Luna's Rejected Vengeful Mate
Luna’s Rejected Vengeful Mate Chapter 52

Italy

Massimo

All my efforts to replace Elisa were in vain. I had the feeling that Fabrizio knew where she was, but he wasn’t telling me. I couldn’t blame him. I had been such an a*s with Elisa before, so although I admitted I had feelings for her, Fabrizio wanted to protect her from getting hurt again. So he kept his mouth shut and left me wondering whether Elisa had kept the baby.

I didn’t want to pressure him and make him think all I cared about was the baby, because that would surely make my uncle more stubborn and nothing good would come of it.

In the meantime, Blake and I had been working together to win the lawsuit against the culprits of the building collapse. The good thing was that Blake’s wife was a lawyer and had taken on the case. From what Blake told me, Natalia was an excellent advocate, and she gave our opponents a hard time. The outcome of our case was clear to me and my partner. Mrs Hunter would win without a doubt. She had cornered their lawyers and played a cat-and-mouse game with them.

I needed to travel to California soon to finish the lawsuit procedures. My presence as a partner was essential for the trial’s finale. When I proposed it to Blake, he told me to wait until further notice. He advised me to stay at my father’s side, who was unable to take over my Alpha duties and cover my back in my absence.

A few days later, I received a call from Blake asking me to fly to California and join the last trial session, which would be in two weeks. That would allow me time to complete some pending matters before leaving for the United States.

When I mentioned I wanted to investigate my father’s accident, Fabrizio offered to help me. He had many connections who could be useful to my investigation, so I accepted his offer. That way, I could be close to him and maybe even replace a clue to Elisas’s whereabouts.

I had the car examined and found that someone had tampered with the brakes. Who could it have been? My father didn’t have any enemies, except the guy who kidnapped my mother back then and was dead. I checked if he had any relatives left, but I came up with nothing.

When I requested the parking surveillance footage, the staff informed me that someone had damaged both cameras on the day of the accident. Fabrizio knew someone who could retrieve the footage from their system despite its condition. It would take some time for him to do it, though. I had no other choice, so I agreed and asked Fabrizio’s acquaintance to help us out.

I had no other leads, so I waited patiently for the specialist’s results. The outcome didn’t surprise me at all. One of the broken cameras had captured someone tampering with the brakes. The man wore a hoodie, but his face was clear when he accidentally looked up. He had a large scar that started from his right eye and ended below his chin. Bingo! At least we had a clue of what he looked like. The trouble was replaceing out who he was, but Fabrizio was of great help once again.

“Being a lawyer for so many years also made me acquaintances in the underworld, Massimo. Don’t forget that I had to defend some of them in the past. A particular one owes me. His boss had framed him and I saved him at the eleventh hour, presenting the evidence of his innocence. Mario knows everyone in the underworld, big or small. Let me contact him, Massimo. He will help us track him down,” Fabrizio proposed.

“Thank you, uncle. Let’s do it your way and hope that Mario will have something for us. I want to know who hired him,” I replied.

The wait was long; Mario had to conduct a thorough research to replace the scarred man’s identity. He didn’t belong to any of the Mafia clans. Mario told us that the man must have been working alone and in a remote area.

Mario kept looking, diverting his attention to the outskirts of Isola and especially secluded areas, some of them known for their poor living conditions and bad way of life.

I was in my office in Isola with Fabrizio when Mario called to tell us he found out who the man was. He was a con man named Mattia who lived off running errands for big shots who wanted to stay low, like tampering with cars and stealing confidential information from others for them.

Mario told us that Mattia lived in Pierlas, a small quiet area not far from Isola, in a small apartment with a woman who worked for a nightclub in the area. He lived a quiet life and had gone missing a few days after my father’s accident, as did the woman who lived with him.

“Uncle, I’m going to Pierlas,” I told Fabrizio, and not wasting any time I took my car keys.

“Massimo, wait for me, figlio. I am going with you,” Fabrizio replied and came after me.

We drove in silence each lost in thought. I knew Fabrizio was worried about me and wanted to stay close since I kept the investigation a secret from my parents. I knew my father would want to be part of it and I wanted him to recover from his injuries by my mother’s side.

When we arrived at Pierlas, we found one of Mario’s men waiting for us. He had already investigated where Mattia’s woman worked and he would take us there.

We entered the nightclub and Mario’s employee looked for the owner. A fat bald man came over to us. He seemed to know Mario’s man well from the way they spoke to each other.

“Giovanni tells me you are looking for Mattia and Teresa,” he cut to the chase.

“Yes, but it seems they are long gone,” I replied, not paying much attention to the female name he mentioned.

“Teresa called and asked me for unpaid leave. She said she didn’t know when she would be back; I heard she went abroad,” the club owner explained.

“Did she say where she was going?” I asked, but I already knew the answer to my question.

“No, I only heard about it a few days ago. Someone saw her and Mattia at the airport. They were checking in,” the guy replied.

“What is her surname?” Mario’s man asked picking up his phone.

“Rossi. Teresa Rossi,” the club owner replied.

“And Mattia? What surname does he have?”

