Chapter 6 - The Father Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Adrian Moretti had imagined seeing his father again a thousand times.
In dreams.
In nightmares.
Sometimes Carlo Moretti appeared as the man Adrian remembered from childhood.
Broad shoulders.
Strong hands.
A voice that could command a room.
Sometimes he appeared older.
Sick.
Regretful.
Never like this.
Alive.
Calm.
Smiling inside a private vault where Marco Bellandi had hidden evidence.
“Put the gun down,” Carlo said.
Adrian did not.
Elena stood behind him.
She could feel the violence in his stillness.
“You died,” Adrian said.
Carlo smiled.
“Clearly not.”
“I buried you.”
“You buried a closed coffin.”
“I saw the body.”
“You saw what grief allowed you to see.”
Adrian’s finger tightened against the trigger.
Elena touched his arm.
Not to stop him.
To remind him she was there.
Carlo noticed.
“So this is Elena.”
Her blood chilled.
“You know me.”
“I know everything about you.”
Adrian moved slightly, blocking Carlo’s view.
“Don’t look at her.”
Carlo laughed.
“That sounds protective.”
“It’s a warning.”
“I taught you better than that.”
“You taught me many things I wish I could forget.”
Carlo’s eyes hardened.
There.
For one second Elena saw the man beneath the smile.
“Marco always made you sentimental.”
“Marco discovered you.”
“Marco misunderstood.”
“He left proof.”
“Did he?”
Carlo glanced at the metal case.
Adrian did not move.
“Take it,” Carlo said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not here to stop you.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To warn you.”
Adrian’s laugh was cold.
“About yourself?”
“About Luca.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“Convenient.”
Carlo looked at her.
“You have Marco’s spirit.”
“I had Marco’s trust.”
“Did you?”
The question struck.
Carlo saw it.
Adrian did too.
“Enough.”
Carlo ignored him.
“Did your husband ever tell you who financed your apartment?”
Elena stared.
“What?”
“Or who paid the hospital bill when Sofia was born?”
“We had insurance.”
“No.”
She turned to Adrian.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t know.”
Carlo smiled.
“Marco used family money.”
“So?”
“He was deeper in our world than Adrian wants you to believe.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Leave.”
“You think I killed him.”
“I’m deciding whether to kill you.”
“You won’t.”
“Why?”
“Because if I die, Sofia Bellandi dies within twenty-four hours.”
Elena’s body went cold.
Adrian lunged.
He seized Carlo by the collar.
“Say her name again.”
Carlo remained calm.
“You have always been easy to control when you love someone.”
Adrian froze.
The sentence meant more than Elena understood.
Carlo gently removed Adrian’s hand.
“Open the blue folder.”
He left.
Just walked out.
Adrian could have stopped him.
He didn’t.
Because of Sofia.
For the first time Elena saw real fear in Adrian.
They returned to the estate.
Sofia was safe.
Playing cards with Teresa.
Elena hugged her so tightly Sofia complained.
“Mama, I can’t breathe.”
“Sorry.”
“Did you find treasure?”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“Something like that.”
That night they opened the blue folder.
Inside were photographs of Carlo.
Alive.
Meeting Vittorio Santoro.
Meeting politicians.
Police officers.
Judges.
Then a list.
At the top:
PROJECT INHERITANCE.
The goal was simple.
Destroy Adrian’s organization from within.
Replace him with Luca.
Absorb Moretti territory into a coalition controlled by Carlo.
Marco discovered it.
So Marco became a threat.
Elena read every page.
“Your father ordered Marco’s death.”
Adrian stared at the evidence.
“Yes.”
“And Luca helped.”
“Yes.”
“Why pretend to die?”
“To operate without scrutiny.”
“Why threaten Sofia?”
“Because he needs me predictable.”
Elena looked toward the hallway where her daughter slept.
“He said she would die if he did.”
“He may have arranged something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
They spent hours searching files.
At 3:17 a.m., Elena found it.
A document about “contingency beneficiaries.”
Sofia’s name appeared.
Next to a number.
“Adrian.”
He came over.
The number was a bank account.
Offshore.
Containing forty-eight million dollars.
Elena stared.
“What is this?”
Adrian read further.
Marco had moved money.
Not stolen.
Reallocated.
Money belonging to Carlo’s network.
He had placed it under Sofia’s legal identity using a trust that activated upon his death.
“You’re telling me my seven-year-old owns forty-eight million dollars?”
“Technically a trust owns it.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against what?”
Adrian found the final clause.
If Sofia died before adulthood, control transferred to a federal forfeiture account along with automatic release of encrypted evidence.
Elena understood.
“Marco made her untouchable.”
“Or tried to.”
“Carlo can’t kill her.”
“Not without losing everything.”
“Then why threaten her?”
“Because fear may make us hand over the access keys voluntarily.”
Elena stared at the pages.
“My husband built all this while coming home every night and asking what I wanted for dinner.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know whether to love him or slap him.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“He would probably say both.”
The fragile moment ended when alarms sounded.
Adrian stood.
Security lights flashed outside.
One of his men rushed in.
“Perimeter breach.”
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
“Where?”
“North wall.”
Elena’s first thought was Sofia.
She ran.
Adrian followed.
They reached the upstairs room.
Empty.
The bedcovers were pulled back.
The window stood open.
On the pillow lay Sofia’s stuffed rabbit.
Its head had been cut open.
Inside was a note.
Elena picked it up with shaking hands.
Adrian read over her shoulder.
BRING THE GIRL’S MOTHER TO THE OLD MORETTI HOUSE.
COME ALONE.
Elena looked at him.
“Where is my daughter?”
Before Adrian could answer, a tiny voice came from inside the wardrobe.
“Mama?”
Elena tore the door open.
Sofia stumbled out.
Safe.
Crying.
“I hid like Mr. Adrian taught me.”
Elena collapsed around her.
Adrian exhaled.
Then he noticed something.
The note had not been left to kidnap Sofia.
It had been left despite failing to kidnap Sofia.
Which meant whoever entered the house had escaped.
Adrian turned toward the security monitor.
One camera showed the north hallway.
A familiar figure walked past it.
Teresa.
The woman Adrian had trusted inside his home for twenty years.
May you like
And she was carrying a phone.
Talking to Carlo.
