Chapter 4 - The Rabbit's Eye
The blood drained entirely from Silvio’s face. He physically staggered backward, bumping into the wall.
"Alejandro," Silvio choked out, his eyes darting frantically. "You're... you're alive! Thank God! The maid, she—"
"Shut your mouth," Alejandro commanded, his voice weak but laced with absolute, crushing authority.
He slowly pulled himself to his feet. He looked at Maria, who was weeping in shock, and then he looked under his desk.
"Come out, piccola," Alejandro said softly.
Emma crawled out from under the desk, clutching her pink rabbit backpack. She ran straight to her mother, burying her face in Maria’s apron.
"Alejandro, listen to me," Silvio stammered, sweating profusely now. "The girl must have brought the EpiPen. But the mother poured the wine! I saw her do it! It's her word against mine!"
Maria sobbed, shaking her head. "I don't have proof. I just poured the wine and left the bottle on the tray like always."
"You don't need proof," Alejandro said.
He walked over to Maria and gently knelt down to Emma’s eye level. He reached out and touched the pink rabbit backpack. Right in the center of the rabbit’s plastic nose was a tiny, perfectly concealed glass lens.
"Maria," Alejandro said softly. "Why does your daughter's backpack have a camera in it?"
Maria sniffled, holding her child tight. "I'm a single mother in a massive house. I get paranoid when she plays in the basement alone. I put a nanny cam in the nose so I can watch her on my phone while I clean the upstairs rooms."
Alejandro stood up. He turned his terrifying gaze to Silvio.
"Pull up the footage," Alejandro ordered.
Maria pulled her cracked smartphone from her pocket. She opened the app, rewound the feed by twenty minutes, and held the screen up.
Because Emma had left the backpack sitting on the staff room chair, the camera had been pointed directly upward through the metal floor grate into the study above.
The high-definition, audio-synced footage played perfectly. It showed Silvio walking into the empty study, pulling a small vial from his suit pocket, and emptying the clear liquid into Alejandro’s glass of Barolo.
The silence in the room was absolute.
Silvio’s knees gave out. He collapsed onto the floor, his polished facade shattering into a million pathetic pieces.
"Alejandro, please!" Silvio wept, begging the man he had just tried to murder. "The Commission made me do it! They said you were getting too soft! I didn't want to!"
Alejandro didn't yell. He didn't blink.
"Take him to the basement," Alejandro whispered to his guards. "Make it slow. And make sure the Commission hears him screaming."
The guards dragged the sobbing, begging traitor out of the room. The heavy oak doors clicked shut, sealing his fate.
Alejandro turned back to Maria and Emma. He reached down and gently picked up the empty EpiPen from the rug.
"You used your last medicine to save a man you didn't even know," the Don said softly, looking at the tiny four-year-old. He looked at Maria, the exhaustion and fear etched into her face.
"You will never clean another floor as long as you live, Maria," Alejandro decreed, his voice ringing with the unbreakable vow of the Moretti family. "Your daughter's medical bills are paid forever. Her college is paid forever. From this day forward, you are under my absolute protection."
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Emma looked up at the tall, frightening man in the dark suit. She held out her floppy-eared rabbit.
Alejandro Moretti, the most ruthless boss in New York, gently patted the stuffed animal's head.
