Chapter 6 - The Spider in the Web
The door swung inward with slow, deliberate grace.
Evelyn stood in the threshold.
She wasn't wearing her crisp daytime uniform. She wore a dark silk robe, her steel-gray hair loose around her shoulders, making her look less like a housekeeper and more like an executioner stepping out of the shadows. In her right hand, held casually against her thigh, was a heavy, suppressed Walther PPK pistol—the same model Marco carried.
"I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out, Dominic," Evelyn said, her voice entirely devoid of the polite, servile warmth she had projected for twelve years. It was cold, sharp, and dripping with venom.
Dominic didn't drop his son. He gently shifted Leo behind his back, shielding him with his own body, while his left hand slid slowly toward the hidden holster beneath his jacket.
"Evelyn," Dominic’s voice dropped into its most dangerous, icy register. "Put the gun down. You’ve lived in this house long enough to know how this ends."
"I helped build this house," Evelyn spat, taking a slow step into the study, her eyes fixed not on Dominic, but on Elena, standing defensively near the coffee table. "Long before your foolish father brought you into the syndicate, long before Helena crashed her car into the ravine, I was the one pulling the strings. You think you own this empire, Dominic? You’re just a figurehead. A pit bull on a heavy chain."
"The meningitis," Dominic said, every muscle in his frame coiled to strike. "You gave it to him. Or you paid Collins to fake the diagnosis."
"Both," Evelyn smiled, a thin, ugly twist of her lips. "The boy was too bright, Dominic. At fourteen months, he was already mimicking words, picking up patterns, showing the kind of terrifying intellect you inherited from your old man. If he grew up normal, he would have taken over everything by the time he was twenty. He would have sidelined me. Sidelined all of us."
"So you poisoned him," Elena said, her voice trembling with righteous fury. "You damaged his hearing, locked him in a silent room, and convinced his father he was broken."
"I gave him peace," Evelyn corrected coldly. "And I ensured that Dominic would remain dependent on my guidance, my staff, my control. Every nurse in this house worked for me, reporting every twitch, every sound, every breath."
She raised the pistol, leveling the black barrel straight at Dominic’s chest. "And now, unfortunately, the experiment is over. It’s a shame. The girl was useful for a while, but curiosity killed the housekeeper."
Before Evelyn’s finger could tighten on the trigger, a shadow detached itself from the dark corner near the bookshelves.
Marco Vitali moved with terrifying speed for a man of his size.
He didn't aim for her chest. He lunged forward, his heavy hand crashing down on Evelyn’s wrist with the force of a falling anvil.
Bang!
The suppressed shot detonated into the oak floorboards, sending a cloud of sawdust and splinters into the air.
Evelyn shrieked as the Walther slipped from her numb fingers, clattering across the Persian rug. But before Marco could subdue her, she reached into her robe pocket, pulled out a small, heavy-duty key fob with a red LED light, and slammed her thumb down on the center button.
May you like
BEEP-BEEP.
"You think I worked alone?" Evelyn laughed hysterically, blood trickling from her bruised wrist. "The perimeter gates are locked. The estate is sealed. By sunrise, the syndicate council will arrive to clean up the mess of an unstable boss who finally lost his mind."
