CHAPTER 6 — THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTEO
CHAPTER 6 — THE TRUTH ABOUT MATTEO
Nobody moved.
Not Marco.
Not Amelia.
Not even the guards outside.
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
"You know where he is."
Victor nodded once.
"I know who has him."
"Talk."
Victor looked around the restaurant.
"Not here."
Luca stepped closer.
"You don't dictate terms."
"No."
Victor answered evenly.
"But your grandson's kidnappers do."
A long silence followed.
Finally Victor reached inside his jacket.
Every rifle in the room aimed at his chest.
Slowly...
He removed a small tablet.
He placed it on the table and stepped back.
"Watch."
Marco pressed play.
The video quality was poor.
A dim warehouse.
Concrete walls.
A single hanging light.
Then...
A little boy appeared.
Thin.
Dirty.
But alive.
Matteo.
He looked directly into the camera.
"Grandpa..."
His voice cracked.
"I've been good."
"I didn't tell them anything."
"I miss you."
The recording ended after twelve seconds.
No threats.
No ransom demand.
Just silence.
For the first time in decades...
Luca's hands trembled.
Almost imperceptibly.
But Sophie noticed.
She quietly walked toward him.
Amelia whispered,
"Sophie, no..."
The little girl ignored her.
She slipped her tiny hand into Luca's.
His fingers were cold.
"Your grandson is alive."
Luca looked down.
"Yes."
"So you shouldn't be sad anymore."
A painful smile crossed his face.
"I'm afraid being alive isn't always enough."
Sophie thought carefully before answering.
"My teacher says..."
"...if somebody is waiting for you..."
"...you should always keep trying to go home."
Luca closed his eyes.
Those simple words reached deeper than any speech from his advisers ever had.
He knelt in front of her.
"I made you a promise today."
"The puppy?"
He nodded.
"I'll still keep it."
She smiled brightly.
"But first..."
"...go get your grandson."
Behind them, Victor Romano quietly watched the exchange.
Then he spoke the sentence that changed everything.
"The people holding Matteo aren't the Romano family."
Every eye turned toward him.
"They're former members of Luca's own organization."
Marco stared in disbelief.
"Impossible."
Victor slowly shook his head.
"They didn't betray him for money."
"They betrayed him because someone inside the Moretti family ordered it."
The restaurant became deathly silent.
Luca's expression didn't change.
Only his eyes hardened.
"There is a traitor..."
"...wearing my family name."
Outside, thunder rolled across Brooklyn as the first heavy drops of rain began to fall.
The hunt for Matteo was no longer a war between rival crime families.
It had become something far more dangerous.
A war within Luca Moretti's own blood.
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And somewhere in the darkness...
The real mastermind smiled, knowing the grandfather had finally begun looking in the wrong direction for far too long. The next move would determine not only Matteo's fate—but whether Sophie and her mother would survive the storm they had unknowingly stepped into.
