Chapter 5 - Dinner With the Enemy
Niccolo Moretti invited Cassie to dinner.
Luca tore the invitation in half.
Cassie taped it back together.
“You're not going.”
“That's adorable.”
“Cassie.”
“He knows we have the ledger. Hiding isn't going to make him forget.”
“He could kill you.”
“He could have killed me already.”
Luca paced across the safe house kitchen.
Cassie watched him.
For a feared man, Luca Moretti was remarkably bad at being told no.
“We need information,” she said.
“We have the ledger.”
“We have initials and numbers. We need context.”
“Nico is decrypting the drive.”
“And until then?”
“We wait.”
“I've spent years waiting for bad things to happen.”
Cassie stood.
“I'm done.”
Luca stared at her.
“You're impossible.”
“So stop following me.”
“No.”
“Then put on a tie.”
He looked down at his black suit.
“I am wearing one.”
“A less murdery one.”
For several seconds, silence.
Then Nico laughed from the hallway.
Luca pointed toward him.
“Get out.”
Dinner took place at Niccolo’s Long Island estate.
Cassie expected a monster.
Instead, an elegant sixty-year-old man greeted her personally.
“Cassandra Moreno.”
“Cassie.”
“Your father called you Cassandra.”
“You knew him?”
“Very well.”
Luca stayed beside her.
Niccolo smiled at his nephew.
“You look like your father when you're angry.”
“Then stop giving me reasons.”
Dinner was almost civilized.
That made it worse.
Niccolo spoke warmly about Miguel.
Called him brilliant.
Loyal.
A friend.
Finally Cassie put down her fork.
“Did you kill him?”
Luca’s hand tightened beneath the table.
Niccolo looked almost sad.
“No.”
“My father's ledger says otherwise.”
“The ledger says I moved money.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Luca went still.
Niccolo continued.
“But your father misunderstood why.”
He explained that twenty years earlier, the Moretti organization had quietly funded medical programs for families who could not pay. Vittorio wanted legitimate businesses.
Niccolo had moved illegal money into those charities.
“Money laundering,” Cassie said.
“Yes.”
“At least you're honest.”
“Honesty is easier when the statute of limitations is complicated.”
Luca showed no amusement.
“What about Samuel Keane?”
Niccolo's expression hardened.
“A parasite.”
“Working for you?”
“Once.”
Cassie leaned forward.
“Who killed my father?”
Niccolo looked directly at Luca.
“Ask Nico.”
The room changed.
Luca stood.
“What did you say?”
Niccolo took a drink.
“Nico’s father, Antonio Bellini, was Vittorio’s security chief. He knew the route that night. He disappeared twelve hours after the crashes.”
Cassie felt sick.
“Nico was eight years old,” Luca said.
“Children grow up.”
“You're trying to turn me against him.”
“I'm telling you to decrypt Miguel’s drive before trusting the son of the man who betrayed your father.”
The ride home was silent.
Nico was waiting.
Luca confronted him immediately.
Nico listened.
Then punched the wall.
“My father was a traitor.”
“You knew?” Cassie asked.
“I knew he disappeared. I didn't know why.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
Nico looked at Luca.
“Your father found him.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“My father told me Antonio fled.”
“He did. Vittorio found him six months later.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was twelve when your family took me in. What was I supposed to say? Thanks for feeding me after your father executed mine?”
Cassie stepped back.
Too many dead fathers.
Too many inherited lies.
Then Nico took out the decrypted flash drive.
“I cracked it an hour ago.”
He connected it to a laptop.
A video appeared.
Miguel Moreno sat before the camera.
Cassie covered her mouth.
Her father looked healthier than she remembered.
“If you're watching this, I probably failed.”
Cassie's eyes filled.
Miguel described the scheme.
Dr. Keane had falsified diagnoses, inflated treatment costs and routed money through shell charities.
But he had not acted alone.
Neither had Niccolo.
“The person controlling the accounts is someone Vittorio trusts completely.”
Miguel leaned toward the camera.
“I don't know the name. Only the account designation.”
He held up a paper.
LM-17.
Cassie looked at Luca.
His initials.
Luca Moretti.
Nico whispered, “Jesus.”
Cassie stood.
Luca looked stunned.
“I was seventeen.”
“Your father died when you were seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“Was there an account in your name?”
“I don't know.”
Niccolo's warning returned to her.
Ask Nico.
Nico stared at the screen.
Then another file opened automatically.
A bank statement.
LM-17.
Deposits totaling $8.4 million.
Authorized by—
Luca Moretti.
Cassie stepped away from him.
“Cassie, I didn't do this.”
“The signature is yours.”
“I was seventeen.”
“Did you sign documents for your father?”
Luca went silent.
Cassie's heart sank.
“You did.”
“Documents he put in front of me. Trusts. Companies. I didn't know.”
“How convenient.”
“Cassie.”
She shook her head.
“Don't.”
The phone rang.
Max’s hospital.
Cassie answered.
A transplant coordinator spoke rapidly.
A compatible kidney had become available.
Cassie began crying before the woman finished.
Max had a chance.
A real chance.
She turned toward Luca instinctively.
For one second all suspicion vanished.
Luca crossed the room.
Cassie threw her arms around him.
He held her.
Tightly.
Carefully.
Then the coordinator said something else.
Cassie pulled away.
“What?”
The woman repeated it.
The donor paperwork had been submitted anonymously months earlier.
Before Max transferred hospitals.
Before Luca met Cassie.
May you like
And attached to the donor file was one requested message.
Tell Cassandra her father kept his promise.
