Chapter 4 - The Ghost in the House
Evelyn ran.
Lorenzo caught her wrist.
“Stay behind me.”
“Your son is downstairs.”
“I know.”
Another gunshot thundered through the mansion.
Emergency lights flickered red along the hallway.
Lorenzo drew a pistol from beneath his jacket and moved with frightening calm.
They reached the staircase.
One guard lay wounded near the entrance.
The front doors were open.
Rain blew inside.
“Matteo!”
Evelyn heard crying from the library.
She reached the room first.
Matteo was hiding beneath a desk.
Alive.
She dropped beside him.
“I'm here.”
Lorenzo arrived seconds later.
For the first time, Evelyn saw fear in the man's eyes.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of failing his child.
Security footage revealed that the shooter had entered using a valid access code.
Again, an inside job.
But the intruder had not come for Matteo.
He had entered Evelyn's room.
Her backpack was gone.
So was Claire's photograph.
Lorenzo stared at the empty bed.
“They wanted something you own.”
“I own nothing.”
“Think.”
Evelyn did.
Claire had given her the backpack.
A week before dying.
Evelyn remembered complaining about her old one ripping.
Claire had smiled strangely.
“Take mine.”
Evelyn suddenly grabbed the bag's torn lining from the floor.
“There was a seam here.”
Inside the lining they found a tiny slit.
Whatever Claire had hidden there was gone.
But a small piece of black plastic remained.
Lorenzo recognized it.
“MicroSD adapter.”
Claire had hidden digital files inside Evelyn's backpack.
Without telling her.
Lorenzo's team searched Claire’s employment records.
The answer arrived shortly before dawn.
Claire had discovered millions of dollars disappearing from Moretti Maritime through fabricated vendors.
But the money was not being stolen from Lorenzo.
It was being used to finance something else.
A rival operation.
Someone inside Lorenzo’s organization had quietly built an empire using his money.
Claire had found the trail.
So she had been killed.
Evelyn stared at the evidence.
“My sister didn't have an accident.”
“No,” Lorenzo said.
The truth broke something inside her.
Six months of believing she had failed Claire.
Six months of guilt.
Six months on sidewalks and shelter floors.
Lorenzo stood beside her but did not touch her.
“I'll find whoever did it.”
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
“No.”
He frowned.
“We will.”
That was the moment their arrangement changed.
Evelyn was no longer a guest.
She became part of the investigation.
And she was good at it.
Years of nursing had taught her to notice details people ignored.
Changes in breathing.
Hands that shook.
Eyes that avoided certain questions.
She watched everyone inside Lorenzo's circle.
Vincent was angry but frightened.
Dr. Bell was nervous.
Lorenzo's attorney, Sebastian Cole, seemed calm.
Too calm.
Then Evelyn noticed something.
Sebastian wore a silver signet ring.
She had seen the same crest before.
On the hand of one of the men searching the harbor.
She told Lorenzo privately.
He did not react.
But that evening Sebastian disappeared.
His office had been emptied.
Inside one drawer, Lorenzo's men found photographs.
Claire.
Evelyn.
Matteo.
Three targets.
And beneath Matteo's photograph was a date.
Tomorrow.
Evelyn stared at it.
“What happens tomorrow?”
Lorenzo answered slowly.
“The Moretti Foundation gala.”
Hundreds of guests would attend.
Politicians.
Executives.
Judges.
Businessmen.
Every powerful person connected to Lorenzo would be in one room.
Then Lorenzo noticed writing on the back of Matteo's photograph.
MIDNIGHT ENDS THE MORETTI NAME.
May you like
The kidnapping had never been the final attack.
It had only been the beginning.
