Chapter 2 - The Arrival of the MatriarchThe library doors clicked open.
Stepping into the room, flanked by two broad-shouldered security operators in dark suits, was sixty-two-year-old Donna Elena Moretti—Dante’s formidable mother and the matriarch of the Moretti family.
She wore a sweeping black silk dress, her silver hair styled in a regal knot, her posture straight as an iron pillar. Walking directly behind her was Victor Hale, carrying an encrypted leather folder.
"Dante," Donna Elena spoke smoothly, her voice carrying an aristocratic authority. "Why is there crying in the library during your rest hour? Victor informed me that the staff was disturbing you."
Dante didn't stand up from the sofa. He remained seated, holding five-year-old Sophie gently by her small hand, keeping her safely behind his broad knee.
"Mother," Dante spoke flatly, his storm-gray eyes fixed on Victor Hale’s face. "The little girl found something."
Victor Hale’s eyes flickered with a subtle, sweating panic for a fraction of a second before his face settled back into a professional, sympathetic smile. "Dante, my boy, you know the housekeepers' children shouldn't be wandering near you during your migraine hours. The shrapnel in your neck makes you irritable. Let me call Dr. Vance to give you your blue injection."
"She didn't call it shrapnel, Victor," Dante revealed, every word dropped like a heavy block of cold granite onto the floor. "She called it a silver bug with legs. She said a red light was blinking beneath my skin."
Donna Elena froze in mid-stride.
The heavy pearl necklace resting against her chest seemed to stop moving. Her pale, aristocratic face went completely, paper-white—a shade of gray so absolute it looked like marble.
"What...?" Donna Elena gasped out, her voice losing its icy composure, cracking into a low, horrified whisper. "A... a metal bug...?"
"She said it was looking at her, Mother," Dante added softly.
Donna Elena turned her sharp, dark eyes toward Victor Hale.
Victor took one fast step backward toward the doorway, his hand reaching nervously toward his inner jacket pocket.
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"Victor..." Donna Elena whispered, her body trembling with a sudden, devastating rage that shook her entire frame. "Thirty years ago... my husband's brother used an experimental military tracking and neural-suppression device built by Vance Bio-Tech to control the shipping syndicate in Boston. Is that what you put inside my son's neck three years ago?!"
The entire library went dead, breathlessly quiet.
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