Chapter 8 - The Marchetti Brothers Make Their Move
Vanessa stared at the amendment and shouted, "Why is my name there?"
Luca placed Marcus Cole's seal beneath the signature.
A microscopic break ran through the embossed mark.
The document was counterfeit.
Someone wanted Vanessa blamed.
That changed the investigation.
Richard wasn't simply stealing.
He was building escape routes.
Every crime pointed toward someone else.
Damien.
Enzo.
Vanessa.
Soon, perhaps Isabelle.
Matteo organized the evidence.
Luca froze the remaining assets.
Enzo traced the forged signatures.
For the first time, the three Marchetti brothers stopped reacting.
They attacked the problem together.
Legally.
Financially.
Methodically.
Isabelle watched them and understood why Damien had always been intimidated by her family.
Not because they were violent.
Because they were difficult to isolate.
Richard's strategy depended on turning people against one another.
The Marchettis did the opposite.
By morning, Enzo located Richard's hidden server.
It contained records of the shell companies.
Payments.
Forged documents.
Surveillance photographs.
And a folder labeled:
ISABELLE — CONTINGENCY.
Luca refused to let her open it alone.
Inside were medical records.
Her schedule.
Her obstetric appointments.
Floor plans of her home.
Photographs of her car.
Isabelle became nauseated.
Then she found a document titled:
POSTPARTUM AUTHORIZATION.
It was a forged psychiatric evaluation.
It described Isabelle as unstable.
Paranoid.
Potentially dangerous to herself and her child.
The plan became clear.
If killing her proved too risky, Richard intended to have her declared incompetent.
Then someone else could control the trust.
"Damien knew?" she asked.
Matteo couldn't answer.
They would have to ask him.
Damien was under police protection in a hospital.
Isabelle went.
Not alone.
When she entered his room, his face crumpled.
His left arm was bandaged.
Bruises covered his jaw.
"Isa."
She remained near the door.
"Did you know about the psychiatric file?"
His confusion appeared genuine.
"What file?"
She showed him.
Damien read it.
His face changed.
"No."
"Did you give Richard my medical information?"
He looked away.
That was enough.
"Why?"
"He said we needed leverage."
"Against your pregnant wife?"
"I thought it was financial."
"Everything was financial to you."
"No."
"Then what was I?"
He began crying.
"My wife."
"You hit your wife."
He closed his eyes.
"I know."
"You stole from her."
"I know."
"You humiliated her."
"I know."
"And you tested your own unborn daughter because another man whispered that I might have cheated."
Damien looked at her.
"I'm sorry."
Isabelle waited.
For years, she had wanted those words during smaller fights.
Now they sounded tiny.
"Sorry doesn't rebuild trust."
"I'll spend the rest of my life trying."
"No."
The certainty surprised even her.
"You won't spend the rest of your life doing anything to me."
Damien stared.
She placed divorce papers on his bedside table.
His face collapsed.
"Isabelle."
"I'm done."
"Please."
"I loved you."
"Then don't leave."
"That's exactly why I'm leaving."
She turned.
Then Damien said something that stopped her.
"Richard has someone inside your family."
She looked back.
"Not Enzo."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Convenient."
"I'm telling the truth."
"Give me one reason to believe you."
Damien reached beneath his pillow.
He removed a tiny memory card.
"I stole this from Richard."
Matteo took it.
"What is it?"
"Security recordings."
"From where?"
"Your mother's house."
Isabelle froze.
"The house where she died?"
Damien nodded.
"Richard had cameras there years before anyone knew."
"That's impossible."
"Watch it."
They returned to Luca's townhouse.
Enzo loaded the card.
Most footage was corrupted.
One video remained.
Date:
The night before Elena's fatal crash.
Elena entered her study.
A man followed.
The angle hid his face.
They argued.
No audio.
Then the man placed something on Elena's desk.
A contract.
She tore it in half.
The man grabbed her arm.
Isabelle leaned toward the screen.
"Turn around."
As though hearing her across twenty-six years, the man turned toward the camera.
Luca stepped backward.
Matteo whispered, "No."
Enzo stopped breathing.
Isabelle stared at the face.
She knew him.
Not Richard.
Not Victor.
Not Marcus.
It was Antonio Marchetti.
The father who had raised her.
The father she had believed died years before her mother.
But the timestamp proved something impossible.
Antonio was supposed to have been dead for nearly six months when that footage was recorded.
Then the video continued.
A second man entered the room.
Elena looked directly at him.
Her mouth formed a name.
Enzo enhanced the frame.
The second man's face appeared.
May you like
Luca dropped his glass.
Because the man standing beside their supposedly dead father was someone who had been sitting at their family table for years...
