Chapter 10 - THE HOUSE ON FIRE
The fire began at 2:41 in the morning.
Bruno smelled it first.
He stood beside Emma’s bed and barked.
Sophia woke instantly.
Smoke crawled beneath the bedroom door.
She grabbed Emma.
“Wake up.”
Emma coughed.
“Mommy?”
“We have to go.”
The hallway was already gray.
Flames climbed the kitchen wall near the shattered window.
Someone had thrown an accelerant through the opening.
Bruno barked toward the front door.
Sophia ran.
The handle was hot.
Blocked.
She turned toward the bathroom.
Window.
Too small.
“Help!”
Emma began crying.
Bruno rammed the bedroom door.
Sophia realized what he was doing.
The cottage shared a stone wall with a storage annex.
The rear bedroom window faced a lower roof.
She opened it.
Snow blew inside.
Ten-foot drop.
She could lower Emma.
Maybe.
Then the ceiling cracked.
“Mommy!”
Sophia climbed onto the sill.
Bruno barked.
Outside, men shouted.
Alessandro appeared below.
“Sophia!”
She nearly collapsed from relief.
“Emma first!”
“Give her to me!”
Smoke thickened.
Sophia lowered Emma.
Too far.
Alessandro climbed onto a wooden bench.
“Drop her.”
“No!”
“Sophia!”
The roof groaned.
Emma screamed.
Sophia closed her eyes.
Then released.
Alessandro caught her.
The force knocked him backward into the snow.
He wrapped himself around the child.
“Emma!”
“I’m okay!”
Sophia smiled through tears.
Then fire burst across the ceiling.
“Sophia!”
She climbed halfway through the window.
A burning beam fell.
She screamed.
Bruno grabbed the back of her coat.
The dog pulled.
Sophia tumbled out with him.
They struck the lower roof.
Snow softened the impact.
Alessandro handed Emma to Marco and climbed.
He reached Sophia.
“Can you stand?”
“My ankle.”
He lifted her.
Bruno limped after them.
They slid from the roof onto a security truck.
Seconds later the bedroom window exploded.
Emma screamed.
“My house!”
Sophia held her.
Their cottage burned.
Every photograph.
Every drawing.
Daniel’s clothes.
Emma’s baby blanket.
Sophia’s wedding album.
Gone.
Firefighters arrived.
Alessandro stood in the snow wearing a sweater and no shoes.
He had run from the main house barefoot.
Sophia noticed.
“You don’t have shoes.”
He looked down as if surprised.
“I forgot.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Then cried.
Then laughed again.
Shock.
Emma pointed at him.
“Feet cold.”
“Yes.”
“You need socks.”
“Apparently.”
By sunrise, the cottage was destroyed.
Investigators found a gasoline container near the service road.
Security footage showed a masked man approaching through an area temporarily unwatched because federal agents had removed two camera servers.
Opportunity.
Chaos.
Weakness.
Alessandro blamed himself.
Sophia knew because he became quieter.
More dangerous.
By noon he had located the rival crew responsible.
Marco entered his office.
“We have the address.”
Alessandro reached for his coat.
Sophia stood in the doorway.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You should be resting.”
“And you should be wearing shoes near burning buildings.”
“This is different.”
“You’re going after them.”
“Yes.”
“To do what?”
He didn’t answer.
She entered.
“Alessandro.”
“They burned your home.”
“It was your home.”
“It was where you lived.”
“Don’t make that distinction now.”
His eyes hardened.
“They tried to kill you.”
“And if you go kill them, what happens?”
“They stop.”
“No.”
Sophia shook her head.
“Someone else takes their place.”
“This is not theoretical.”
“Neither was Daniel.”
He froze.
“He tried to leave this cycle.”
“I am not Daniel.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You have more power than he did.”
“Exactly.”
“So use it differently.”
Marco remained very interested in the floor.
Alessandro stared at Sophia.
“You think these men understand conversation?”
“I think prison cells are real.”
“They will never cooperate.”
“Then give investigators what they need.”
“That exposes more of my organization.”
“Yes.”
He almost laughed.
“You really are asking me to dismantle my own empire.”
Sophia looked through the window toward Emma.
“She nearly burned to death.”
Silence.
“What exactly are you protecting?”
That question followed Alessandro for the rest of the day.
Instead of going to the rival safe house, he called the federal prosecutor leading the investigation.
The woman nearly hung up.
“I have information.”
“You have lawyers.”
“I’m not calling as a defendant.”
“What are you calling as?”
Alessandro looked at Marco.
“A witness.”
By evening, six rival members were arrested on weapons and arson charges.
Three Moretti businesses closed permanently.
Two captains resigned.
One threatened Alessandro.
He let him walk.
The old Alessandro would not have.
People noticed.
Some called it weakness.
Others called it strategy.
Alessandro called it exhaustion.
Sophia and Emma moved into the main house temporarily.
Emma received a bedroom bigger than their cottage kitchen.
She hated it.
“Too big.”
Alessandro stood in the doorway.
“You said that about my house.”
“It echoes.”
She shouted.
“HELLO!”
The room answered.
HELLO.
Emma frowned.
“See?”
Sophia covered her face.
Alessandro said, “We can move furniture in.”
Emma looked around.
“Bruno sleeps here.”
“Yes.”
“You?”
Alessandro paused.
“I sleep upstairs.”
“Too far.”
Sophia coughed.
“Emma.”
“What?”
“Mr. Moretti has his own room.”
Emma pointed toward the chair near her bed.
“He can sit.”
Alessandro looked at Sophia.
She smiled.
“You created this problem when you sat on the rug.”
That night Emma woke screaming.
Sophia reached her first.
Emma kicked beneath the blanket.
“Fire!”
“No fire.”
“Mommy!”
“I’m here.”
Bruno climbed partly onto the bed.
Emma grabbed his neck.
Alessandro appeared in the doorway.
Sophia looked at him.
He stayed.
Emma eventually slept.
Sophia sat on the floor.
Alessandro sat across from her.
“You should go back to bed.”
“So should you.”
Neither moved.
After several minutes Sophia said, “She remembers being taken.”
“I know.”
“She keeps asking if the bad men know where the new room is.”
Alessandro looked at Emma.
“They won’t reach her.”
Sophia exhaled.
“You still make promises you can’t control.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“But?”
He looked at her.
“I’ll spend everything I have trying to keep that one.”
Sophia’s expression softened.
Then his phone rang.
Marco.
Alessandro answered.
The security chief’s voice sounded grim.
“We found Matteo.”
“Where?”
“Not where you expect.”
“Tell me.”
Marco paused.
“Your father’s old lake house.”
Alessandro stood.
The property had been abandoned since Vittorio Moretti’s death.
And beneath it was the private vault Daniel had mentioned.
The missing ledger.
May you like
Matteo had not gone there to hide.
He had gone there to destroy evidence.
