Betrayal Inside

Michele’s POV

The moment I stepped back inside, the air felt heavier.

The sunlight didn’t reach deep into this house. It caught on the marble floors, reflected off the glass, but never warmed anything. The silence after the garden felt different here, colder, like the walls were listening again.

I told myself to focus.

Vico and Enzo were waiting in the study when I walked in. A fresh set of files lay open across the desk. Vico looked exhausted, his shirt wrinkled, his voice low when he spoke.

“We checked the systems. The breach last night was timed with a camera loop. Whoever did it had access to the maintenance schedule.”

“Which is kept where?” I asked.

“In the east control room. Two people have access to that file: Matteo and Gianni.”

Matteo was already dead.

I sat down slowly. “And Gianni?”

“Questioning him now,” Vico said. “He swears he never shared it.”

Enzo leaned forward, his tone rougher. “He is lying. I saw the timestamps myself. Someone pulled that file three nights ago. Matteo did not have clearance without Gianni’s code.”

I closed my eyes for a second, feeling that familiar heat rise in my chest. Betrayal always felt the same. Quiet at first, then violent.

“Bring him here,” I said.

Vico hesitated. “Here, boss?”

“Yes. I want to look at him when he explains.”

He nodded and left.

Enzo waited a few seconds before saying, “You did not have to come down to the courtyard earlier. You could have let me handle it.”

I knew what he meant. Letting anyone see me with Luca outside, in daylight, was rare. But the boy needed it. I needed to see that he was still smiling.

“Sometimes fear spreads faster than reason,” I said finally. “He needed to see the world wasn’t ending.”

Enzo’s mouth curved in a faint smile. “And the nanny?”

I looked at him. “What about him?”

“He heard part of our talk this morning.”

“I know.”

“You are not angry?”

“No.” I looked toward the window. The glass reflected part of the garden. I could still see Erin’s shape faintly near the bench, sitting close to Luca. “Fear keeps him cautious. Caution keeps the boy alive. Let him think what he wants.”

Enzo nodded. “He is different from the others.”

“He is not from our world.”

“That is exactly why he interests you.”

I turned my gaze back to him. He didn’t flinch. Enzo had earned the right to speak plainly.

“He interests me because he is useful,” I said.

“Of course,” Enzo said quietly, and I could hear the disbelief in his tone.

The door opened before I could answer. Vico came in with Gianni, one of the younger guards. His hands were cuffed, his face pale but defiant.

“Boss,” Vico said simply.

I stood and walked around the desk. Gianni lifted his chin as if that would help him stand taller.

“Tell me what you know,” I said.

“I told Vico everything already,” he said. “I did not sell anything.”

“Then why was your code used to open the maintenance file?”

“I do not know.”

“Try harder.”

His eyes flickered for the first time. “Maybe Matteo used it. He had my password. Sometimes he helped with the shift reports.”

Enzo made a sound that could have been a laugh. “You expect us to believe that?”

Gianni’s mouth trembled. “He had it, I swear.”

I watched him for a long time. The fear in his eyes wasn’t fake. But fear could be from guilt or from knowing you were about to die for something you did not do.

“Who gave Matteo the job?” I asked.

“Recruitment came from Sal’s old contact.”

My jaw tightened. Sal. The same man who had vouched for him. The same man who had been under Rizzo’s payroll two years ago before disappearing.

“Where is Sal now?” I asked.

“Dead,” Vico said. “Found in Naples last month.”

Convenient.

I looked back at Gianni. “You said Matteo had your password. You are sure of that?”

“Yes. He said it was easier that way.”

“Easier to betray me.”

Gianni shook his head quickly. “I did not know he would do this. I swear it.”

“Do you have family?” I asked.

He hesitated. “Yes. My mother.”

“Good. Then you understand why loyalty matters.”

He nodded, eyes wet now.

I turned to Vico. “Take him downstairs. Keep him there until I decide.”

Gianni started to speak, but the look I gave him shut him up. He followed Vico out without another word.

When the door closed again, Enzo said, “You will not let him live.”

“Not yet,” I said. “He might still be useful.”

“You think he knows more?”

“I think people talk more when they think they have a chance to live.”

Enzo leaned back in the chair across from me. “You have not slept.”

“Neither have you.”

He smiled faintly. “True.”

For a while, neither of us spoke. The clock ticked softly in the corner, the sound almost too loud in the silence. I went back to the window again. The garden looked calm from here. Erin had moved closer to the stables with Luca. The boy was showing him something, pointing with excitement. Erin bent down, smiling.

