Chapter 5 - THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WALKED INTO THE RINALDI HOUSE
Lucia Valente entered the Rinaldi estate at 11:42 that night carrying one pink backpack, a stuffed rabbit named Captain Pickles, and enough suspicion for a federal investigator.
She held Serena’s hand and stared at Victor.
“Are you the mafia boss?”
Serena closed her eyes.
“Lucia.”
Victor, to his credit, did not react.
“Who told you that?”
“My mom said people say things that aren’t always true.”
Victor glanced at Serena.
Lucia continued.
“But then she said sometimes they are true, but we shouldn’t repeat gossip until we know.”
Victor crouched until they were eye level.
“That’s smart.”
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“A mafia boss.”
Serena prayed for lightning.
Victor considered his answer.
“I’m a businessman.”
Lucia looked at Serena.
“He’s definitely a mafia boss.”
Enzo turned away, shoulders shaking.
Victor stood.
“I like her.”
“You’ve known her thirty seconds.”
“Enough.”
The boys were asleep, so Serena settled Lucia into a guest room near her own.
At least, Serena believed it was a guest room until she saw the closet.
Fresh children’s clothes hung inside.
Pajamas.
Socks.
A toothbrush still in packaging.
She walked back into the corridor.
Victor stood there.
“When did you buy all that?”
“My staff did.”
“When?”
“On the drive here.”
Serena stared.
“You arranged an entire wardrobe in forty minutes?”
“I make calls.”
“That must be nice.”
Something bitter escaped in her tone.
Victor caught it.
But he did not respond.
Instead he said, “There will be guards outside this wing.”
“Lucia is going to hate that.”
“She can hate it alive.”
Serena hated how difficult that sentence was to argue with.
The next morning chaos resumed at precisely 6:52.
Nico discovered Lucia.
Lucia discovered Nico.
War followed.
“You’re a girl,” Nico announced.
“You’re short,” Lucia replied.
“We’re the same height.”
“Then why did you start with obvious facts?”
Marco’s mouth fell open.
Alessandro whispered, “I like her.”
Tommy immediately offered Lucia his favorite blue crayon.
Within twenty minutes, Lucia had accomplished something no adult in the mansion had managed in months.
She organized all four boys into making pancakes.
Serena stood beside Victor watching flour spread across the kitchen.
“You’re letting this happen?” he asked.
“They’re cooperating.”
“Nico has batter in his hair.”
“He’s cooperating badly.”
Victor looked at Lucia directing Marco to stir.
“She’s confident.”
“She had to become that way.”
Victor glanced at Serena.
She regretted the words.
He had asked nothing about Lucia’s father since the apartment.
Serena knew the conversation was coming.
It arrived that afternoon.
The children were playing in the garden under the watch of six security men.
Victor handed Serena a folder.
“What’s this?”
“Your custody case.”
Her blood chilled.
She opened it.
Her ex-husband’s name.
Anthony Valente.
Court filings.
Bank statements.
Employment records.
“You investigated me?”
“I investigated the threat.”
“You investigated me.”
“Yes.”
“How dare you?”
“My sons were targeted. You were targeted three hours after entering my home.”
“And therefore my divorce is your business?”
“If your ex-husband is involved, yes.”
“He isn’t.”
“You sound certain.”
“Because Anthony is selfish, manipulative, and vindictive. But he’s not connected to organized crime.”
Victor turned a page.
“He has gambling debt.”
Serena froze.
“What?”
“Forty-eight thousand dollars.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Two casinos and an offshore betting account disagree.”
She grabbed the paperwork.
Anthony had always gambled casually.
Sports.
Cards.
Nothing like this.
Victor pointed to another page.
“Three weeks ago, twenty thousand dollars of his debt disappeared.”
Serena looked up.
“Who paid it?”
“We’re finding out.”
Her stomach twisted.
“What are you suggesting?”
“That someone may have bought your ex-husband.”
