Chapter 1 - The Brother Who Returned
Alessio Morelli stepped from the first black car with the calm smile of a man arriving late to dinner rather than returning from the dead.
Vittorio remained crouched behind the cypress trees with Sophia beside him and Renzo’s cracked phone clenched in his hand.
Two years earlier, Alessio’s burned watch and wedding ring had been recovered from a warehouse fire near Salerno.
The body inside had been too badly damaged for visual identification.
Their mother had buried an empty coffin because Vittorio could not bear to tell her there was almost nothing left.
Now Alessio stood in the driveway wearing a navy suit, his dark hair longer than Vittorio remembered, and a thin scar running from his left ear to his jaw.
Isabella’s face changed when she saw him.
The false driver stepped away from her.
Neither reaction looked like surprise.
Alessio lifted his gaze toward the cypress trees.
“You can come out, brother.”
Sophia gripped Vittorio’s sleeve.
“He knows.”
Vittorio rose slowly and stepped into the open.
He positioned himself between Sophia and the driveway.
The false driver reached inside his jacket.
Alessio raised one hand.
“Not yet, Carlo.”
The man froze.
Vittorio looked at his wife.
“So that is his name.”
Isabella’s lips parted.
“Vittorio, I can explain.”
“You kissed him beside the car meant to kill me.”
“There is no explanation that improves that sentence.”
Alessio walked closer.
The men behind him carried rifles, but their weapons remained pointed toward the ground.
“I did not come to kill you.”
Vittorio glanced at the blinking red light beneath the sedan’s rear seat.
“You brought a strange way of showing affection.”
“That car belongs to Isabella’s people.”
Alessio looked toward her.
“She planned to send you into the sky before the families in Palermo realized you never boarded the plane.”
Isabella’s face hardened.
“You promised me Naples.”
Alessio smiled without warmth.
“I promised you the chance to earn it.”
Vittorio understood then.
His wife had helped plan the attack.
But she had not planned the entire thing.
Alessio had returned because the attempted murder was only the first move.
Sophia tugged Vittorio’s hand.
“My papa.”
Vittorio raised Renzo’s phone.
“Where is the gardener?”
Alessio’s smile disappeared.
“I was going to ask you the same question.”
The phone vibrated.
A live video opened.
Renzo was still tied to the chair.
Behind him stood Marco, Vittorio’s trusted gate captain.
Marco held a pistol against Renzo’s head.
“Send Sophia to the west greenhouse,” Marco said.
May you like
“Or her father dies before the next bell rings.”
From the villa chapel, the first bell sounded.