The sight did something strange to me. For a moment, I forgot the weight of the last twelve hours. The laughter that reached even this far was real, untainted by fear or calculation. It had been a long time since that sound existed here.

Enzo followed my gaze. “He makes the boy happy,” he said quietly.

“He does.”

“He makes you different too.”

I turned toward him, but he didn’t take it back. “You watch him more than you realize,” he said. “You used to watch everyone like a threat. Now you look at him like a question.”

I did not answer. There was no point denying what someone like Enzo could already see.

After he left, I sat back at the desk and opened the next file. It was the digital trace report Vico had pulled overnight. Lines of code, timestamps, and call logs. I read through them slowly, my eyes catching on one line of text.

Incoming message, one week ago. Unknown number.

Recipient: house communications terminal – children’s wing.

I frowned. “Children’s wing” included Luca’s room. Which meant it could also include Erin’s.

I opened the details. The number was foreign. Croatian prefix.

A chill ran through me.

Someone had sent a message to a terminal in that section of the house before the breach. I pressed a few more keys. The message had no text, just a blank signal, like a ping to confirm a connection.

Someone had tested the line.

I stood up quickly and picked up the radio. “Vico. Get upstairs. Now.”

He arrived within minutes, breathing hard. “Boss?”

“Show me the maintenance logs for the children’s wing last week.”

He opened his tablet, scrolled, and handed it over. “Only minor service. Air vent filters and a camera recalibration in the nanny’s room.”

I looked up sharply. “Who did the recalibration?”

He blinked. “Maintenance team B. Two men.”

“Names.”

He checked. “Ramon and Luka.”

“Find them.”

He hesitated. “You think they—”

“I think they put something in the room.”

The realization hit both of us at once. The recalibration was the same day Erin had moved in.

I walked toward the security console in the corner and pulled up the camera feed from Erin’s room. The system showed normal function, but I overrode it manually. Hidden files appeared in the archive. One labeled “test01.”

When I clicked it, the screen filled with static for two seconds, then an image appeared.

The room. Erin sitting on the bed, folding clothes.

The time stamp was from the first night he arrived.

I stared at the screen, cold spreading through me.

Someone had been recording his room privately. Not for security. For surveillance.

“Get those men here,” I said.

Vico was already moving. “On it.”

When he was gone, I replayed the file again, slower this time. The recording cut off abruptly after a few minutes. No sign of tampering visible, but I could tell something was off.

Someone outside the system had access.

It was not random. The breach last night, the recalibration, the foreign signal. It all connected.

They were watching not just the house, but the people inside it.

And that meant Erin was either a pawn or a target.

I leaned back against the desk, staring at the frozen image on the monitor. The quiet innocence on his face made the truth worse.

I remembered what he had said in the garden. It’s hard not to worry when I’m part of it.

He was right. He was part of it now, whether he knew it or not.

The door opened again, Vico stepping in with a grim look. “We found them,” he said. “Or what’s left of them. Both dead. Burned in a car near the docks.”

I felt my jaw tighten. “Rizzo.”

“Most likely.”

He hesitated before adding, “There was something else. In the glove compartment. A folder with your initials. Empty.”

They were sending a message.

I sat down slowly, my mind already mapping what came next. Retaliation would be easy, but that was not enough this time. This was deeper than business. Someone was trying to dismantle me from the inside.

I glanced back at the monitor. Erin and Luca were heading back toward the house, sunlight following them like a fragile halo.

If Rizzo’s men had been watching his room, it meant they knew exactly who he was. Which meant he was in danger whether he realized it or not.

Vico was waiting for orders. “What now?” he asked.

“Double security around the children’s wing. No one gets in without my permission. No calls, no deliveries, no maintenance, nothing.”

He nodded. “And the nanny?”

I hesitated for a moment. “Keep him close. But he does not need to know yet.”

Vico gave a short nod and left.

When the door closed, I allowed myself one quiet breath. The whiskey from earlier still lingered on my tongue. I poured another glass, but I did not drink it right away.

I sat there, watching the screen, listening to the echo of their laughter fading through the hallways.

For years, my life had been built on control. Every man under me moved when I said, stopped when I ordered. Every threat was neutralized before it could reach the door. But nothing in that order had prepared me for this.

For him.

Erin was chaos in the shape of calm. He didn’t fight the way others did. He didn’t play games. He simply existed, and somehow that was enough to pull the center of everything I had built slightly off balance.

I finished the drink and stood. The sound of the glass hitting the desk was sharper than I expected.

“Whoever sent you here,” I said quietly, looking at the empty room, “I will find them first.”