Chapter 5 - The Loyal Servant
"Martha?" I exclaimed, my voice echoing in the quiet room. "The head housekeeper?"
Alessio didn't waste a single second. "Dominic. Bring her to the basement holding room. Now."
"Wait, Alessio!" I caught his arm. His muscles were hard as iron beneath his shirt. He stopped, looking down at my hand on his sleeve. "Martha has been with your family for thirty years. Why would she do this now? It doesn't make sense."
"Money, extortion, treason—the motives are endless in my world, Clara," Alessio said coldly. "I don't leave room for doubts."
"Let me come with you," I insisted. "If she used a phone app, she might have left physical clues in her quarters. And I saw how she was staring at the evidence bag earlier. She was afraid of something specific."
Alessio looked at me, weighing my words, then nodded once. "Dominic, guard Leo with your life. Two men at the door, two at the window. Clara, with me."
We descended into the sub-basement of the estate—a cold, concrete bunker beneath the wine cellar that smelled of damp earth and rust.
Martha was sitting on a wooden chair under a single hanging lightbulb. She didn't look like a cold-blooded killer; she looked like a broken old woman, weeping quietly into her apron. Two armed guards stood behind her like statues.
When Alessio walked into the room, the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. He dragged a metal chair across the floor with a harsh screech and sat directly across from her.
"Thirty years, Martha," Alessio said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "My father paid for your medical bills. I gave your son a job in our shipping company. And you sell my child to my enemies?"
"No! No, Master Alessio, I swear to God!" Martha sobbed, falling off her chair onto her knees, grabbing the hem of his trousers. "I didn't try to kill little Leo! I could never harm that precious angel!"
"Your phone was used to cut the camera feed!" Alessio barked, slamming his hand onto the metal table. The crack echoed like thunder. "The tech logs don't lie!"
"They threatened my grandson!" Martha cried out, her voice breaking in desperation. "Two weeks ago... a man contacted me. He had photos of my little five-year-old grandson walking to school in Chicago. He said if I didn't download an app onto my phone and leave my phone near the estate router every night, they would send me my grandson's fingers in a box!"
I stepped forward, my heart sinking. "Extortion."
"I didn't know what the app was doing!" Martha wept bitterly. "I swear it! I thought they were just spying on the estate security shifts! I didn't know they were going to turn off the nursery camera tonight! I didn't know someone was going to hurt the baby!"
Alessio leaned in, his gaze burning like acid. "Who contacted you, Martha? Give me a name."
"I don't know his name!" Martha wailed. "He spoke with a raspy voice... like a smoker. But... but he gave me an envelope of cash last week to keep my mouth shut. I hid it under the floorboards in my pantry! I never spent a dime of it!"
"Where is the envelope?" I asked quickly.
"In my room... under the third floorboard by the window," Martha stammered.
Alessio stood up, turning to his guards. "Keep her locked here."
"Alessio, wait," I whispered as we walked out into the corridor. "If Martha was being blackmailed, she isn't the executioner. She was just the tool used to disable the camera. The real attacker is still in the house—and they used Martha's compromised phone as a cover!"
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Alessio paused in the dim corridor, his shadow stretching long against the concrete wall. He looked down at me, his eyes gleaming with a dark, ruthless intelligence.
"Then let's go find that envelope," Alessio whispered. "And hunt down the bastard who touched my son."