“No.”
“Serena.”
“No.”
She walked toward the window.
Lucia was laughing outside.
Marco chased her across the lawn.
Victor’s voice came from behind her.
“When is your hearing?”
“You know.”
“Two weeks.”
“Yes.”
“And Anthony is asking for primary custody.”
“Yes.”
“On what basis?”
Serena’s silence answered.
Victor waited.
Eventually she said, “Financial instability.”
“Your financial instability.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
She turned.
“You want the ugly version?”
“The truth.”
“Anthony had an affair.”
Victor’s jaw shifted.
“When I found out, I left. He froze our joint accounts before I could move anything. The apartment was in his name. His family owns the restaurant where I worked, so I lost my job the same week.”
Victor’s face darkened.
“He took your money, housing, and employment.”
“And now he says all of that proves I’m unstable.”
Victor looked genuinely disgusted.
“Why didn’t your lawyer destroy him?”
“Because proving moral ugliness isn’t the same as proving illegal conduct.”
Victor was silent.
Serena continued.
“I’ve been rebuilding for eight months. Lucia lives with me temporarily under our current agreement, but Anthony’s lawyer requested a review. That’s why this job matters.”
Victor folded his arms.
“How much do you need?”
“No.”
“I didn’t finish.”
“You were going to offer money.”
“I was going to ask.”
“And the answer is no.”
“Why?”
“Because I need employment, not charity.”
“This isn’t charity.”
“Then what is it?”
Victor stepped closer.
“A solution.”
“To you, maybe.”
“To you as well.”
Serena looked directly into his eyes.
“If I walk into family court with a mafia billionaire suddenly paying my bills, Anthony’s lawyer will destroy me.”
Victor stopped.
She had a point.
“I need my own income,” she said. “My own work. My own proof that Lucia and I can survive without Anthony.”
Victor nodded once.
“Then you have it.”
“I need to earn it.”
“You already are.”
A scream came from the garden.
Both of them spun.
Serena ran.
Lucia was on the grass.
Marco stood beside her, horrified.
A security guard sprinted toward the hedge.
“What happened?”
Lucia pointed.
“A man.”
Victor’s men spread immediately.
“What man?” Victor demanded.
Lucia trembled.
“He was behind the trees.”
Serena dropped beside her.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
“He showed me a picture.”
Victor went still.
Lucia pulled a folded sheet from her pocket.
“I thought it was yours, Mommy.”
Serena opened it.
It was an old newspaper photograph.
Victor and Adriana Rinaldi leaving a charity gala eight years earlier.
Someone had drawn a black X over Victor’s face.
Below the photograph were four words.
ASK HIM WHO KILLED HER.
Victor ripped the page from Serena’s hand.
“Get the children inside.”
Lucia started crying.
Serena gathered her.
Marco suddenly pointed toward the trees.
“There!”
A figure moved beyond the hedge.
Victor’s guards chased.
Victor grabbed Serena and pulled her behind him.
Seconds later Enzo shouted from the far gate.
“We got someone!”
The children were rushed inside.
Victor followed his men toward the security building while Serena remained with Lucia.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then thirty.
Finally, Victor returned.
He looked furious.
“Who was it?” Serena asked.
“Not Gabriel.”
“Then who?”
“One of the gardeners.”
Her stomach dropped.
“The gardener left that picture?”
“No.”
“He says a man paid him five thousand dollars to put it where Lucia would find it.”
“Did he describe him?”
Victor nodded.
“Scar over the right eyebrow.”
Gabriel.
Serena tightened her arms around Lucia.
Victor’s phone rang.
He answered.
Enzo spoke loudly enough for Serena to hear.
“We traced the payment.”
Victor’s expression darkened.
“To who?”
A pause.
Then Enzo said the name.
“Anthony Valente.”
Serena stopped breathing.
May you like
Her ex-husband had been paid fifty thousand dollars.
By Gabriel Moretti.
