Chapter 13 - The Chapel
Dawn painted the Rossi estate gray.
The old chapel stood on the eastern hill, separate from the mansion, surrounded by bare oak trees and stone angels darkened by rain.
I had been baptized there.
I had married Grace there.
Now my mother intended to bury my authority there.
We arrived unarmed.
At least, that was what Vittoria's men believed.
They searched us at the door.
Grace had sewn the memory card into the hem of her coat during the drive.
Inside, twenty-three family members and captains waited in the pews.
Dante stood near the altar.
My mother held Noah in her arms.
Grace stopped breathing.
I felt it beside me.
Vittoria noticed.
"Control yourself," she said.
Grace's voice was ice.
"Give me my son."
"After the vote."
I walked to the front.
Dante unfolded a document.
"Adrian Rossi voluntarily resigns operational authority—"
"Read faster," I said.
He glared at me.
I signed.
Murmurs filled the chapel.
Then came the ownership transfer.
I signed that too.
My mother smiled.
"Now Grace."
"No," I said. "Now Noah."
"Grace first."
She had never intended to honor the deal.
I had known that.
Grace had known it too.
What Vittoria did not know was that the chapel's old sound system had been replaced three months earlier with a networked unit controlled from the sacristy.
Marco was in the bell tower.
Elias was in the control room.
And every senior captain was about to hear what my mother thought only Grace and I knew.
Grace removed her coat.
Dante's face changed.
"Search it again."
Too late.
The chapel speakers crackled.
Then Grace's recorded voice filled the room.
"Page ninety-two. Payment to Silas Automotive. Fifty thousand dollars. Authorization V.R.-01."
My mother's smile vanished.
A second recording played.
My father's old accountant, long dead, speaking on a digitized tape:
"Mrs. Vittoria Rossi approved the brake work. Dante delivered cash. Mr. Rossi was not supposed to survive the mountain road."
Chaos exploded through the pews.
Dante lunged toward Grace.
I hit him before he reached her.
My mother stepped backward, clutching Noah.
"Stop!" she shouted.
Everyone froze.
She held one hand beneath my son's neck.
In the other was a small pistol.
The barrel pressed against his blanket.
Grace's face went white.
"Vittoria," she whispered. "Don't."
May you like
My mother looked at me.
"One more step, Adrian, and you lose him."
