Chapter 4 – The Silver Rosary

“We have to go back. Now.”

Matteo’s voice was ragged, completely stripped of its usual composed authority.

We sprinted through the rain toward the armored SUV.

The explosion had drawn sirens in the distance, but Matteo ignored them, throwing the vehicle into gear and tearing away from the curb.

Victor hadn’t brought Lily to the bowling alley.

The kidnapping, the bomb, the ransom text—it was all a distraction.

Victor wanted Matteo out of the estate so he could take the one thing Matteo valued more than money.

Rose.

“Call the house,” Matteo ordered, weaving through traffic at ninety miles an hour.

My hands shook as I dialed the estate’s landline.

It rang endlessly.

“No answer,” I choked out.

“Try Anthony’s cell.”

I dialed. It went straight to voicemail.

Matteo slammed his fist against the steering wheel.

“If they touch her, I will burn Brooklyn to the ground.”

We arrived at the estate fifteen minutes later.

The iron front gates were wide open.

Three of Matteo’s security guards were slumped on the grass, unconscious.

Matteo didn’t wait for the car to stop completely. He kicked his door open and sprinted up the marble steps, his gun drawn.

I followed close behind, my heart pounding in my throat.

The front doors were unlocked.

Inside, the mansion was eerily quiet.

The crystal chandeliers still glittered, but the dining room was empty. The chair where Lauren had been tied was overturned.

The ropes were cut.

“Mom!” Matteo roared, his voice echoing off the marble walls.

Nothing.

We moved toward the grand staircase.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from the second-floor library.

Matteo took the stairs two at a time. I was right on his heels.

He kicked the heavy oak doors of the library open.

Inside, the room was completely trashed. Books were torn from the shelves. Antique lamps were shattered.

And standing in the center of the room was Victor Rossi.

He was holding Anthony by the throat, pressing him against the wall.

Anthony’s face was bruised and bloody.

But Victor wasn’t alone.

Lauren stood beside him, perfectly unharmed, holding a thick stack of manila folders.

The estate ledgers.

“Let him go, Victor,” Matteo said, aiming his gun squarely at Victor’s head.

Victor chuckled, tightening his grip on Anthony’s neck.

“Look who survived the fire. You’re harder to kill than your father, Matteo.”

“Where is my mother?”

Lauren smiled coldly.

“The old bat locked herself in the panic room in the master suite. But it doesn’t matter. We have what we came for.”

She tapped the ledgers in her hands.

“The bearer bonds. The offshore accounts. Everything your father hid from the taxman. It’s all here.”

Matteo didn’t look at the folders.

“You left your daughter with strangers to steal paper.”

Lauren’s smile faltered for a fraction of a second.

“Lily is fine. Once we cash these out, I’ll send for her.”

Anthony managed a choked sob.

“She’s lying, Matteo. She sold Lily to a broker in Europe. That’s how she paid Victor’s men to breach the gates.”

Matteo’s eyes widened in horror.

Even Victor looked slightly disgusted, glancing at his wife.

“She’s a cold piece of work, your fiancé,” Victor sneered. “But business is business.”

Victor threw Anthony to the floor.

He pulled a heavy silver revolver from his jacket and aimed it at Matteo.

“Put the gun down, Russo. Or I put a bullet in your brother. And then I’ll blow the lock off that panic room and take your mother anyway.”

Matteo’s jaw clenched.

He looked at Anthony, bleeding on the floor.

Slowly, Matteo lowered his weapon.

Lauren smirked.

“Smart boy.”

She turned to walk toward the balcony, where a rope ladder was hooked over the railing, leading down to the gardens.

“Let’s go, Victor.”

Victor kept his gun on Matteo and backed toward the balcony.

I stood perfectly still near the library doors, terrified.

But then, my eyes darted to the floor near Anthony’s bleeding hands.

It was a heavy, silver rosary.

Rose’s rosary. The family heirloom she never took off.

It was wedged under a fallen bookshelf, completely hidden from Victor and Lauren.

But I knew what it meant.

Rose never went anywhere without it. If it was here… she wasn’t in the panic room.

I looked at the heavy velvet curtains covering the massive library windows.

They were shifting.

Ever so slightly.

I locked eyes with Matteo.

I couldn’t speak, but I deliberately dropped my gaze to the silver rosary, then flicked my eyes toward the curtains.

Matteo saw it.

He understood instantly.

As Victor took one step backward toward the balcony, Matteo threw himself to the ground.

At that exact second, an antique brass vase came crashing down on Victor’s skull from behind the curtains.

Rose Russo stepped out from the shadows, her eyes blazing with absolute fury.

“Nobody touches my sons!” she screamed.

Victor crumpled to the floor, dropping his gun.

Matteo kicked the weapon away and pinned Victor to the carpet with his knee.

Lauren screamed.

She dropped the ledgers and scrambled for the balcony.

But she wasn’t fast enough.

I grabbed the back of her designer coat and yanked her backward.

She tripped on her heels and crashed onto the hardwood floor, the bearer bonds scattering into the air like snow.

Matteo leveled his gun at Lauren’s chest.

“It’s over, Lauren.”

She stared at the barrel of the gun, panting heavily.

But instead of begging, a slow, twisted smile spread across her face.

“No, Matteo,” Lauren whispered. “It’s just starting.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, metallic object.

It was a safety deposit key.

“You have the money. You have your mother. You even have Victor.”

Lauren laughed, a high, desperate sound.

“But this key belongs to the vault where the European broker is holding Lily. And I swallowed the tracking chip.”

She tossed the key out the open balcony window, into the raging storm below.

“If I go to prison, Anthony’s daughter disappears forever.”

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