Chapter 3 - The Hidden Ledger
The private dining room at Aurelia was cleared out within minutes. Marco was dragged away into the night by Dante's loyalists, and the restaurant manager was generously compensated to wipe the security footage and close the establishment early.
Dante refused to let Emma leave. "You saved my life tonight," he said, standing near the doorway of the dimly lit dining room. "And more importantly, you gave me my mother's voice back. I need you."
"I have a shift tomorrow, Mr. Moretti," Emma said, her hands shaking slightly as the adrenaline began to fade. "I'm just a waitress."
"Not anymore," Dante said. He pulled out a thick stack of cash and placed it on the table, followed by his personal card. "I will pay you ten times what this restaurant pays you in a year. I need you to stay with my mother as her translator and companion. But it isn't just about translating dinner orders."
Rosa stepped forward, taking Emma’s hands gently into her own. She began signing rapidly, her expression intense and urgent.
Emma read the signs carefully and turned to Dante. "Your mother says that Marco wasn't working alone. She has been watching the syndicate's inner circle for two years. Because everyone assumed she was deaf, mute, and mentally declining, they spoke freely in front of her. They hid documents in her estate. They planned ambushes while sitting in her garden."
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Dante stared at his mother in absolute disbelief. "She knows everything?"
"She knows where the stolen money is," Emma translated, watching Rosa's hands shape the precise, complex gestures. "She knows who killed your father three years ago. And she knows who is planning to burn down your family's empire from the inside."
