Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Marco's brother was named Luca Bellini.
Fifteen years earlier, a boat exploded off Key Largo.
Three bodies were recovered.
Luca's wasn't.
He had been declared dead anyway.
"Why would he disappear?" I asked.
Marco stared at the photograph.
"Because he believed Joseph's father killed Mateo Carmona."
Joseph went still.
Marco continued.
"Luca worked security for Carmona. After Carmona disappeared, Luca started asking questions."
"And then the boat exploded," I said.
"Yes."
Joseph looked sick.
"My father?"
"I never knew."
For the first time, the empire Joseph inherited looked less like power and more like a house built over buried bodies.
We found Luca two days later.
Or rather, he found us.
A burner phone arrived at the estate with one saved video.
Luca appeared older than the photograph.
Gray hair.
Hollow cheeks.
Alive.
"If you're watching this, Joseph, then Amanda found the Madeira accounts."
My breath caught.
He knew about me.
"Your father didn't destroy Carmona because Mateo stole from him. Mateo discovered what your father was doing through the ports."
Joseph leaned closer.
"What was he doing?" I whispered.
The video continued.
"Your father used legitimate cargo companies to hide criminal shipments. Mateo wanted out. He collected evidence."
Joseph's expression hardened.
"Where is it?"
As if answering him, Luca said, "The evidence still exists."
Then came the price.
"Give up control of Raldi Maritime, and Amanda Bennett and her child will be left alone."
The video ended.
Joseph immediately said, "Done."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"I'll transfer control."
"No."
He turned.
"Amanda."
"You don't even know whether he'll keep his promise."
"I don't care about the company."
"This isn't only a company."
He frowned.
"Someone has manipulated your family for decades. If you surrender now, we never learn why."
"I care more about you."
The words silenced me.
Joseph stepped closer.
"I can rebuild a company."
His hand rested gently against my stomach.
"I cannot replace either of you."
My eyes burned.
"But giving him what he wants won't guarantee we're safe."
Joseph knew I was right.
We needed leverage.
And unexpectedly, Isabella provided it.
She arrived carrying an old ledger.
"I should have burned this twenty years ago," she said.
Joseph opened it.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Carmona's handwriting.
Isabella sat opposite me.
"Mateo gave this to me shortly before he disappeared."
"You knew?" Joseph asked.
"I knew your father was involved in something illegal. I didn't know the extent."
"Why hide it?"
"Because your father threatened to take you."
Joseph looked away.
Isabella's voice broke.
"I spent my life believing silence protected my son."
I understood then why she had hidden my letter.
It didn't excuse her.
But fear had taught her the same poisonous lesson twice.
Control the information.
Control the danger.
And both times, it hurt the person she loved.
I looked through the ledger.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Not Carmona.
Not Raldi.
Cooper Development.
My heart stopped.
"Ryan."
Joseph took the ledger.
The entries were twenty years old.
Ryan would have been a child.
"His father," Joseph said.
Thomas Cooper.
Ryan's father had supposedly died from a heart attack five years earlier.
Except by now, I had developed a healthy distrust of dead men.
Ryan answered on the second ring.
"My father?"
"Did he know Joseph's father?"
"No."
"Think."
Silence.
Then Ryan said, "There was a man who used to visit when I was a kid."
"What man?"
"I don't know. My dad called him Matt."
Mateo.
The pieces shifted.
Thomas Cooper had helped Carmona move money.
Luca had protected Carmona.
And someone had spent years hiding both relationships.
Then Marco found something else.
A property deed.
A house in Homestead purchased through Carmona Maritime.
Joseph's men watched it for twenty-four hours.
Luca appeared the following morning.
Joseph wanted to go.
I refused to stay behind.
"You are twenty-two weeks pregnant."
"Pregnancy isn't incarceration."
"The person there threatened you."
"And I'm the person who found his accounts."
Eventually, we compromised.
I stayed in the armored SUV with Marco while Joseph entered the property with security.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
No call.
Marco touched his earpiece.
"Boss?"
Static.
He reached for the door.
A gunshot cracked from inside the house.
My blood froze.
"Joseph!"
Marco ordered me to stay.
Then he ran.
Another shot.
I ignored him.
I climbed from the SUV.
I made it six steps before a hand covered my mouth.
Someone pulled me backward.
I fought.
A voice whispered against my ear.
"Stop."
I froze.
Luca.
He pulled me behind a second vehicle.
"I'm not going to hurt you."
"Where's Joseph?"
"Alive."
"You threatened my baby."
"No."
He looked genuinely shocked.
"I sent the video because someone is using my identity."
My heart hammered.
"What?"
"I've been trying to expose them."
Another shot echoed.
Luca handed me a phone.
"Look."
On the screen was live security footage.
Joseph stood inside the house.
Beside him was Marco.
Both were facing a third man.
A man I recognized.
Daniel Raldi.
He held the gun.
And beside him stood someone who should have been dead for five years.
Ryan's father.
May you like
Thomas Cooper smiled directly into the security camera.
Then he raised his weapon toward Joseph.
