Chapter 4 - The Maid's Secret
I didn't call my guards. I didn't send Frank to handle it.
I walked down the dark back stairwell toward the staff quarters on the west wing of the estate. The corridor was quiet, lit only by low emergency nightlights. I reached the small room assigned to Elena Vance, my gloved hand wrapping around my silenced pistol.
I turned the handle quietly. The door swung open without a sound.
The room was dimly lit by a single desk lamp. Elena was sitting on the edge of her small bed, her back to me. She was holding a worn, laminated photograph in her hands, her shoulders trembling with silent sobs.
"Put the photo down and place your hands on your head," I said, stepping into the doorway, leveling my firearm directly at the back of her head.
Elena didn't jump. She didn't scream. She slowly closed her eyes, took a shaky breath, and lowered the photograph onto the nightstand.
"I knew you'd figure it out eventually, Dominic," she whispered, her voice surprisingly steady despite the tears on her face.
"You're Mateo Vance's sister," I said, my voice thick with lethal intent. "Your brother gave the Mendoza cartel the route coordinates for my wife's car. He helped murder Isabella."
"My brother was murdered by the Mendoza cartel three days before your wife died!" Elena suddenly spun around, standing up to face me. Her eyes were red, burning with a mix of grief and defiance as she pointed toward the photograph on the nightstand. "Look at it! Look at the picture, Dominic!"
I didn't move my gun, but my eyes flicked toward the frame.
It wasn't a picture of Mateo with cartel bosses. It was a picture of Mateo standing beside Isabella Russo at a charity function, both of them holding thick legal documents.
"Mateo wasn't working for Mendoza," Elena wept, taking a step closer to the barrel of my gun, completely fearless. "He was working for Isabella. Your wife found out months before her death that someone inside your own inner circle was using your logistics company to traffic drugs for the cartels behind your back. She was trying to gather evidence to save you and your family!"
I stared at her, my mind reeling. "Isabella was... what?"
"Isabella knew you would start a bloodbath if she told you without proof," Elena continued, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "So she hired my brother to audit the private accounts. When the traitors realized Mateo was close to unlocking the offshore ledgers, they ordered the hit in Queens to eliminate Isabella and frame Mateo!"
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"You're lying," I growled, though my grip on the pistol weakened slightly.
"Search my bag," Elena spat, gesturing toward a leather duffel on her closet shelf. "In the bottom compartment, there's an encrypted flash drive Mateo gave me before he was executed. It contains the real financial logs from the night your wife died. The order to kill Isabella didn't come from Colombia, Dominic. It came from inside your own house."
