Chapter 5 - The Maid Was the Bait
Elena’s face tightened.
“You knew?”
Marcus laughed quietly.
“Your application was too perfect.”
Vincent kept his pistol steady.
“You hired her?”
“I approved her.”
“Why?”
“Daniel spent twenty years hiding from us. Then his daughter suddenly applies to clean your bedroom.”
Marcus nodded toward the wall.
“I knew she was searching for something.”
Elena looked betrayed by her own confidence.
She had believed she entered the mansion unnoticed.
Marcus had watched her from the beginning.
“You followed me to Erie,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You found my father.”
“Yes.”
Vincent’s eyes darkened.
“Did you kill him?”
Marcus did not answer immediately.
That pause was enough.
Elena lunged forward.
Vincent caught her before she crossed the room.
Marcus raised his pistol.
“Control your maid.”
Vincent moved in front of her.
“She is not my maid.”
Marcus smiled.
“No. She’s the daughter of a traitor.”
“My father protected Anthony,” Elena said.
Marcus’s expression sharpened.
“He ran.”
“He ran because you told your uncle where the evidence was.”
The remaining intruders exchanged a look.
They had not expected a family confession.
Marcus noticed.
His weapon moved toward them.
Samuel stepped farther into the room.
“Lower it.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Still loyal to the old man?”
Samuel’s face remained flat.
“I am loyal to whoever does not murder his own crew.”
The balance shifted.
Marcus had two intruders.
Vincent had Samuel and Elena.
But the black case sat between them.
Marcus slowly placed one hand on it.
“You want the truth, brother?”
Vincent answered, “I want to know why our father died.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
The mask slipped.
For one second, he looked sixteen again.
Cornered.
Ashamed.
Then he regained control.
“He died because he was going to destroy us.”
“Us?”
“The family.”
“You mean you.”
Marcus opened the case.
Inside was an old cassette recorder, several ledgers and a sealed letter bearing Anthony Torino’s signet.
Vincent felt something inside him fracture.
His father had truly prepared the box.
Marcus reached for the recorder.
Elena raised her pistol.
“Touch it and I fire.”
Marcus looked at her with cold amusement.
“You still think that recording will clear your father?”
“No.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“I think it will expose what Vincent did.”
May you like
Vincent slowly turned toward her.
👉 The evidence was not only about Marcus—Elena believed it could destroy Vincent too.
