CHAPTER 5 — The Maid Returns
Thousands of miles away...
A woman quietly served coffee inside a luxury hotel in Switzerland.
Hair tied differently.
Blue contact lenses.
A fake passport.
No one recognized her.
Except one man.
"Good evening... Isabella."
She froze.
The customer sitting alone by the window smiled.
It was Vincent.
She sighed.
"You weren't supposed to find me."
"You weren't supposed to disappear."
She sat down.
Neither spoke for nearly a minute.
Finally Vincent placed Father Gabriel's photograph on the table.
"You knew."
Isabella looked at Luciano's face.
"I was hoping you'd never see that picture."
"You know who he is."
She nodded slowly.
"I've been hunting him since I was fifteen."
Vincent frowned.
"You?"
"My mother wasn't killed by the Romano massacre."
"She was murdered six years later because she discovered Luciano was still alive."
Vincent stared silently.
"So this was never about revenge."
"No."
"It was always about stopping the man who profits from creating monsters."
She leaned closer.
"Marcus..."
"...was only one of hundreds."
Vincent felt the weight of those words.
Hundreds.
Hundreds of families manipulated.
Hundreds of wars.
Hundreds of innocent lives destroyed.
Then Isabella slid a folder across the table.
Inside were satellite photographs.
Private islands.
Underground bunkers.
Shipping routes.
Hidden laboratories.
Vincent looked up.
"This isn't a criminal organization."
"No."
"It's something much bigger."
"What is it?"
Isabella answered quietly.
"A private empire."
"Governments don't control it."
"Mafia families don't control it."
"Money doesn't even control it."
"What does?"
She met his eyes.
"Secrets."
At that exact moment...
a sniper's laser appeared on Vincent's chest.
Then another.
May you like
Then another.
Someone had found them.
