation.
Elena refused to remain behind.
Julian turned toward her.
“You are recovering from childbirth.”
“So are you from a bullet.”
“That is different.”
“How?”
Julian had no convincing answer.
They entered the Grand Alcazar at five thirty in the evening.
The chandeliers were dark.
Only emergency lights reflected across the onyx floor.
Elena wore the same charcoal-gray housekeeping uniform investigators had recovered from the hospital.
Camila wore the emerald gown.
Julian wore a black suit over his bandages.
The image resembled their first confrontation.
But everything had changed.
Matteo’s voice echoed through the lobby.
“Perfect.”
A spotlight illuminated the place where Elena’s cleaning cart had stood.
The original cart waited there.
Detergent bottles and towels were stacked exactly as before.
Elena’s hands tightened.
Julian saw the reaction.
Matteo wanted to return her to the moment she had been powerless.
Julian pushed the cart aside.
Its wheels screamed across the floor.
“We are here,” he said.
“Show yourself.”
A screen descended from the upper balcony.
Matteo appeared live from the underground control room.
Twelve timers surrounded his image.
Each showed less than twenty minutes.
“You ruined the composition,” he said.
“No,” Elena replied.
“He corrected it.”
Matteo looked at her.
“You should have remained invisible.”
“You should have remained innocent.”
His face tightened.
“I was never given that opportunity.”
“You were given thousands of opportunities after the balcony collapsed.”
“You chose concealment every time.”
Matteo laughed.
“You sound like a judge.”
“No.”
“I sound like the woman who survived you.”
Camila stepped forward.
“Stop the timers.”
Matteo looked at her emerald gown.
“For years, I believed you understood me.”
“I understood being used.”
“You wanted Rossi destroyed.”
“I wanted the truth.”
“No.”
“You wanted Julian.”
Camila looked toward Julian.
“Once.”
“Not anymore.”
Matteo’s expression sharpened.
“Then what do you want?”
“My life to stop belonging to angry men.”
Reeves’s tactical team entered the underground levels through the loading dock.
Matteo detected them.
One timer accelerated.
Five minutes disappeared instantly.
“Send them back,” he ordered.
Julian contacted Reeves.
The agents withdrew from the visible corridor but continued through ventilation routes.
Matteo ordered Julian to open the hidden trust through a secure terminal.
The trust contained emergency authority to liquidate Rossi Group.
If Julian activated that provision with Elena’s approval, every major Rossi asset would be sold.
The empire would end.
“You want to destroy the company,” Julian said.
“I want Luca to inherit nothing.”
Elena approached the terminal.
“Then let him.”
Julian looked at her.
She placed her hand on the authorization panel.
“Buildings can be rebuilt.”
“Companies can be replaced.”
“People cannot.”
Julian understood.
He entered his code.
Together, they activated the liquidation provision.
Every Rossi Group property began transferring into a court-supervised public trust.
Profits would compensate victims, repair unsafe buildings, and protect employees.
The family could never regain private control.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“You did it.”
“Yes,” Julian said.
“You destroyed Father’s empire.”
“No.”
“I ended Mother’s weapon.”
The timers stopped.
For one second, everyone believed it was over.
Then Matteo smiled.
“You still think the buildings were the targets.”
A new timer appeared.
Three minutes.
The camera feed changed.
Luca’s federal safe room appeared on the screen.
A device had been hidden beneath the floor.
Elena stopped breathing.
Matteo spoke softly.
“You always choose too late, Julian.”
Camila looked upward toward the chandelier.
A small reflection moved across one crystal.
A camera.
She understood Matteo was not in the underground control room.
He was watching from inside the lobby.
Camila turned.
Matteo stood behind the upper balcony railing.
He aimed a weapon at Julian.
Camila shouted.
Julian moved.
The shot struck the floor.
Federal agents surged from the stairwell.
Matteo ran across the balcony.
Camila pursued him.
He reached the roof access.
She followed.
“Elena, stay with Julian,” she called.
The roof was slick with rain.
Matteo reached the edge.
Camila stopped several feet away.
“The device under Luca’s room is false,” she said.
Matteo laughed.
“How do you know?”
“Because you never learned where they moved him.”
His smile disappeared.
Camila had provided Reeves with a false location, knowing Matteo still monitored her communications.
The safe-room video was prerecorded.
“You lied to me,” Matteo said.
“Yes.”
“You are no different from them.”
“No.”
Camila’s voice remained steady.
“I learned the difference between lying to control someone and lying to save them.”
Matteo raised his gun.
Before he could fire, Sofia’s voice emerged from his earpiece.
“Do it.”
Camila heard it.
Even from prison, Sofia was still commanding him.
Matteo’s hand began shaking.
“Mother,” he whispered.
“Shoot her,” Sofia ordered.
Camila looked at him.
“She will never choose you.”
“Be quiet.”
“She chose the family name.”
“She chose Julian when he was born.”
“She chose herself every time.”
Matteo’s eyes filled with tears.
“Be quiet.”
“You can stop now.”
Matteo lowered the weapon slightly.
Then Sofia spoke again.
“You have disappointed me for the last time.”
Something inside Matteo broke.
He ripped the earpiece away.
He fired into the sky.
Then he stepped backward.
His heel slipped near the roof edge.
Camila caught his wrist.
For one suspended moment, Matteo hung above forty stories of open air.
He looked up at her.
“Why are you holding me?”
“Because I refuse to become what all of you made me.”
Agents reached the roof and pulled Matteo to safety.
They placed him in restraints.
He did not resist.
As they led him away, he looked toward Camila.
“Did you ever love me?”
Camila answered honestly.
“I loved believing someone understood me.”
Matteo lowered his head.
The timers inside the lobby reached zero.
Nothing exploded.
The threat had been a final illusion.
But the Rossi empire was truly gone.
May you like
Julian stood beside Elena beneath the dark chandeliers.
For the first time, he felt free.
