Chapter 12 - What Matteo Saw
For two days, Matteo insisted he remembered nothing.
Salvatore believed him.
Gabriel did not.
Not because he thought the boy was lying.
Because trauma could hide memories even from the person carrying them.
Victor was placed in a secure Moretti property.
Not tortured.
Not killed.
Salvatore surprised everyone with that choice.
“You need answers,” Carmine said.
“I need the truth more.”
Victor refused to speak further.
Meanwhile, Matteo returned to the mansion.
This time, Rosa placed him in Elena’s old bedroom.
Nobody had used it for nine years.
Rosa opened the curtains.
Dust moved in the sunlight.
Matteo stood at the doorway.
“This was hers?”
“Yes.”
He touched the dresser.
A small ceramic bird sat on top.
Not folded-wing.
A blue sparrow.
Matteo picked it up.
“She had one like this.”
Rosa smiled sadly.
“I gave her that one when she was twelve.”
Matteo turned it over.
Something rattled inside.
Rosa frowned.
“That never did that before.”
Salvatore, standing behind them, took it carefully.
The base had been resealed.
He cracked it open.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
Carmine brought a laptop.
The card contained five video files.
Elena.
Older than Salvatore remembered.
Thin.
Tired.
Sitting in a small apartment.
Matteo gasped.
“Mom.”
The first video was dated eighteen months earlier.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, then I finally ran out of places to hide.”
Matteo’s eyes filled.
Gabriel entered the room quietly behind them.
Elena continued.
“Salvatore, if Matteo found you, please don’t punish Gabriel.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“He never knew.”
Matteo looked at him.
“He never knew I was pregnant. That was my choice. Maybe the worst choice I ever made.”
Gabriel turned away.
The video continued.
“I lied because Victor found me six weeks after I learned about Matteo. He said if Gabriel returned, he would kill him. If I went to Salvatore, he would kill both of them.”
Salvatore’s jaw tightened.
“I thought I could protect everyone by disappearing.”
Elena smiled sadly.
“I was always arrogant when I was scared.”
Second video.
Elena explained the Bellini attack.
She had witnessed Victor manually open the east gate.
But someone else stood with him.
A woman.
Elena never saw her face.
Only heard her voice.
“She told Victor, ‘When this is finished, Salvatore will have no choice but to become what his father wanted.’”
Bianca paled.
Salvatore paused the video.
“You recognize the voice?”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“It sounded familiar.”
Third video.
Elena spoke about Matteo.
“If they come for my son, it won’t only be because of Gabriel. Matteo saw something three months ago.”
Matteo stiffened.
Salvatore looked at him.
“You remember?”
“No.”
The video continued.
“A man came to our apartment. He thought Matteo was asleep. He said Victor had failed and the family needed a cleaner solution.”
Elena’s hands shook.
“Matteo saw his face.”
The room went silent.
“But afterward he stopped talking about it. I think fear buried the memory.”
Matteo’s breathing changed.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Matteo?”
The boy backed away.
“I don’t remember.”
“No one says you have to.”
“I DON’T.”
He ran from the room.
Gabriel started after him.
Salvatore stopped him.
“Give him space.”
“He’s my son.”
“He learned that two days ago.”
Gabriel looked wounded.
Salvatore lowered his voice.
“You don’t become his father because the blood test says so.”
That landed.
“You become his father by being there long enough that he stops expecting you to disappear.”
Gabriel said nothing.
The fourth video held nothing but Elena crying.
For seventeen minutes.
No words.
No explanation.
The fifth changed everything.
Elena sat beside Matteo’s sleeping form.
“I know who ordered Victor to kill Lucia.”
Bianca gripped the chair.
“Antonio did it,” Gabriel said.
Elena shook her head on-screen.
“No. Antonio signed the order. But someone forged the instructions that convinced him Lucia was betraying the family.”
Salvatore leaned closer.
“The same person later manipulated Victor. The same person convinced Gabriel that hiding was the only way to survive. The same person told Bianca I betrayed Bellini.”
Carmine whispered, “One person shaped all of it.”
Elena continued.
“The first letters of the forged communications spell the name.”
She held up four papers.
M.
A.
R.
A.
Salvatore stared.
“Mara?”
Bianca dropped her glass.
It shattered.
Gabriel turned.
“Mother.”
Bianca was trembling violently.
“Who is Mara?” Matteo asked from the doorway.
He had returned without anyone noticing.
Bianca stared at him.
“My sister.”
Salvatore frowned.
“You never had a sister.”
“Yes.”
Bianca’s voice broke.
“I did.”
Mara Bellandi.
Bianca’s older sister.
Officially dead at nineteen from tuberculosis in Italy.
Except she had not died.
She had been disowned after becoming involved with Antonio Moretti before Bianca married him.
Salvatore stared at his mother.
“My father was with your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Before you?”
“Yes.”
“And she survived?”
Bianca’s face collapsed.
“She came to America.”
“When?”
“Thirty years ago.”
“What happened?”
“I begged Antonio to help her.”
“Did he?”
“He gave her money and made her leave.”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
Another abandoned person.
Another buried grievance.
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo whispered, “I do.”
Everyone turned.
His face had gone pale.
“The man who came to our apartment.”
“What about him?” Gabriel asked.
“He wasn’t a man.”
Matteo’s breathing quickened.
“He wore a coat and hat. I thought…”
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Then the memory returned.
“Old woman.”
Bianca stared.
Matteo whispered, “She had a scar beside her mouth.”
Bianca covered her own mouth.
Mara had received that scar falling through a glass door at fourteen.
Salvatore understood.
Mara was alive.
And she had been shaping the destruction of the Moretti family for decades.
Then the house phone rang.
Rosa answered downstairs.
A moment later she screamed Salvatore’s name.
He ran.
Rosa stood beside the receiver.
White-faced.
“What?”
She held it out.
“A woman.”
Salvatore took the phone.
“Who is this?”
A soft elderly voice answered.
“Your aunt.”
Salvatore’s blood turned cold.
“Mara.”
A quiet laugh.
“Bianca always did tell you too much.”
“What do you want?”
“The boy.”
“No.”
“You haven’t asked why.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
May you like
Her voice softened.
“Because Matteo isn’t Gabriel’s only child.”
