Chapter 3 3

The drive north unfolded like a slow exhale.

Milan receded behind them, replaced by quieter roads and softer light. Isabella sat in the passenger seat of Matteo's car, watching the city dissolve into stretches of green and stone villages perched like secrets on hillsides. She had packed only essentials, documents, clothes, her mother's old leather notebook she'd found at the back of a drawer. Leaving had felt unreal, as though she were stepping out of someone else's life.

Neither of them spoke for the first hour.

Matteo drove with both hands on the wheel, posture alert but unhurried. Occasionally his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. Isabella noticed everything: the way he adjusted speed when another car lingered too long, how he avoided certain routes without explanation.

"You've done this before," she said finally.

He glanced at her. "Leave quietly?"

"Disappear."

"Yes."

"For work," she added.

"And for survival."

She nodded, absorbing that. "My mother used to say Lake Como was the only place she could breathe properly."

Matteo's expression softened. "It's secluded. Old money. People mind their business."

"That was always her favorite quality in a place."

They fell silent again. The road curved along water, the lake emerging like a sheet of dark glass between mountains. Isabella felt something loosen in her chest. Memory rose unbidden, summer mornings, her mother's laughter rare but bright, the smell of coffee drifting through open windows.

The villa appeared around a bend, pale stone tucked among cypress trees. Matteo slowed as he approached the iron gate.

"You haven't been here in years," he said.

"No," Isabella replied. "I couldn't bring myself to sell it. Or return."

He parked inside the grounds and cut the engine. The quiet pressed in, thick and absolute.

Inside, the villa smelled faintly of dust and lavender. Isabella moved through the rooms, fingertips grazing furniture draped in sheets. Everything was exactly as she remembered and painfully unfamiliar all at once.

"This is where she kept her files," Isabella said, stopping before a small study. "She never let me touch them."

Matteo scanned the room. "People like your mother don't keep everything in one place."

"I know," Isabella said. "She trusted redundancy."

She knelt and pulled a loose floorboard free. Beneath it lay a metal box. Her hands trembled as she opened it.

Inside were documents, neatly arranged. Bank statements. Correspondence. Names she recognized and many she didn't. At the bottom lay a flash drive.

Matteo crouched beside her. "This is significant."

Isabella swallowed. "She was so careful. And still...."

"She lasted years," he said. "That matters."

They spent the afternoon reviewing what they could. Patterns emerged: shell companies, transfers routed through Monaco, Zurich, then back into Italy under charitable fronts. Isabella's mind clicked into familiar rhythm. This was her language. Numbers didn't lie; people did.

As dusk settled, Matteo stepped outside to make a call. Isabella watched him through the window, the last light outlining his profile. She wondered what he had lost to make him this vigilant.

He returned minutes later. "We're not alone."

Her pulse jumped. "You said this place was off the radar."

"It was," he replied. "Someone followed us part of the way. I lost them, but they know the direction."

Fear flared, sharp and immediate. "What do we do?"

"We prepare," he said calmly.

Night fell quickly. Matteo checked doors and windows, tested alarms Isabella barely remembered installing. She brewed coffee, hands shaking despite her efforts to stay composed.

"You're remarkably steady," Matteo observed.

"I'm terrified," she admitted. "But fear feels...familiar."

He studied her. "You grew up like this."

"Watching my mother look over her shoulder," Isabella said. "Yes."

A sudden sound cut through the quiet, the crunch of gravel outside.

Matteo moved instantly, drawing a gun from beneath his jacket. He motioned Isabella back.

"Stay here," he whispered.

The doorbell rang.

Once. Then again.

Matteo approached the door silently and peered through the camera. His shoulders relaxed slightly. He opened it.

A woman stood outside, soaked from sudden rain, hair plastered to her face.

"Lucia?" Isabella breathed.

Lucia Ferraro stepped inside, eyes wide. "I hoped you'd come here."

Matteo's gaze hardened. "You weren't followed?"

"I don't think so," Lucia said, then looked at Isabella. "You shouldn't have left Milan without telling me."

"You restricted my access," Isabella replied coldly.

Lucia flinched. "To protect you."

"By erasing my mother?"

Lucia's voice broke. "I loved her."

The room went very still.

"She trusted me," Lucia continued. "When she realized what De Luca was doing, she came to me. We tried to go through official channels. Nothing happened. People vanished. Files disappeared."

"So she went underground," Isabella said softly.

Lucia nodded. "And when she died, I was warned to forget her ever existed."

Matteo watched Lucia closely. "Why come now?"

"Because De Luca knows Isabella is involved," Lucia said. "And because they're planning something big. A transfer that will lock everything in place."

"When?" Matteo asked.

"Soon," Lucia replied. "Days, maybe weeks."

Isabella felt something shift inside her, not fear this time, but resolve. "Then we stop it."

Matteo turned to her. "This isn't a movie."

"No," Isabella said. "It's an audit."

A ghost of a smile touched his lips before fading. "That's what scares them most."

Later, Lucia slept in the guest room. The rain softened to a whisper. Isabella stood on the balcony, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the dark lake.

Matteo joined her. "You didn't have to choose this."

"I already had," she said. "I just didn't know it."

He leaned against the railing beside her. "Once we start, there's no going back."

She looked at him. "I spent my life not being seen. If I'm going to be seen now, it will be for something that matters."

Their eyes met. The air between them tightened, charged with something unspoken.

"You're braver than you think," Matteo said.

"And you're more afraid than you admit," she replied.

A soft sound escaped him, almost a laugh. "Fair."

They stood there, the lake reflecting fractured light, two people drawn together by danger and choice.

Inside, the documents lay waiting.

And somewhere beyond the mountains, Alessandro De Luca was adjusting his plans, unaware that the woman he had never noticed was about to become his greatest threat.