Page 26 of Saint Of Envy
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Zara says. “I don’t think anyone initially connected her to the Barones. I think thissituation just sort of developed. Leonardo was probably looking for a way in, had the Barone’s scope us out for him, and this poor woman was likely just an innocent victim who got caught up in their game. You know how indifferent those guys are to collateral damage.”
As much as I want to stay furious at the maid for potentially putting Valentina in direct harm, I also agree that what Zara is pointing out is true. Maria was likely completely innocent with a clean past when Vincent first hired her. Men like Angelo Barone can turn anyone against their own morals by using the right threats. The focus now is to find out how he got the maid to turn and what, exactly, she told him.
“Hopefully, she can give us some insight into where Valentina is,” I say as my concern over her and the baby continues to climb.
When Alonzo returns within the hour with Maria Russo in hand, it’s time to get some answers.
Maria does admittedly look completely terrified when she’s brought in and shoved down into a chair to face our questioning. She glances over at Vincent, visibly afraid of what punishment her boss is going to provide, now that she’s aware of who he really is. But it’s me she should fear the most in this moment. Vincent might be the more ruthless of the two of us on a normal day, but not today—not when Valentina is involved.
“Why did you do it?” I ask slowly as I kneel in front of her and put my direct eye contact squarely in her face. “Why did you give information about Valentina to Angelo Barone?”
“Answer carefully,” Vincent warns her from behind me. “You won’t get a second chance if you lie to us, Maria.”
Tears swell in her eyes as her hands shake in her lap.
“I had no choice,” she chokes on her words. “I am so sorry, truly I am. Deep remorse haunts me, and I’ve felt guilty ever since I gave that wicked man information. I like Valentina. She has been nothing but kind to me, but I had no choice—he threatened my family.”
Her face twists with conflicted emotions as she blabbers and rambles as if she’s glad to be getting this off her chest. “I was too afraid to speak out. I had to stay silent. They told me that if I didn’t, there would be consequences.”
“What consequences?”
“Mr. Barone said that he had men in Italy who were watching my family. He showed me photographs of my parents and my sister there and said that if I didn’t report to him every night about Valentina and if I dared to let anyone know about our arrangement, that he would have my entire family killed and he would make me watch.”
At that, Maria bursts into tears and buries her face in her hands. “I never wanted Valentina to get hurt,” she cries, obviously deeply troubled by the conflict between her moral compass and the reality of her position, a position Barone forced her into by threatening her family.
“What information did you provide to him?” I ask, trying to get the answers that might help us find Valentina before deciding what to do with the maid.
“He asked me if she was pregnant, and I told him she was. I was the one who brought her the pregnancy test. He asked me whose child it was and if she was sure that the baby belonged to you.”
“What did you tell him?”
Maria shakes her head. “I told him honestly that I didn’t know that part. Then, he told me I needed to tell him everything that Valentina did and said, and everything I heard about during my shifts here at the hotel. We met at the sandwich shop down the street every night for me to report to him. He told me that if I was late or didn’t show up, my family would die within hours.”
For a second, Maria stops and looks around at all of us in the room. She wipes the tears from her eyes and straightens her posture a little in her chair. “I regret what I have done—truly. I have not slept a night since all of this started. I never meant to betray Valentina. In fact, I wanted to be her friend. I don’t have very many friends here, and I hoped that once this was all over, she and I could remain friends. I didn’t know that confirming her pregnancy to the Barone or telling him when she had her appointment would cause such consequences as her being kidnapped. I will never forgive myself for having done this.”
Alonzo interjects to fill us in on the “talk” he had with Maria on their ride here. He told her how Valentina went missing from her doctor’s appointment and how she is now in danger with our mortal enemies. It’s clear that Maria didn’t realize the level of impact her betrayal would have until she understood what happened. And as furious as I still am with her, I can’t help but think that Valentina would want me to spare her.
“Do you know where they took Valentina?” I ask.
Now that we know how Leonardo and Angelo found out when Valentina would be at the clinic, the important thing is to figure out where they are keeping her.
“I’m not sure,” she says. “But I heard them talking about a few strange things.”
“What kind of strange things?” Vincent asks.
“Well, Angelo received a call from a man named Leo while we were at the cafe. He hadn’t finished speaking with me, so I had to sit and wait while he took the call. I only heard his side of the conversation, and it sounded like he was speaking in code sometimes, but I could hear mention of a few things,” she continues. “He said that he would bring Valentina to him—this Leo man — and that they could figure out whose baby it was quickly.”
She pauses and looks worriedly at me. “Leo wanted the baby to belong to him, and if it didn’t, he would discard Valentina and the baby.”Fury and fear rush through me. If he harms Valentina or our child, I will dismember Leonardo Conti and everyone who has aided him, limb by limb—slowly and painfully.
“But there was also mention of something else,” she says, interrupting my momentary violent fantasy. “Something about how her father still owes him a lot of money and how he is going to make sure he gets paid.”
“What could that mean?” I ask, turning to Vincent to get his thoughts on that threat.
“If he thinks the child is his, then I’m guessing he will reclaim Valentina through the arranged, forced marriage promised to him and claim the child as his offspring,” Vincent says. “A wife and a child would be repayment of any debt that Giovanni Ricci has outstanding with the bastard.”
“And what about when he finds out that the child is mine?”
“That complicates things,” Vincent says. “He won’t want her then, and he definitely won’t want your child. He’ll likely try to get rid of her for a price, maybe sell her off to the highest bidderin order to recoup his funds. He’ll dispose of the baby, turn a profit off Valentina, and likely murder Giovanni so that the man doesn’t cause him any trouble over it. Time is of the essence here, Luciano.”
