Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER WHO KEPT THE RECEIPTS
Mateo answered on the fourth call.
“Rosa? I’m working.”
“Lock the door.”
“What?”
“Right now.”
He heard something in her voice and stopped arguing.
Alessandro sent Nico with two men Rosa had already met and approved.
Maya stayed on the phone with Mateo until they arrived.
Twenty-five minutes later, he entered the estate carrying a grease-stained backpack.
At twenty-one, he still had the same stubborn expression he’d worn at seventeen.
He hugged Rosa first.
Then he looked at Alessandro.
“Took you long enough.”
“Mateo.”
“No, Rosa. I’ve been quiet for four years.”
Alessandro didn’t interrupt.
Mateo unzipped the backpack.
Inside were a thumb drive, an old phone, and a stack of envelopes.
“The men who picked me up told me to keep my sister obedient.”
Rosa’s face drained.
“You said they only drove you around.”
“I was seventeen. You were pregnant. What was I supposed to say?”
He rolled up his sleeve.
A pale scar crossed his forearm.
Rosa covered her mouth.
Alessandro looked away for a moment.
When he looked back, his voice was controlled.
“Why keep all this?”
“Because people like your father count on people like us being too scared to save anything.”
The envelopes contained cash.
Monthly payments.
Delivered to Mateo’s shop after Lily was born.
He had never spent them.
Inside one was a note.
REMEMBER WHAT YOUR SISTER OWES US.
Maya photographed everything.
Then Mateo turned on the old phone.
A recording crackled.
Vittorio’s voice filled the room.
“The girl remains employed. The child remains unrecognized. If Alessandro asks questions, she says the father is gone.”
Rosa sat down hard.
She had known.
Hearing it was different.
Alessandro stood motionless until the recording ended.
Then he said, “Give copies to Maya.”
Mateo studied him.
“You know this could hurt you too.”
“Yes.”
“Your name’s on the companies.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Mateo looked uncertain.
He had expected threats, bargaining, perhaps a check.
Not agreement.
That night, Alessandro sat beside Lily while she lined up wooden animals.
She handed him a horse.
“You can have that one.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t lose him.”
“I won’t.”
Rosa watched from the doorway.
Her phone buzzed.
Bruno had sent a photograph of an old maintenance ledger.
One entry was circled.
May you like
A payment made two days before Elena Moretti’s fatal crash.
The company name matched the one paying Mateo’s threats.
