All Chapters of The Mafia Heiress He Let Go : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

VALENTINA'S POVDad listened to the whole time without interrupting, his hands folded on the desk the same way they'd been the morning he told me about Viktor."He wouldn't give you a name," he said when I finished. "And he claimed I'm in danger, without saying how or why.""That's the shape of it.""Renzo?""I already had Leo checking before we came in here." Renzo glanced at his phone. "Nothing new has surfaced. No chatter, no unusual movement from Don Marco's people beyond what Viktor already told us. If Daniel actually knew something specific, I'd expect it to line up with something we could verify. It doesn't.""So he made it up," I said."I think he said whatever he thought would get you to agree to see him," Renzo said carefully. "It's an old trick. Manufacture urgency, wrap it around someone else's safety instead of his own interest in you, and hope guilt does the rest."I sat with that, feeling something between relief and a strange, unwelcome disappointment. Relief that Dad

RENZO'S POVI stood outside the east cellar door longer than I needed to, thinking the idea over one more time before I let myself walk away from it.Viktor might know something about the property. He had worked for Don Marco's organization long enough, in close enough proximity. It wasn't unreasonable to think he had at least heard something about a vacant estate belonging to Don Marco's late wife. One question, one name checked against another. It would only take five minutes.I put my hand on the door and stopped.The problem wasn't the question. The problem was Viktor.I had spent three days thinking about how he had surrendered, and no matter how many angles I approached it from, one detail kept ringing in my mind. Men who worked for someone as careful as Don Marco didn't simply drive up to a rival's gate and hand over information out of guilt or fear. Fear made men run, the way James had run. Fear didn't usually make men sit calmly in a chair, answer questions with patience, an

DON VALETTI'S POVI was on my feet before Renzo finished the sentence."Say that again.""Someone shot at the car," Renzo said, his voice steady despite everything, the same controlled calm he always wore when the situation demanded it most."Valentina's fine. Not hit. We got clear.""Fine?" I repeated the word like it tasted wrong in my mouth."My daughter was shot at in broad daylight, in the middle of the city, and you're telling me she's fine.""I'm telling you she's alive, Don. I'm telling you exactly what happened because you deserve the truth immediately, not a softened version an hour from now."I forced myself to breathe, to unclench the fist I hadn't realized I had made, to remember that Renzo standing in front of me delivering this news meant he had done his job, meant she was upstairs right now instead of somewhere far worse. It didn't make the fury sitting in my chest any easier to hold."Where is she?""In her room. One of the maids is with her. I wanted to speak with yo

VALENTINA'S POVThe house felt different with every door locked and every window checked twice, like the walls themselves had tightened around us, pressing in until the whole place seemed to hold its breath.I sat in the kitchen while guards moved through the halls in pairs, their footsteps steady and unhurried, verifying staff one by one in rooms I wasn't allowed to enter. Every so often I caught fragments of raised voices, a maid crying somewhere down the corridor, insisting on her innocence to guards who clearly weren't convinced yet. Each time it happened, I flinched, and each time I hated that I did.Clara had called twice. I had let both go to voicemail, not trusting my voice enough to explain why I hadn't come to work today, or why I probably wouldn't tomorrow either. Her name had lit up the screen, then gone dark, and the silence afterward felt heavier than the ringing had.Renzo found me there near midnight, exhaustion carved into every line of his face, his shirt creased and

VALENTINA'S POVI woke up late for the first time in weeks, sunlight already high through the curtains instead of the gray dawn I had gotten used to.For a moment I just lay there, listening. No guards shouting in the hallway. No phones ringing downstairs. Just birds outside the window and the distant sound of someone in the kitchen, ordinary and unhurried.I found Renzo in the garden when I came down, sitting on the same bench where he had found me weeks ago, one mug of coffee beside him on the bench. He looked up when he heard me, and reached for a second mug sitting on the small table nearby, pouring it before I had even sat down."You're up," he said, handing it to me as I sat beside him."Barely. I think I slept eleven hours.""You needed it.""So did you." I studied his face, less drawn than it had been yesterday, though the tiredness hadn't fully left his eyes. "Did you actually sleep, or did you just lie there thinking about guard rotations?""A little of both, if I'm honest."