Chapter 6 - THE SISTER WHO REFUSED TO COME HOME
I watched the ten-second recording thirty-seven times.
Alessandra.
Alive.
Same voice.
Older.
Changed.
But my sister.
I called back.
Nothing.
Ortiz traced the call to a prepaid device bouncing through three towers.
Marco sat handcuffed nearby.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Two years.”
I almost broke his jaw.
Ortiz stepped between us.
“You touch him, I remove you.”
I stared at Marco.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Alessandra told me not to.”
“Everyone keeps following her instructions when it means lying to me.”
Marco shook his head.
“You don’t know what happened to her.”
“Then tell me.”
He looked ashamed.
After Alessandra was taken, she spent five years under Victor’s control.
Private facilities.
Sedatives.
Threats.
Then Paolo Bellini found her.
How?
Elena.
Six years ago, Elena’s husband discovered the woman hidden under the name Anna Morel was Alessandra Moretti.
He recognized her from family files.
“Why help her?”
“Because Alessandra had helped him first.”
Years earlier, before her disappearance, Alessandra discovered Paolo wanted out of Bellaforte.
She arranged money.
Documents.
A new identity.
Then she disappeared before she could finish.
Paolo owed her.
He spent years searching.
When he found her, he helped reduce the medication and began planning escape.
“Why did it take years?”
“Victor threatened Elena.”
My chest tightened.
“Sophie?”
“She wasn’t born yet.”
Then Elena became pregnant.
Everything changed.
Paolo staged his death to protect them.
Alessandra refused to escape until Paolo’s family was safe.
Eventually, three weeks ago, Victor’s arrest risk forced them to move.
“So Alessandra is free.”
“Yes.”
“Then why not come home?”
Marco looked at me.
“Because she doesn’t trust you.”
That hurt more than anything.
“What?”
“She thinks Moretti Maritime still belongs to the same machine.”
“I’m not Dominic.”
“She knows.”
“Then?”
“She thinks you benefited without asking questions.”
I stopped.
That landed.
How many years had I signed reports Victor prepared?
How many company profits came from routes I never inspected closely because Dominic said old contracts were complicated?
I was innocent of murder.
Maybe not innocent of blindness.
Marco continued.
“She said coming home would let everyone turn her survival into a victory story.”
I stared.
“She doesn’t want a victory story.”
“No.”
“She wants the company dismantled.”
“What?”
“The corrupt parts.”
“Fine.”
Marco looked surprised.
“What?”
“I said fine.”
“Luca, you don’t even know how deep—”
“I buried my sister because of that company.”
My voice hardened.
“Burn every contaminated contract.”
Marco stared.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
Ortiz said:
“Be careful what you promise before financial investigators finish.”
“I’m not promising to destroy evidence.”
I looked at her.
“I’m promising not to protect the company from consequences.”
That was the first decision Alessandra eventually believed.
Because two days later, she called again.
Audio only.
“Luca.”
I closed my eyes.
“Ali.”
Silence.
Nobody had called her that in decades.
She breathed shakily.
“You still call me that.”
“Always.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to come home.”
Silence.
“I mean it.”
“You’re not going to demand—”
“No.”
I sat in my dark office.
“I want you safe.”
“That sounds like Dad.”
My chest hurt.
“I know.”
“But?”
“But I also learned ‘keeping someone safe’ is how everyone justified controlling us.”
Another silence.
“So I’m not deciding for you.”
She cried quietly.
I let her.
Then:
“Paolo says the tape is enough to break Bellaforte’s remaining network.”
“We have two tapes.”
“There’s a third.”
Of course.
“What’s on it?”
“Dominic meeting Paolo.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
My pulse changed.
“Dominic knows Paolo is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why meet?”
“He offered a deal.”
“What deal?”
“Me.”
I stood.
“What?”
“Dominic would stop hunting Paolo’s family if Paolo turned me over.”
My skin went cold.
“Did he agree?”
“No.”
“Where’s the tape?”
“With Elena.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently Elena has been running a better intelligence operation than I have.”
Alessandra laughed.
A tiny sound.
For one second, she was twenty again.
Then:
“Luca.”
“Yes?”
“Someone at your house is still feeding Dominic information.”
My blood went cold.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Victor’s in custody.”
“It isn’t Victor.”
“Marco?”
“No.”
“Mother?”
“No.”
“Thomas?”
“No.”
Then who?
I ran through staff.
Family.
Security.
Ortiz.
No.
Alessandra continued.
“They knew Sophie had the tape before she walked into dinner.”
I froze.
“How?”
“Someone called Dominic at 7:12 p.m.”
Dinner started at seven.
Sophie entered at 7:26.
Fourteen minutes.
Only people inside the estate knew.
“Can you trace the number?”
“Burner.”
“But?”
“It connected to your internal Wi-Fi.”
My home.
Someone sitting at my table.
I remembered twenty-three guests.
Then one detail.
My silver lighter.
Sophie put the tape beside it.
Before she reached me, Marco had looked toward Victor.
But someone else had quietly left the table.
My mother’s companion.
A woman named Celia Hart.
Former nurse.
Worked for Isabella for nine years.
I had barely noticed.
“Celia.”
Alessandra went silent.
Then whispered:
“That name appears in Saint Agnes records.”
My pulse stopped.
“As what?”
“Medical liaison.”
The woman caring for my mother had helped manage Alessandra’s captivity.
I ran upstairs.
Mother’s room.
Empty.
Celia gone.
Isabella’s phone on the floor.
Window open.
Blood on the curtain.
I shouted for security.
Then saw the note on the bed.
LUCA — YOU WANTED YOUR SISTER BACK. NOW CHOOSE WHICH WOMAN YOU SAVE.
Celia had taken my mother.
May you like
And she wanted Alessandra.
The game was no longer hidden.
