Chapter 6 - SOMEONE WANTS THE WAITRESS GONE
Before Milwaukee, Sofia lost her job.
Douglas Crane did not bother hiding behind Kevin this time.
He called at eight in the morning.
“Sofia, after reviewing the incident, we’ve decided to terminate your employment.”
She stood in Mia’s kitchen holding coffee.
“For saving a child?”
“For repeated safety violations and insubordination.”
She almost laughed.
“What safety violations?”
“There are documented issues.”
“Show me.”
“Human Resources will send your separation packet.”
“You told Kevin to make me sign a false statement.”
Silence.
Then:
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course.”
“Sofia, my advice is to move on.”
“My advice is to get a lawyer.”
Douglas hung up.
Mia looked over.
“Please tell me you recorded that.”
“I live in Illinois.”
“So?”
“So wiretap laws are complicated.”
Mia blinked.
“Who are you?”
“Apparently the niece of organized crime. I’m learning caution.”
She called Gabriel.
Within two hours Bellavere received a preservation letter demanding retention of employment records, surveillance footage, maintenance records, internal emails, and insurer communications.
Gabriel did not represent Sofia personally.
He connected her with employment attorney Renee Parker, who agreed to take the case on contingency after seeing preliminary facts.
Renee was forty-three, sharp, and unimpressed by Morettis.
That immediately made Sofia trust her.
“Do not let Dante pay my bill secretly.”
Renee smiled.
“He tried.”
Sofia groaned.
“I declined.”
“Thank you.”
“Not out of principle. Contingency may pay better.”
Sofia laughed.
Professional honesty.
Renee’s first discovery request produced strange information even before formal litigation.
Bellavere’s ownership company claimed the fixture had passed inspection two months earlier.
The maintenance contractor denied servicing it recently.
Yet security logs showed an outside technician entered the VIP area the afternoon before the incident.
His company name:
Lakeshore Architectural Systems.
The company existed.
But the employee identification used at Bellavere belonged to a man who had quit eighteen months earlier.
Dante’s investigators found another detail.
Douglas Crane had received $40,000 through an LLC less than a week before the accident.
Gabriel presented it carefully.
“Could be unrelated.”
Dante looked at him.
“You don’t believe that.”
“I believe timing is suspicious.”
Sofia stared at the printout.
“Who paid him?”
“A consulting firm.”
“Owned by?”
“Another LLC.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Of course.”
Gabriel continued.
“That LLC has previously done legitimate business with Moretti Hospitality.”
Sofia looked at Dante.
“Your company?”
“One subsidiary.”
“Who approved them?”
“We’re checking.”
Dante’s expression had become dangerous.
Not because of money.
Because the fixture had fallen toward Matteo.
He had initially treated it as negligence.
Now someone had entered using false credentials.
A manager received secret money.
The fixture failed exactly above his son.
Sofia said quietly:
“It wasn’t meant for me.”
Dante looked at her.
“No.”
“It was meant for Matteo.”
“We don’t know yet.”
“You think it.”
His silence confirmed it.
Matteo had been seated at the same VIP location for nearly every Friday dinner since winter.
Predictable.
Public enough.
Someone could know.
Sofia felt sick.
She had thrown herself over him without thinking.
If she had been five seconds later—
She stopped.
Dante recognized the expression.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Build the version where you were too late.”
Sofia looked at him sharply.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been building it since Friday.”
For a moment they were simply two people imagining the same child beneath broken glass.
Then Sofia said:
“He’s safe.”
“Yes.”
“So we work with that.”
Dante nodded.
That afternoon, Douglas called Sofia again.
This time from a personal number.
“Sofia.”
“You should speak to my lawyer.”
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand who you’re getting involved with.”
Her body went cold.
“Dante?”
Douglas laughed nervously.
“Not Dante.”
“Then who?”
“I can’t say.”
“You just fired me.”
“I was told to.”
“By who?”
Silence.
“Douglas.”
“You need to disappear.”
Her grip tightened.
“What?”
“Take whatever Moretti offers and leave Chicago.”
“Why?”
“Because this is bigger than a restaurant.”
“Who paid you?”
He hung up.
Sofia immediately called Renee, then Dante.
By the time investigators reached Douglas’s Lincoln Park condominium, he was gone.
Not kidnapped.
No sign of violence.
Closet partly emptied.
Passport missing.
Car gone.
He had run.
That made him look guilty.
It also made him useful if found.
Dante ordered no illegal search.
Instead, Gabriel coordinated information with police and a licensed private investigator.
Sofia noticed the restraint.
“You’re really trying.”
Dante looked at her.
“To?”
“Not become exactly what my mother warned me about.”
He said nothing.
That evening, before leaving for Milwaukee, Sofia visited Bellavere to retrieve personal items under Renee’s supervision.
The restaurant remained open.
Rich people still drank wine beneath other expensive lights.
The VIP section was closed behind temporary partitions.
Kevin met her.
He looked ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“The statement.”
“You knew it was false.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you bring it?”
“Douglas ordered me.”
Sofia stared.
“You could’ve said no.”
Kevin looked down.
“Yes.”
She appreciated that he did not make an excuse.
He handed her a small box.
Shoes.
Apron.
Notebook.
A cheap pen Matteo once decorated with a sticker.
As she turned to leave, Kevin whispered:
“Douglas got a call the morning before the accident.”
Sofia stopped.
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you hear?”
“He said, ‘The boy will be in the usual seat.’”
Sofia felt the air leave her lungs.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell police?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Kevin looked terrified.
“Because Douglas told me if I wanted to keep breathing, I didn’t hear anything.”
Sofia stared at him.
There it was.
The culture beneath the luxury.
Not mafia mythology.
Fear.
Ordinary employees choosing silence because powerful men made silence feel safer.
Sofia said:
“You need to tell the police.”
Kevin shook his head.
“I have two kids.”
“So does Dante.”
Kevin looked at her.
That landed.
Sofia continued:
“And somebody tried to drop a light on his.”
Kevin’s face changed.
Within an hour, he agreed to speak through counsel.
The statement transformed the investigation.
Matteo’s seat had been known.
The fixture had been tampered with.
Douglas had been paid.
Someone had planned around a five-year-old child.
And while Sofia prepared to travel north for answers about a mother she barely knew anymore—
Dante began asking a darker question.
Had Luciana’s past and Matteo’s attempted attack been separate mysteries?
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Or had Sofia accidentally stepped into a conflict that had never actually ended?
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