Chapter 3
The silence that followed Alessio’s question was heavy enough to crush bone. The distant, muffled sounds of the private luncheon—the clinking of crystal glasses, the low murmur of oblivious mobsters and their wives—drifted over the high brick walls of the estate, highlighting the sheer isolation of the memorial garden.
Alessio stood like a monolith over his cousin. He slowly unbuttoned his suit jacket, folding it neatly before tossing it over an unbroken chair. He rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt, exposing the heavy, gold signet ring on his right hand—a ring that had left a permanent, bloody indentation on Marco's jaw.
"I asked you a question, Claudia," Alessio rumbled, stepping closer. His polished leather shoe crunched deliberately on a piece of broken ceramic, stopping mere inches from her face. "What is in the dirt?"
Claudia scrambled backward, her elegant dress snagging on the thorny branches of a ruined rose bush. She brought a trembling hand up to her swelling cheek. "Alessio, please. You don't understand. Marco was just... we were just landscaping. The men got carried away."
"You tried to drown my four-year-old daughter in a reflecting pond," Alessio stated, his voice devoid of any warmth. "You were not landscaping. You were frantic. You were looking for something, and you didn't want Ruby or me to find it first."
"No!" Claudia lied, her voice cracking. "I swear on our family name, Alessio!"
"Our family name means nothing in your mouth," he spat.
Alessio turned slightly and gestured to the heavy greenhouse doors. Three of his personal bodyguards—men who had bled for him in the streets of Chicago long before he wore tailored suits—stepped out onto the terrace. They took one look at Marco bleeding in the dirt and Claudia cowering, and immediately drew their weapons, scanning the perimeter.
"Matteo," Alessio ordered, not taking his eyes off Claudia. "Take Ruby inside. Put her in the safe room with Maria. No one enters that room unless I give the word. Understood?"
"Yes, Boss," Matteo said. He gently scooped the trembling Ruby into his arms.
"Daddy?" Ruby whispered, looking over Matteo’s broad shoulder.
"I will be right there, sweet girl," Alessio promised, forcing a gentle warmth into his voice for her sake. "Go with Matteo."
Once Ruby was safely out of sight, Alessio’s demeanor snapped back to pure ice. He looked at Evelyn, who was still standing rigidly by the untouched strip of soil.
"Evelyn," Alessio said gently, holding his hand out to his niece. "Come here. Away from her."
Evelyn hesitated, looking down at her mother. Claudia’s eyes widened, filled with venomous warning.
"Evelyn, don't you say a word to him," Claudia hissed. "Get over here right now."
Evelyn’s lower lip trembled, but she shook her head. She walked around her mother and took Alessio’s massive hand.
"Uncle Alessio," Evelyn whispered, her voice barely audible. "Two nights ago, when you were in New York... I saw Marco and my mother out here in the rain. They had flashlights. And they had a steel box. They buried it right there, by the glass wall."
Alessio’s eyes darkened to pitch. He looked down at Claudia, who was now weeping openly, not out of remorse, but out of the sheer terror of being caught.
"Gianni," Alessio barked to his second bodyguard. "Go to the shed. Get the shovels. We are going to see exactly what my dear cousin is planting in my wife's garden."
"You can't dig that up, Alessio!" Claudia screamed, trying to stand, but the third bodyguard firmly planted a heavy boot on the hem of her dress, pinning her to the stones. "If the Commission finds out what’s in there, they will kill us all! They will burn this entire estate to the ground!"
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"Let them try," Alessio said.
Gianni returned a moment later, carrying two heavy steel spades. He tossed one to his partner, and the two men walked toward the untouched strip of earth Evelyn had pointed out. They drove the blades deep into the dark soil, and the digging began.
