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CHAPTER 21
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2026-08-25 17:32:14
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The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 143
CHAPTER 144: NICO’S POVBorgo Alto wasn’t much of a station. There was one platform, a leaking roof and a small ticket office with peeling paint around the window.Nico arrived a little after noon. A dog had settled across one of the benches, fast asleep. Apart from that, the place was empty.An old man sat behind the ticket window, wearing a grey cardigan. He had a newspaper spread out in front of him and was busy with a crossword when Nico approached.“Next train’s at four,” he said without looking up.“I’m not here for a train.”That got his attention. He put down his pencil and looked at Nico.“Then what are you here for?”“Were you working here in the spring? Around the time of the Rossi wedding?”The man gave a small laugh. “I’ve been working here for thirty-one years. That’s a lot of springs.”“A young man came through. Tall, dark hair, well dressed. He was carrying a bag.”The old man looked at him for a moment.“I remember him.”Nico pulled out the chair opposite the window
The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 142
STATIONSALVATORE’S POVNico arrived at seven in the morning. His shirt was creased, his shoes were dusty, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.Salvatore glanced up from his desk.“You drove through the night.”“Most of it.”“Sit down.”Nico remained standing. He had a thin folder tucked under his arm, tied with a piece of string. He kept one hand over it.Salvatore put his pen down.“What have you got?”“Two people.”“Who?”“The housekeeper and the driver. I found them separately. Neither knows the other has spoken to me.”“And?”“They’ve told me things that match.”Salvatore leaned back in his chair. “About Matteo?”“Yes.”“Then tell me.”Nico looked down at the folder.“Not yet.”Salvatore waited.“There’s a railway station I need to visit. It's a small place, north of here. I want to find the clerk who was working that morning. If he remembers seeing a young man with a bag, that gives us something more solid.”“You believe the two witnesses?”“I do.”“Then what’s stopping y
The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 141
THE DRIVERNICO’S POVOne witness wouldn’t be enough. Nico knew that.The housekeeper had given him something, but not enough to take to Salvatore. A woman who’d been dismissed without a letter, who claimed she held no grudge, and who remembered seeing a man place his hand on his son’s shoulder. Salvatore would listen, ask a few questions, and want something more solid.Nico needed someone who had been there. Someone who could confirm what happened after the boy left the house.He needed the driver.A black car waiting at the back gate before sunrise hadn’t appeared there by chance. Someone had arranged it. Someone had been paid to collect a passenger and keep his mouth shut. Nico knew the sort of men who took those jobs. There were only so many garages in the city willing to provide cars without asking where they were going or who would be riding in them.He started making calls.The first man he visited was Pellegrino, who ran two cars from a garage near the freight yards. Nico spen
The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 140
THE HOUSEKEEPERNICO’S POVThe Rossi townhouse wasn’t difficult to get into. Nico noticed that almost immediately.The lock on the kitchen door was old, and the back garden was left unattended for most of the day. There were no guards stationed at the entrance, no cameras he could see. For a family that had once been so particular about who crossed its threshold, the place was surprisingly easy to approach.But he wasn’t interested in breaking into the house. Not yet.He wanted to speak to someone who had lived there long enough to know what went on behind closed doors.It took him four days to find her.The cook had died earlier that year, and the old gardener refused to speak to anyone outside the family. The housekeeper was different. Her name was Ines, and she’d worked for the Rossis for twenty-two years before Corrado dismissed her the week before the wedding.She lived in a rented room above a shoe repair shop on Via Calda. Nico found her there on a Wednesday afternoon.He went
The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 139
THE LAMPSALVATORE’S POVHis uncle’s voice came back sometime around midnight.You’re letting him walk about the grounds.Salvatore sat behind his desk, staring at a column of figures he’d been trying to make sense of for the better part of an hour. He picked up his pen, checked the numbers again, then put it down.The gate kept coming back to him.The boy standing by the hedge, one hand pressed over his mouth. The colour draining from his face when he’d seen what was happening. And then, of all things, telling the guards he’d been carrying bread rolls.Salvatore had almost laughed at that.Almost.A man who dismissed a baker’s boy as harmless was a man who could get someone killed. He knew that. He’d spent most of his life making sure the people around him knew it too.But when the guard had raised his hand, Salvatore had wanted him to be wrong.That’s how it starts, his uncle said. You allow one thing, then another. Before long, you don’t know where to draw the line.He remembered b
The mafia king’s substitute husband CHAPTER 138
THE GATEELIAN’S POVI was sitting in the garden, reading, when I heard voices coming from the front gate.At first, I paid no attention. The guards argued with delivery men from time to time. It was usually nothing worth getting involved in. But there was something about this one that made me look up.A man was speaking in a low, impatient voice. I couldn’t make out everything he was saying, but I heard the same question several times.Who sent you?I put my book aside and walked towards the hedge. There was a small opening between the branches that gave me a clear view of the driveway.One of the guards had a young boy pressed against the gatepost. He looked about seventeen or eighteen. A cardboard bakery box sat on the ground beside him, its lid half open. Several bread rolls had fallen out and were scattered across the gravel.“Who sent you?” the guard demanded again.“The bakery, sir.” The boy was struggling to speak. “Mrs. Bruno placed the order. I bring it every Thursday.”“Not
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