Chaos erupted.
Servants ran screaming from the room.
Lars ran over and kicked away the tiny pistol that had fallen from Filomena’s hand.
As I continued to stare down at her, Dario took my gun away from me gently.
Then he whispered in my ear, “Thank you, amore mio. You saved my life.”
I burst out crying, and he hugged me to his body.
The entire time, Filomena stared up at us hatefully.
She was still alive. Her chest moved slowly up and down, even as a puddle of red spread on the floor beneath her.
Valentino pushed Caterina towards the safety of another room, then turned back to the rest of us.
“What the fuck just happened?!” Adriano yelled as he ran over.
“I think that’s our mole,” Niccolo shouted as he, Massimo, and Roberto ran down the stairs.
“…a mole?” I asked in shock.
“She told you how to get out of the house, didn’t she?” Niccolo asked.
I nodded and sobbed. “I’m so sorry… I should have told you…”
“Eh… 20/20 hindsight,” he said grimly. “I should be angry with you, but it exposed a gaping hole in our defenses. We thought only the family knew about the passageway. Stupid of us. So we installed cameras to ensure no one could ever take us by surprise again… and that’s how we saw you and the Turk.”
“He was waiting for me at my father’s place,” I said.
“She probably called him as soon as you left,” Dario said as he gazed down at Filomena.
Suddenly I was hit with an epiphany. Everything became clear in a flash.
“She was the one who made me want to leave!” I cried out. “She told me I was a whore, and how my mother and father would have been ashamed of me! She planned this – ALL of this!”
I hated her at that instant –
But not as much Dario hated her.
I had never seen such fury on his face as he stared down at Filomena.
“I swear to God,” he seethed, “if you weren’t an old woman, I’d blow your brains out on the floor.”
“Don’t let that stop you, you pezzo di merda,” she hissed, blood bubbling out of her mouth.
“Oh-ho, Granny’s got a mouth on her!” Niccolo said as he squatted down beside her. “You were in league with the Turk the entire time, weren’t you?”
Filomena glared up at him with a hatred as hot as the sun. “Of course I was.”
“Why didn’t you just tell him how to get in? Why involve Alessandra?”
“Someone had to show them the way,” she sneered.
It was true. I’d only found the secret entrance in the dark because I was retracing my steps.
“Why did you do it?” Dario asked angrily. “For money?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because your father had my husband and son killed,” she snarled… and then she began to laugh. “Which is why I killed him.”
Silence fell over the room except for the old woman’s ragged breathing.
“…what?” Niccolo whispered.
“You’re lying,” Dario said, his voice shaking.
Filomena grinned, her teeth stained crimson. “I injected him with sodium nitrate… and you fools thought he had a heart attack. Well… I guess he did. Just not a natural one.”
“You fucking – ” Adriano roared as he pulled his gun to shoot her –
But Dario grabbed his hand and stopped him.
“Why did my father have your husband and son killed?” he asked the old woman.
“Why do any of your kind do anything? For money. For power. For years I mourned their deaths… and then I decided to do something about it. I wormed my way into your father’s service… and became a trusted servant. When I killed him, I whispered into his ear… ‘For my family, you son of a whore.’”
“You didn’t get a job here without help,” Dario said. “And the Turk couldn’t have done something like that – so who did?”
Filomena just laughed and spat blood on his feet.
Dario squatted down next to her. “You will tell me who helped you… or I promise you will live to regret it.”
“My only regret,” she snarled, “is that I didn’t get to kill you, too.”
Then she bit down on something in her mouth.
Blood-tinted froth began to spill from her lips –
Just like the priest and the thug who had attacked me outside the church.
“Stop her!” Dario yelled.
He put his finger in her mouth and tried to fish out the cyanide capsule –
But it was too late.
Her body jerked a couple of times… and then she was gone.