“Rossi. Mattia Rossi.”

Mario’s employee made a quick call giving their names to the person on the other line and then hung up. He thanked the club owner and led us out of the club.

“I asked our men at the airport to look into the departure lists and let us know if they replace anything,” he informed me. “Let me take you to Mattia’s apartment. Maybe we can replace something that can help you there,” he continued and led the way.

Soon, we entered a small apartment that looked deserted. There was a living room attached to the kitchen and a small bedroom.

I started looking in the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and then moved to the living room, while Fabrizio and Mario’s man were in the bedroom. I couldn’t replace anything despite scrutinizing everything in the room.

Mario’s man came out of the bedroom gesturing that he was talking on the phone and I nodded in acknowledgement. The sound of something breaking and a muffled g***n had me rushing into the bedroom. Fabrizio was sitting on the floor next to the side table, b***d oozing from his palm. He had been holding a photo frame and his eyes were full of tears. His breathing was heavy and unsteady.

I rushed to his side, took the bloody photo frame from his hand, left it on the ground and helped him get up from the floor. I took him to the bathroom to clean his wound and check the depth of the cut. It was the first time I saw him cry so much. He wept like a baby. I didn’t ask him anything while I cleaned his wound. Something must have upset him, but what was it?

After I treated the cut, I helped him back to the bedroom and sat him on the bed. His head was lowered and he avoided looking at me. I waited for a while and then spoke.

“Uncle, what’s the matter? What happened?” I asked softly, trying to get him to talk to me. Fabrizio had stopped crying and seemed lost. The image of him on the floor hit me. He had been holding a photo frame in his wounded hand.

I left the bed and walked to where I left the photo, picked it up and got a wet towel from the bathroom; I sat next to him and carefully wiped the b***d from the broken glass.

“Uncle?” I asked Fabrizio, and he held my hand.

“It’s Teresa,” he whispered breathlessly.

“Teresa?” I asked, confused. “Are you talking about Mattia’s woman? Yes, her name is Teresa,” I replied, trying to understand the meaning of my uncle’s words.

“Massimo, Teresa is in that photo.” He took the frame from my hand and showed me the woman who was smiling happily in Mattia’s arms.

As if someone had thrown a bucket of ice on me, the chill that ran through my whole body made me jump from my seat, holding the photo in my hands. I had just seen a ghost from the past. Teresa, Fabrizio’s daughter, my ex-fiancé was alive and smiling in another man’s arms. And that man was Mattia, the one who had tampered with the brakes of my father’s car.

“Uncle, what is this?” I asked, unable to believe what I was seeing.

“I wish I knew, Massimo. For ten years I have been mourning my dead daughter. Could it be a coincidence? How can the woman in the photo have the same name as Teresa and resemble my daughter? How can that be?” The realisation left Fabrizio breathless.

My heart raced inside my chest and the memory of Teresa’s sealed casket came to mind. They did not allow us to see her face because she crushed her head on the cement when she fell. I never stopped to think that something was out of place.

Now, looking at her in Mattia’s arms and knowing what had happened between my father and Teresa back then, I suddenly started putting the pieces of the unfinished puzzle of my father’s accident together.

Was Teresa the culprit behind it? And was Mattia her toy boy who helped her put her plan into action? Was she seeking revenge on my father for what had happened before?

“Massimo, what the he.ll is this? I am sure the woman in the photo is Teresa. She has the same birthmark on her neck as my daughter did. What on earth is she doing with the man who tampered with your father’s car?” Fabrizio felt lost and desperate.

I knew it was a mistake telling him what happened between Teresa and my dad, but unless I did, he wouldn’t be able to understand. And now he needed to understand or else he would go crazy.

“Uncle, I need to tell you something,” I whispered.

I told him the entire story, skipping the drugs part. It was hard enough as it was, and I didn’t want to make him feel worse. Fabrizio had been listening to me with silent tears running down his wrinkled face. He had aged in only a few minutes.

“Why didn’t your father say anything to me?” His voice was a mere whisper. What he had found out about Teresa devastated and crushed him. It was the last blow he could take. Or I thought it was.

“You were such a mess after Teresa’s death and my father didn’t want to upset you more, uncle. I recently found out about it myself. He told me after Elisa left,” I confessed.

“So, Teresa and Mattia probably teamed up to hurt Maurizio,” he concluded, not sparing me a glance, tears glistening on his aged face.

“I suppose so,” I replied.

Mario’s employee came into the room smiling, unaware of our current condition.

“We hit the jackpot. The woman named Teresa Rossi-Luigi and Mattia left on a plane to the United States and specifically, California,” he said.

California? Why? I thought.

Fabrizio jumped from his seat and pulled me up.

“Sh.it!” he cursed. “Teresa is not only after your father, Massimo. She is after you as well!”

“Uncle what…”

“For f**k’s sake, Massimo. Elisa is in California. Teresa must have been investigating you and found out about Elisa and the baby. She wants to hurt you by doing Elisa and the baby harm,” Fabrizio replied and rushed outside, leaving me dumbfounded in the bedroom.

“The hell she will,” I growled and ran after him.