Chapter 2 - Lockdown at Villa Moretti
The heavy iron gates of Villa Moretti slammed shut with a metallic boom that echoed across the estate's sprawling gardens. Within three minutes, thirty heavily armed Moretti enforcers in black suits lined the perimeter, tactical rifles held at the ready.
Inside the private security wing beneath the main floor, I sat on a leather sofa, holding Emma tightly in my lap. A warm cup of sweet chamomile tea sat untouched on the glass table before me.
The door opened, and Alessandro walked in. He had removed his suit jacket, rolling the sleeves of his crisp white shirt up to his elbows. Behind him walked his chief lieutenant, a scarred, silent man named Marco.
"Is she asleep?" Alessandro asked softly, nodding toward Emma, whose head was resting against my chest, her thumb tucked into her mouth.
"She’s exhausted," I whispered. "Mr. Moretti, please... we don't belong in this world. I came here to clean floors so I could pay for my daughter's ear surgery. We know nothing about crime bosses or encrypted chips."
Alessandro sat in the leather armchair opposite us. For a man feared across the entire Mediterranean, his movements were surprisingly quiet, deliberate, and precise.
"I know you don't, Mrs. Bennett," he said, his dark eyes meeting mine with a terrifying intensity. "Your name is Clara Bennett. Your husband was an American engineer who died in a car accident in Turin three years ago. You have worked seventeen hours a day for two years to pay off his medical debts and support your daughter. Your background is completely clean."
I stared at him, stunned. "You checked my background?"
"I check the background of everyone who breathes the air inside my home," he replied simply. "Which brings us back to the rabbit."
Marco stepped forward, placing a tablet on the glass table. The screen displayed a high-resolution microscopic scan of the micro-chip extracted from Emma's toy.
"The chip contains an encrypted financial ledger," Alessandro explained. "It details illegal wire transfers totaling four hundred million euros from the Moretti syndicate’s accounts into an off-shore trust in Liechtenstein over a period of five years."
"Four hundred million?" I breathed, horrified by the scale of the number.
"My father thought he was losing money to bad market investments before he died," Alessandro said, his jaw tightening. "In reality, someone in his inner circle was bleeding my family dry to fund the Phantom network—the very network that eventually put a bullet in his chest."
He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "The person who stole this data two years ago panicked when my security team initiated a surprise vault audit. They needed to get the chip out of the mansion immediately. So they hid it inside a prototype wool toy being prepared for a charity drive, intending to retrieve it from the donation center later."
"But I bought the box before they could find it," I realized, the horrifying puzzle pieces falling into place.
"Precisely," Alessandro said. "Which means, Clara... as long as that chip exists, you and your daughter are the only living witnesses who can tie the traitor to the crime. And the traitor is currently sitting upstairs in my dining hall."
Before I could process the terror of his words, the security comms on Marco’s shoulder buzzed sharply.
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"Boss," a voice crackled over the speaker. "Vivian Romano just attempted to enter your private study using an unauthorized keycard. We have her detained in the library."
Alessandro stood up smoothly, a cold, predatory smile touching his lips. "It seems my fiancée is eager to finish her evening."
