Chapter 5
St. Catherine’s sat on sixty acres outside the city.
Old stone house.
Private chapel.
Vineyard.
No strategic value to me.
At least that was what I believed.
Matteo knew better.
“What’s under St. Catherine’s?”
His face went pale.
I saw it.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Good.
“Answer.”
Matteo swallowed.
“An old Castellano route.”
I stared.
“My wife’s family property contains one of our routes?”
“Your father arranged it twenty years ago.”
I felt something cold move through me.
A hidden corridor.
Not literal.
A smuggling route once used by my father to move cash, men, and information between territories without touching Romano-controlled roads.
I had shut most of those routes after taking power.
Apparently one remained.
“And Audrey owns the land.”
“Yes.”
“Who controls it while she’s a child?”
Matteo looked at Vanessa.
Wrong move.
I understood.
My wife.
If Audrey moved there “for safety,” Vanessa intended to follow as guardian inside my household structure.
Not legal paperwork.
Not courts.
Proximity.
Household authority.
Keys.
Staff.
Access.
I looked at her.
“You wanted Audrey at St. Catherine’s because the property opens an old family route.”
She stared back.
“You closed too many doors.”
There it was.
Not denial.
Resentment.
“You think that gives you permission to hurt my daughter?”
“I didn’t want her hurt.”
“She has stitches beneath that gauze.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Again.
The language of cowards.
Cruelty acceptable until it leaves a mark too visible to explain.
I turned toward Matteo.
“Who wants the route reopened?”
He did not answer.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Ask your uncle.”
I stopped.
My father had one living brother.
Enzo Castellano.
Seventy.
Retired publicly.
Still respected privately.
The man who had spent three years telling me I was destroying the old strength of the family.
I looked at Matteo.
“You’re working with Enzo.”
Silence.
May you like
Enough.
My daughter had been bruised because old men missed a road.
