Page 114 of Broken Mafia Bride

No, no. It can’t be. There’s no way that?—

“Giulia, are you okay?” Caterina’s voice cuts through my panic attack.

I raise my head and meet her eyes, wondering if I should pretend like I didn’t notice the woman who kidnapped my daughter in her picture.

“Uh, y-yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Her eyebrows are pulled down, worry written on her face.

Swallowing, I toss my leg over the side of the lounge chair, sitting up. I hold the phone out to her. “Who’s that? I haven’t seen her before in the house.”

Caterina takes the phone and peers at the screen. “Honestly, I haven’t seen her around in a while.”

“Oh?”

“She used to work for Re Ombra. I don’t know in what capacity, but I used to see her coming in and out of the house.” She shrugs. “My best guess is that she’s a manager of some sort.”

Her eyes meet mine. “Does she look familiar?”

“I was just surprised to see a human being that isn’t Pepe in your photos.”

She laughs. “Oh, shut up.”

My mind is running a mile a minute. How is this possible? I don’t understand. Why does Martina work for my grandfather? Does he have any idea that his employee is the same woman who kidnapped Noemi?

My stomach curdles, and it suddenly feels like a thousand eyes are watching me.

Can it be that this entire time we’ve just been pieces on a chessboard owned and played by Lucio Sanna? Acid rises in my throat, and I hurriedly swallow it back down. Why would Lucio do this, though? There’s no reason for him to take Noemi and then pretend like he’s helping us find her.

There are too many questions.

For a split second, I consider running off to tell Raffaele everything, but I change my mind. What if this is all a big misunderstanding? What if Lucio has no idea that he has a snake working for him? She could have been planted here by La Rete Rossi or the Syndicate.

I have to find out the truth, and I have to do it myself.

This concerns my family, and so, I’m going to figure it out on my own. I can’t keep letting people risk their lives for me and coming to my rescue. I’m not a damsel in distress. Far from it, in fact.

I rise to my feet, stretching. “I’m getting sun sick.”

“You should eat something and try to get some sleep,” Caterina says.

“What about you? You coming?”

“I’m going to stay here and wait for Pepe. He went to view a property for a new seafood restaurant with Re Ombra. They should be back any minute.”

If this isn’t a sign from the universe, I don’t know what is. I don’t know when else I’ll have free access to Lucio’s office. It’s now or never.

Fixing a small smile on my face, I nod and then walk back into the house. Instead of heading to the staircase leading to my bedroom on the first floor, however, I continue down the hallway in the direction of his study.

I push the door open and slip in, heart racing. On the outside, though, I’m as cool as a cucumber. Shutting the door behind me, I make my way to his desk, pulling out the drawers to carefully rifle through them.

There are lots of documents, and I have to fish them out and skim through them carefully. Most are profit and revenue files, contracts for business deals—a whole lot of stuff I’m not interested in.

Groaning in frustration, I hurry to the shelves pushed up against the wall. I go through the hardback books, pulling out random ones and flipping through them. I don’t know exactly what I’m searching for, and that’s the problem. It’s not like there’s some big book titledEvidence of Foul Play.

“This is stupid,” I mumble under my breath. There’s no way that my grandfather is involved in Noemi’s kidnapping. I’m sureas soon as I tell him that the woman who worked for him is the same one we found dead in the tub, he’ll be just as horrified as me.

I suck in a deep breath, about to turn away and go back to my room, when I notice a side of the shelf that appears shallower than the rest. Confused, I pull out the books in that segment, and note that they’re much smaller. I feel around the now-empty side and feel a handle in the wood.