Chapter 4 - THE GHOST OF VITTORIO MORETTIAdrian stared at the dead phone.
Nobody in the underground room spoke.
Michael was the first to move.
He took the device from Adrian, checked the screen, then looked up.
“Blocked number.”
Adrian’s face revealed nothing.
Michael had known him since they were sixteen.
That meant he recognized the signs everyone else missed.
The stillness.
The flattened voice.
The absence of anger.
Those were the moments Adrian was most dangerous.
“Your father’s dead,” Michael said carefully.
“I watched his coffin go into the ground.”
“So did I.”
Adrian looked around the hidden room.
“Did you see his body?”
Michael paused.
Adrian already knew the answer.
The explosion had destroyed Vittorio’s vehicle.
The remains recovered were badly burned.
Identification came through dental records.
Just like Daniel Bennett.
Michael swore quietly.
Adrian walked toward the filing cabinets.
“Open everything.”
For the next two hours, they searched.
Financial accounts.
Shipping manifests.
Old surveillance logs.
Photographs of politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Union officials.
Rival businessmen.
And men Adrian had never seen.
Someone had built an archive capable of destroying half the city.
Near dawn, Michael found a locked drawer.
Inside was one red folder.
ADRIAN.
He looked toward his friend.
“You should see this.”
Adrian opened it.
The first page contained a photograph of himself at fifteen.
The second showed him at college.
The third was taken outside a restaurant when he was twenty-four.
Dozens more followed.
Someone had monitored Adrian for years.
Then came medical records.
Bank accounts.
Phone numbers.
Relationships.
Every detail of his adult life.
At the back was a typed instruction.
IF ADRIAN REFUSES SUCCESSION, REMOVE HIM.
Michael read over his shoulder.
“Succession to what?”
Adrian flipped the page.
There was no answer.
Only a photograph.
Vanessa Carlisle.
Age seventeen.
Standing beside Vittorio Moretti.
The date was four years after Vittorio’s supposed death.
Michael went pale.
“Jesus.”
Adrian looked at the teenager beside his father.
Then at the expensive bracelet on her wrist.
The same bracelet Vanessa wore today.
She had known him.
Long before Adrian ever met her.
The engagement.
The family merger.
The wedding planned for three days from now.
None of it was what it appeared to be.
Adrian reached for his phone.
“Get Emily moved.”
Michael immediately called the hospital.
Nobody answered.
He tried again.
Then looked at Adrian.
“We have a problem.”
Back at Lakeshore Medical Center, Emily woke to silence.
Too much silence.
Lucy was not beside her.
Neither was Dorothy.
Emily pressed the call button.
Nothing happened.
She reached for her phone.
Gone.
Her heart began pounding.
“Lucy?”
No answer.
She forced herself out of bed.
Pain cut through her ribs.
The hallway outside was empty.
No nurses.
No security.
Nothing.
“Lucy!”
A shadow moved near the stairwell.
Emily grabbed a metal IV pole.
“Who’s there?”
The door opened.
A man stepped through.
Daniel.
Emily forgot how to breathe.
For three years, she had imagined this moment.
In dreams, she ran into his arms.
She hit him.
She screamed.
She collapsed.
Reality was quieter.
Daniel looked thinner.
A scar crossed his jaw.
His hair had more gray.
But it was him.
“Em.”
The IV pole fell from her hand.
“Daniel?”
His face broke.
“I’m sorry.”
She crossed the hallway and struck him.
Once.
Hard.
He took it.
She struck him again.
“You were alive.”
“I know.”
“You were alive!”
Her voice cracked through the empty corridor.
Daniel caught her wrists gently.
“Emily—”
“Three years!”
She shoved him.
“Lucy cried for you!”
“I know.”
“You don’t know anything!”
Tears poured down her face.
“You let me bury you!”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“If I came back, they would have killed you both.”
“Who?”
“Vittorio.”
Emily froze.
“You told Adrian his father was alive.”
Daniel’s expression sharpened.
“You spoke to him?”
“He found Warehouse Seventeen.”
Daniel cursed.
“He wasn’t supposed to go there yet.”
“Where is Lucy?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“With Dorothy.”
Emily stared at him.
