Chapter 6 - The Enemy at the Family Table
June ran after Matteo.
She knew it was stupid.
She did it anyway.
He had reached the staircase when she caught his sleeve.
“Inside.”
“What?”
“The shooter is already inside.”
Matteo looked at her phone.
His expression sharpened.
Below them, security shouted near the west windows.
The gunfire had come from outside.
A diversion.
Matteo understood instantly.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved down a rear staircase.
One guard joined them.
Matteo ordered the estate sealed.
No one entered.
No one left.
Forty-three people were inside.
Family.
Staff.
Security.
Drivers.
Guests who had remained after the wedding.
One of them had arranged the attack.
June watched faces gather in the ballroom.
Fear.
Anger.
Confusion.
Sofia arrived wearing a robe.
Carlo cursed loudly.
Caterina entered holding a cane she rarely used.
“What happened?”
“Someone fired into the west windows,” Matteo said.
“And?”
“The shooter was meant to draw security outside.”
Carlo frowned.
“For what?”
Matteo looked around the room.
“To give someone inside freedom to move.”
Silence.
June watched Sofia.
She looked genuinely alarmed.
Too genuinely?
Hard to know.
Matteo ordered security footage reviewed.
At 11:43 p.m., three minutes before the shots, one interior camera had gone offline.
The camera covered Matteo’s study.
They ran there.
The door was open.
Elena’s ledger was gone.
The recorder remained.
The letter remained.
The four divorce petitions remained.
Only the ledger had been taken.
June looked at Matteo.
“Someone knew exactly what mattered.”
Daniel checked the desk.
“No forced entry.”
“The door wasn’t locked,” Matteo said.
June turned.
“Why not?”
“Because this is my house.”
The implication was obvious.
Trust had protected the thief.
Matteo gathered every family member in the dining room.
No one liked it.
Especially Carlo.
“You cannot detain us.”
“I’m not detaining anyone.”
“The gates are locked.”
“For your protection.”
“From whom?”
Matteo looked at his uncle.
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
June sat quietly near Caterina.
The old woman watched everyone.
“You suspect Sofia,” she murmured.
June glanced at her.
“Should I?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She is cruel when frightened, but she is not subtle enough for this.”
June almost laughed.
Caterina continued.
“Carlo is greedy.”
“Yes.”
“Bianca is vain.”
“Noted.”
“Victor gambles.”
June looked toward Matteo’s cousin.
That was useful.
Caterina leaned closer.
“And Daniel knows every legal account.”
June’s gaze shifted toward the attorney.
He stood beside Matteo reviewing security logs.
Trusted.
Competent.
Present for everything.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Matteo trusts people until they betray him.”
June blinked.
“That isn’t his reputation.”
“His reputation was created by people who do not know him.”
Caterina tapped her cane.
“Elena knew.”
June looked back at Matteo.
“And you?”
“I raised him.”
That did not answer the question.
Maybe it did.
Security found something at 1:10 a.m.
A partial print on Matteo’s office drawer.
Victor DeLuca.
Matteo’s cousin.
Victor immediately denied stealing anything.
“I was in there this afternoon.”
“Why?” Matteo asked.
Victor hesitated.
Sofia snapped, “Answer him.”
Victor looked ashamed.
“I needed money.”
Carlo exploded.
“For what?”
Victor said nothing.
Caterina muttered, “Gambling.”
June glanced at her.
The old woman shrugged.
“I told you.”
Victor admitted entering the study earlier that day to ask Matteo for help.
That explained the print.
Not the theft.
Then security found something worse.
A duplicate keycard used during the attack.
Registered to Sofia.
Every eye turned.
Sofia went pale.
“That card was stolen.”
“When?” Matteo asked.
“Two weeks ago.”
“You didn’t report it?”
“I thought I misplaced it.”
Matteo laughed once.
It sounded dangerous.
“You accuse June of being irresponsible while an access card to my home disappears from your possession?”
Sofia looked at June.
“This is because of her.”
June’s exhaustion vanished.
“No.”
Sofia turned.
“This began when you arrived.”
“No. Elena found it eight years ago.”
The room went silent.
Sofia’s face changed.
“You opened Elena’s locker.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“How did you know there was a locker?”
Sofia froze.
There it was.
One mistake.
One sentence.
June felt the entire room tighten.
Matteo repeated, “How did you know?”
Sofia stared at him.
Then sat slowly.
“Because Elena told me.”
Matteo looked stunned.
“When?”
“Two days before she died.”
“You knew?”
“She came to me frightened.”
“And you never told me?”
“She made me promise.”
“She died!”
Sofia stood again.
“So did your father! Do you think I wanted you digging into the same thing?”
Matteo’s anger filled the room.
“You let me believe Elena’s death was my fault.”
“I let you survive!”
Silence.
Sofia’s eyes filled, but her voice stayed hard.
“She said somebody inside the family was moving money. She did not know who. She thought your father discovered it too.”
“Why were you at the courthouse yesterday?”
“Because I received an envelope.”
June stepped forward.
“What envelope?”
Sofia reached into her robe pocket.
A folded cream document.
Another divorce petition.
Number five.
June took it.
At the bottom was another case number.
And a handwritten line.
ASK THE CLERK WHO SEALED IT.
June read the docket.
The case had been processed eighteen years earlier.
Before June worked there.
She searched the clerk name.
Her breath caught.
“Margaret Kaplan.”
Matteo frowned.
“Your supervisor?”
“Yes.”
Mrs. Kaplan.
The woman whose husband had appeared in the station photograph with Sofia.
June stared at the case.
A sealed divorce.
Eighteen years old.
Plaintiff: Theresa Marino.
Defendant: Samuel Marino.
She recognized neither.
Caterina did.
The old woman dropped her cane.
Everyone turned.
“Nonna?”
Caterina’s face had gone white.
“Samuel Marino wasn’t his real name.”
Matteo stepped toward her.
“Whose name was it?”
Caterina looked at June.
Then at Matteo.
“Your father’s.”
No one moved.
Matteo’s voice became almost inaudible.
“My father was married before my mother?”
Caterina shook her head.
“No.”
June frowned.
“Then what was the divorce?”
Caterina whispered, “A legal fiction.”
Another sealed filing.
Another hidden transfer.
June looked at the docket again.
Something else appeared.
A child-support provision.
One minor child.
Female.
Age three.
Matteo stared at the page.
“I have a sister?”
Before Caterina could answer, the dining-room door opened.
May you like
Mrs. Kaplan stood there.
Holding Elena’s missing ledger.
