Chapter 5 - THE TAPE IN MY FATHER’S TOMB
We opened my father’s mausoleum at noon.
Detective Ortiz wanted a warrant.
I wanted a sledgehammer.
The warrant won.
Inside a sealed bronze drawer behind his memorial plaque, officers found a VHS cassette wrapped in plastic.
My mother cried when she saw it.
“You knew it was there.”
“Yes.”
“Did you watch it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid.”
That word had destroyed enough lives.
At the forensic lab, they digitized the tape.
September 3.
Ten years earlier.
My father’s study.
9:18 p.m.
Audio.
This camera had sound.
Father sat at his desk.
Dominic stood across from him.
Then Victor.
My mother entered.
They argued.
Father slammed a ledger down.
“I’m done laundering Bellaforte money.”
Dominic laughed.
“You’re not done until they say.”
Father turned to Isabella.
“Take the children and leave tonight.”
My chest tightened.
Mother on tape whispered:
“They’ll find us.”
Father:
“Then I’ll give them me.”
Mother had told the truth.
He intended to sacrifice himself.
Then Dominic said something.
“No. Alessandra already knows too much.”
Father went still.
Victor added:
“And Luca controls too much of the legitimate company.”
My heart stopped.
Me.
Even then.
Dominic paced.
“We need a structure.”
Father asked:
“What structure?”
Victor answered:
“Luca stays clean. Alessandra stays quiet. Isabella maintains family control.”
My father laughed.
“You want to build the future around lies.”
Dominic:
“I want the family alive.”
Then another man entered.
I didn’t recognize him.
Mother whispered beside me:
“Gabriel Bellaforte.”
The old boss.
Dead six years.
On tape, Gabriel sat calmly.
“No one needs to die tonight.”
Father stared.
Gabriel continued:
“But somebody needs to understand consequence.”
He pushed a bottle of pills across the desk.
Mother gasped on tape.
“No.”
Father looked at them.
Then at his family.
Gabriel said:
“One stroke. Natural. Your children survive.”
I felt sick.
It wasn’t suicide.
It was coercion.
My father took the pills.
My mother screamed.
Dominic restrained her.
Victor watched.
And my father swallowed them.
Twenty-seven minutes later, he collapsed.
They killed him by making him choose us.
I left the room and vomited.
Ortiz followed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Means you’re human.”
I almost laughed.
Then she said:
“We have something else.”
Audio continued after Father collapsed.
Gabriel spoke to Dominic.
“Control Luca.”
Dominic answered:
“He won’t bend.”
“Then use Alessandra.”
That was the origin.
Everything flowed from that decision.
Father died.
Alessandra investigated.
Maria helped.
They staged Alessandra’s death.
Then controlled me through grief and company obligations.
Ortiz said:
“Marco knows this tape destroys Dominic’s defense.”
“And Bellaforte remnants.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he take Sophie?”
“We’re tracking traffic cameras.”
My phone rang.
Marco.
“Did you find it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Let Sophie speak.”
Silence.
Then:
“Mr. Moretti?”
Tiny voice.
“Sophie.”
“I want Mommy.”
My chest tightened.
“You’ll be with her soon.”
“Marco says we’re playing hide-and-seek.”
I closed my eyes.
“Okay.”
“He gave me juice.”
“Don’t drink anything else.”
Marco snapped back onto the phone.
“I’m not poisoning a child.”
“Then let her go.”
“Bring the tape.”
“Where?”
“Old Moretti boathouse.”
Ortiz heard.
Police moved immediately.
The boathouse sat forty minutes away.
We arrived in thirty-two.
No Elena.
No Sophie.
Just Marco.
He stood on the dock.
Hands visible.
“Where are they?”
“Safe.”
I almost hit him.
Ortiz stopped me.
Marco looked broken.
“Luca, listen.”
“No.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“I didn’t take them to hurt them.”
“You kidnapped a four-year-old.”
“I moved them before Dominic’s people did.”
Silence.
Ortiz narrowed her eyes.
“What people?”
Marco pulled out his phone.
A photograph.
Two men outside Elena’s quarters the previous night.
Armed.
Different time stamp.
Before Marco’s car arrived.
He continued.
“Victor’s arrest triggered cleanup.”
My pulse changed.
“Dominic ordered it?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Marco looked at me.
“Dominic isn’t in charge anymore.”
“Who is?”
“Elena.”
Silence.
I stared.
“What?”
Marco shook his head.
“Not your maid.”
He looked toward the lake.
“Her husband.”
“Elena’s husband is dead.”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“He’s Bellaforte.”
My mind rejected it.
“Elena’s husband was Paolo Bellini.”
“Yes.”
“Construction worker.”
“No.”
Marco looked at Ortiz.
“Paolo Bellini is Gabriel Bellaforte’s youngest son.”
Everything stopped.
Elena had worked inside my estate for six years.
Her husband had supposedly died in an industrial accident two years after Sophie was born.
Marco continued.
“Paolo staged his death.”
Of course.
Another fake death.
“Why?”
“To leave Bellaforte.”
“And Elena?”
“She knew some of it.”
“Does she know where Alessandra is?”
Marco hesitated.
“Yes.”
I went still.
“What?”
“Elena didn’t keep the tape just for Alessandra.”
“Then why?”
“Because Alessandra saved Paolo.”
The entire story shifted.
Alessandra had helped the son of the criminal family escape.
That was why she had been kept alive.
Leverage.
Against Paolo.
And if Paolo was alive—
he might be the one who moved Alessandra three weeks ago.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A video call.
I answered.
Elena appeared.
Alive.
Sophie beside her.
And behind them—
a woman stepped into frame.
Thin.
Older.
Dark hair cut short.
But I knew her eyes.
Alessandra.
My sister.
Alive.
She looked directly at me.
“Luca.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Then she said:
May you like
“Don’t come looking for me.”
The call ended.
