Chapter 9 - The Last Moretti Secret
We found Sasha's location through a tracking device hidden in her schoolbag.
The signal led to an abandoned church in the South Side.
Alessandro wanted to send an entire security team.
I refused.
“She's my sister.”
“And you're not walking into a trap without protection.”
“Then give me protection. But I'm going.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
Finally, he nodded.
We arrived shortly after midnight.
The church doors were open.
Candles burned along the aisle.
Sasha sat in the front pew with her hands tied.
A man stood behind her.
He wore a dark coat and held a gun.
His face was unfamiliar.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Alessandro stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
“First, the ledger.”
I held up the blue notebook.
“This is what you want?”
The man smiled.
“Place it on the altar.”
I did.
He moved toward it.
Then Sasha kicked backward, striking his knee.
The gun went off.
Alessandro lunged.
Luca rushed forward from the side entrance.
The man was disarmed and thrown against a wooden pillar.
I ran to Sasha.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“I thought I wasn't going to see you again.”
I hugged her tightly.
“I'm here.”
Alessandro approached the man.
“Who sent you?”
The man spat blood onto the floor.
“Your family.”
“Which member?”
He laughed.
Then he looked directly at me.
“Ask your sister what she found in the notebook.”
I turned.
Sasha's face had changed.
“What?”
She looked down.
“I found something before they took me.”
“What did you find?”
She reached into her pocket and removed a tiny folded paper.
It contained a list of names.
At the bottom was one name I recognized.
ELENA BENNETT.
But beside it was a second entry.
STATUS: ALIVE.
My world stopped.
“No.”
Sasha handed me the paper.
“There's a date.”
The date was yesterday.
I looked at Alessandro.
“My mother is alive?”
He didn't answer.
Luca examined the paper.
“Someone has been using an encrypted account to transfer money to an address in Chicago.”
“Where?”
He showed us the location.
A private residence near Lincoln Park.
We went there immediately.
The house was modest, with a small garden and warm lights behind the curtains.
I approached the door.
My hand trembled as I knocked.
Once.
Twice.
A woman's voice answered.
“Who is it?”
I couldn't speak.
Alessandro stepped beside me.
“It's Alessandro.”
Silence.
Then the locks turned.
The door opened.
A woman stood before us.
Her hair was darker than in my memories, with silver strands at her temples.
But I knew her face.
I had seen it in every photograph.
“Mom?”
Her eyes filled.
“Nerissa.”
I fell into her arms.
For several minutes, I couldn't stop crying.
I had spent three years believing I would never hear her voice again.
She held my face.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“Why did you let us believe you were dead?”
Her expression collapsed.
“Because I thought you were safer without me.”
Sasha joined us.
“Mom?”
Elena pulled her close.
“My babies.”
Alessandro remained near the doorway.
Elena finally looked at him.
“You found them.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
He nodded.
“I know enough.”
I looked between them.
“What? What do you know?”
Elena took us inside.
She explained that eighteen years earlier, Isabella had given birth to a daughter who was supposed to inherit the Moretti fortune. But Marco had discovered that Vittorio intended to make the child his sole legal heir.
He arranged a switch.
The real heiress was taken from the hospital.
The second baby was left in her place.
Elena discovered the deception and rescued the child.
That child was me.
But the story didn't end there.
Marco had also arranged for Isabella to believe her daughter was dead.
Vivienne grew up believing she was the rightful heir, while I was hidden under another identity.
“And Sasha?” I asked.
Elena looked at her.
“Sasha is my biological daughter. Her father was someone outside the Moretti family.”
I felt relieved.
But then Elena continued.
“However, she has something Marco needs.”
She opened a drawer and removed a small black flash drive.
“Your mother,” she said, looking at me, “was never the keeper of the ledger.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Sasha was.”
I turned toward my sister.
Sasha looked as shocked as I felt.
Elena placed the flash drive in her hand.
“Your father left it with me before he died. It contains the original recordings that can destroy the entire Moretti organization.”
I stared at her.
“Who was Sasha's father?”
Elena looked toward Alessandro.
Before she could answer, the lights went out.
A crash came from the front of the house.
Then a familiar voice echoed through the darkness.
“Hello, family.”
May you like
Vivienne.
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