🫖 The Waitress Who Shielded His Mother and Became the Mafia Boss’s Wife

Chapter 10 - The House of Windows

The Russo estate had been built to survive storms, lawsuits, and men with poor judgment.

It had not been built for betrayal from inside the walls.

That was what Gabriel said later.

In the moment, there was only sound: glass breaking, men shouting, Rosa praying in Italian, and Dominic dragging Sadi behind the library’s reinforced desk while bullets chewed the bookshelves above them.

Sadi landed hard on one hip and saw white stars.

Dominic covered her with his body.

“Stay down.”

“I’m getting very tired of floors.”

Despite everything, his eyes flicked to hers.

“Complain later.”

“That’s a promise.”

Gabriel returned fire from the doorway. Father Matteo crawled toward Rosa and helped shield her behind the sofa. Vittorio lay near the fireplace, cuffed and grinning as if he had arranged the weather.

Maybe he had.

The attack lasted seven minutes.

It felt longer than childhood.

When it ended, three of Dominic’s men were wounded, two attackers were dead, and one had escaped through the kitchen corridor with help from someone who knew the estate.

Gabriel stood over a dead man near the pantry and went silent.

Dominic came beside him.

“What?”

Gabriel rolled the attacker onto his back.

The man wore a Russo security badge.

Not stolen. Issued.

Dominic looked at Gabriel.

Gabriel’s face had gone gray. “That badge came from my office.”

Vittorio laughed from the library floor until Rosa struck him with her cane.

It was not a large blow.

It was extremely satisfying.

“Enough,” she said.

For the first time all night, Vittorio looked afraid of someone.

By dawn, the estate felt less like a fortress than a damaged theater after the actors had forgotten their lines. Broken glass glittered under tarps. Men whispered in corners. Police were not called, because families like Russo handled first and reported later.

Sadi sat in Dominic’s study while a private doctor checked her stitches.

“You should be in bed,” the doctor said.

“I’ve heard mixed reviews.”

Dominic stood by the window, speaking quietly into the phone. He had changed shirts, but there was a cut along his cheek. Sadi wanted to ask about it and did not want to want that.

When the doctor left, Gabriel entered.

His eyes found Dominic’s.

“We found the leak.”

Dominic turned.

Gabriel placed a tablet on the desk.

Security footage showed a woman in a housekeeper’s uniform entering Gabriel’s office at 2:13 that afternoon. Her face was angled away, but Sadi recognized the careful walk.

“Mrs. Bell,” she said.

Dominic looked at her.

“She came to Sal’s Diner sometimes,” Sadi explained. “Not to eat. She would ask who sat where. Said she was making neighborhood sketches.”

Gabriel swore. “She’s been on staff here six years.”

Dominic watched the footage again.

Mrs. Bell opened a drawer, removed a badge, and paused. Then she turned slightly toward the camera, just enough to show tears on her face.

“She doesn’t look bought,” Sadi said.

“She looks threatened.”

Dominic’s jaw tightened. “Find her.”

Gabriel hesitated.

“What?” Dominic asked.

“We did.”

The room went quiet.

“She’s in the chapel.”

The estate chapel was small, built from old stone and guilt. Candles burned before saints with patient eyes. Mrs. Bell knelt in the front pew, hands folded so tightly her knuckles had gone white.

She looked up when Dominic entered and began crying before he spoke.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “He had my grandson.”

Dominic stopped three rows back.

“Who?”

Mrs. Bell shook her head.

“Not Vittorio. Not Moretti. The other one.”

Sadi felt cold move through her.

“What other one?”

Mrs. Bell looked at Rosa.

“I heard his voice once, when he called Vittorio. He said the waitress had to die before she remembered the name Hayes wasn’t hers.”

Sadi’s hand tightened around the pew.

Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”