“You took my daughter?”
“I got her out before they came.”
“Who came?”
Daniel looked toward the elevators.
“We need to move.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you explain.”
“You always were stubborn.”
“And you always lied badly.”
That almost made him smile.
Almost.
Then the elevator indicator lit.
Daniel grabbed Emily.
“Now.”
They entered the stairwell.
As Daniel helped her down, he spoke quickly.
“Vittorio Moretti built a private network inside his businesses twenty years ago. Smuggling, blackmail, political leverage, illegal weapons, information sales. Adrian never knew the full operation.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio never trusted his son.”
They reached the lower landing.
“Then why fake his death?”
“He knew federal agents were closing in.”
Daniel pushed through another door.
“He staged the bombing, replaced dental records, disappeared and continued controlling the network through other people.”
“Vanessa?”
“Her father first. Then her.”
Emily stopped.
“She knew you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I found Vittorio.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Three years ago, I discovered hidden communications routing through Moretti servers. I traced them to a private facility in Indiana.”
“The freight yard.”
“Yes.”
“You saw Vittorio?”
“I saw him.”
Emily whispered, “Why didn’t you tell Adrian?”
“I tried.”
They reached a parking structure.
“My message was intercepted.”
“By Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel unlocked a black sedan.
“Someone ordered my death. I survived the crash. A federal contact helped me disappear.”
Emily stared at him.
“You worked with the government?”
“Off the books.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the government wanted Vittorio more than they cared about what happened to me.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I thought staying dead would keep you safe.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“Except Vanessa found me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Daniel looked away.
That was enough.
“You contacted her.”
“I needed information.”
“You brought her back into our lives?”
“I didn’t know she knew where you were.”
Emily stepped away.
“You don’t get to make decisions for me anymore.”
“Em—”
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“You lost that right when you watched me grieve you for three years.”
Footsteps echoed above.
Daniel opened the car door.
“We can fight later.”
“Where is Lucy?”
“Lake Geneva.”
“With Dorothy?”
“Yes.”
“Take me there.”
They drove north.
At 7:23 a.m., Adrian returned to the hospital.
Emily’s room was empty.
A nurse had been found unconscious in a supply closet.
Two Moretti guards were missing.
Dorothy and Lucy were gone.
Adrian stood in the center of the room.
Michael approached.
“Security footage was erased.”
“Daniel.”
“Possibly.”
Adrian saw something on the bed.
A white envelope.
ADRIAN.
He opened it.
One handwritten line.
IF YOU WANT EMILY AND LUCY ALIVE, COME TO THE WEDDING TOMORROW.
Michael stared.
“The wedding was canceled.”
Adrian folded the paper.
“Apparently not.”
“Adrian.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“This is a trap.”
“Yes.”
“You still planning to walk into it?”
Adrian looked toward the empty bed where Lucy had slept.
“Yes.”
Meanwhile, seventy miles away, Vanessa Carlisle sat in an old farmhouse with blood on her ivory dress.
Her father, Charles Carlisle, stood at the window.
“You failed.”
Vanessa poured herself whiskey.
“Emily survived.”
“That is what failure means.”
Vanessa looked at him coldly.
“I had her unconscious.”
“And Adrian found you.”
“Because of the child.”
Charles turned.
“You underestimated a three-year-old.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
The door behind them opened.
An elderly man entered.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
A cane in one hand.
A scar along the left side of his face.
Vanessa immediately stood.
Charles lowered his head.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Vittorio Moretti looked at Vanessa.
“My son has opened Warehouse Seventeen.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
“How?”
“He knows.”
Charles stepped forward.
“Then we move tonight.”
Vittorio smiled.
“No.”
He walked to a table where Adrian and Vanessa’s wedding invitation rested.
Gold lettering.
Five hundred guests.
Politicians.
Business leaders.
Federal judges.
The city’s most powerful families.
Vittorio tapped the invitation.
“We spent eighteen months arranging the perfect room.”
Vanessa understood.
“The wedding.”
“Tomorrow night, Adrian will stand before everyone who matters.”
Vittorio’s eyes hardened.
“He will either accept the family he was born to lead…”
May you like
He lifted the invitation.
“…or I will bury my son for real.”
