Chapter 10 - The Recording Behind the Wall
Antonio pulled Isabelle behind the stone wall and shouted, "Gabriel isn't the shooter!"
Luca recovered a brass casing from the broken window.
Two tiny letters were engraved near its base.
RH.
Richard wanted them to blame Gabriel.
Again.
Police surrounded the property.
Gabriel's SUV was found abandoned three miles away.
Blood covered the passenger seat.
Gabriel himself was missing.
Antonio finally told everything.
Richard had kidnapped Gabriel two days earlier.
He was forcing him to lead them to Antonio.
The gunshot wasn't intended to kill Isabelle.
It was a warning to Antonio.
Come out.
Or Gabriel dies.
Isabelle looked at the father she had mourned.
"Why didn't you come home?"
Antonio cried.
"Because every time I got close, someone threatened you."
"You should have trusted us."
"I know."
"You missed everything."
"I know."
"My graduation."
"I watched from across the street."
Her breath caught.
"My wedding?"
Antonio looked down.
"I was there."
Luca stood abruptly.
"Where?"
"Balcony."
Isabelle remembered a figure.
An older waiter.
A man who disappeared before the photographs.
"You watched me marry Damien?"
"I didn't know what he would become."
Neither had she.
That was the tragedy.
Antonio took them into the basement.
Behind a false wall were thirty years of evidence.
Records tying Richard to fraud.
Blackmail.
Corporate theft.
The sabotage that killed Elena.
Not because Richard personally cut the brakes.
He had been young then.
But his mentor had.
Richard later inherited the criminal network and spent years covering its tracks.
Then Antonio showed them the most important recording.
Richard and Damien.
Six months earlier.
Richard said:
"The baby is the key."
Damien answered:
"Nobody touches Isabelle."
Richard laughed.
"You've already betrayed her."
"That's different."
"No. You just prefer your violence emotional."
Damien said nothing.
Richard continued.
"Get the signature."
"And if she refuses?"
A pause.
"Then we use the medical plan."
Damien's voice became quieter.
"No."
"You don't get moral now."
"I said no."
Isabelle closed her eyes.
Damien had resisted one line.
Then crossed another at the gala.
It did not redeem him.
But truth mattered.
Even inconvenient truth.
The recording continued.
Damien said:
"I'll get her signature without hurting her."
Richard answered:
"Then you better pray she stays stupid."
Isabelle opened her eyes.
For years, men had mistaken her silence for stupidity.
It had cost them.
Antonio handed Matteo the recordings.
"This can end him."
"Not alone."
They needed corroboration.
Financial records.
Witnesses.
Vanessa.
Damien.
Gabriel.
Victor.
For the first time, everyone had a piece.
Isabelle realized the only way to defeat Richard was to bring together people who had betrayed one another.
It was ugly.
But possible.
Then Antonio touched her shoulder.
"There's one more thing."
He led Isabelle to the false wall.
A smaller compartment sat behind it.
Inside was Elena's diary.
Isabelle opened it.
Her mother's handwriting filled the pages.
The final entry was dated the morning of her death.
If something happens, Isabelle must know Marcus never abandoned her. He created one last protection. Samuel has the key.
Isabelle looked up.
"Samuel?"
They called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Enzo checked Samuel's location.
His phone was inside Luca's townhouse.
But Samuel wasn't.
Security footage showed him leaving hours earlier.
With Richard Hale.
Voluntarily.
Luca stared at the screen.
"Samuel betrayed us?"
Antonio shook his head.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because Samuel wouldn't go willingly unless Richard had something he wanted."
"What?"
Antonio's expression changed.
"His daughter."
Nobody knew Samuel had a daughter.
Antonio whispered her name.
"Vanessa."
Isabelle went still.
Victor had called Vanessa his stepdaughter.
But Victor had lied about so many things.
If Samuel was Vanessa's biological father, Richard possessed leverage over both of them.
Then Vanessa's phone sent Isabelle a live location.
No message.
Just coordinates.
An industrial building beside the Hudson.
They alerted police.
As Isabelle stared at the map, another notification appeared.
An audio file.
Vanessa's voice whispered:
"He's making Samuel open Marcus's final vault."
A man's voice shouted in the background.
Richard.
Then metal scraped against metal.
A vault door was opening.
Vanessa whispered one final sentence.
"Isabelle, whatever happens, don't let him find what's inside."
May you like
The audio cut off.
And on Isabelle's screen, Vanessa's location suddenly stopped moving...
