Chapter 5 - The Enemy at My Table
The answer was my own company.
The research files were hidden inside an old shipping database.
A digital archive nobody had opened in years.
The records revealed something enormous.
Victor had been stealing millions from the family businesses.
But he had also been using shell companies to fund illegal medical research.
Daniel Rourke had handled the legal structure.
My father had discovered it.
Then my father died.
The timing was not accidental.
Elena found the final piece.
A payment made forty-eight hours before my father's death.
A private security contractor.
Paid by Victor.
I stared at the transaction.
“Was my father murdered?”
Elena shook her head.
“We don't know.”
“But we can prove Victor wanted him gone.”
That was enough.
We needed Victor alive.
And talking.
The plan was simple.
We would make Victor believe the research files were still incomplete.
Then we would offer him a deal.
He would come to us.
But Victor surprised us.
He came to my office.
Alone.
At noon.
He walked through the lobby like he still owned the building.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
Silver cane.
He smiled when he saw me.
“You look like your father.”
I stared at him.
“You don't.”
His smile disappeared.
“Family reunion?”
“Where is Daniel?”
“Safe.”
“Alina?”
“Safe.”
“Sophia?”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“You should have left the past alone.”
“She is my daughter.”
“She is evidence.”
I stepped closer.
“She is a child.”
Victor sighed.
“You always were sentimental.”
“And you always were a coward.”
His eyes hardened.
“You don't understand what your father built.”
“I understand exactly what he built.”
“No.”
He tapped his cane against the floor.
“You inherited an empire. You never understood its foundation.”
I waited.
“Your father wasn't protecting Sophia from me.”
“Then who?”
“Everyone.”
Victor looked toward the window.
“Your family made enemies long before you were born.”
“Why hide Sophia?”
“Because she carried something valuable.”
“The cardiac mutation?”
He smiled.
“Finally.”
My stomach tightened.
“You wanted her DNA.”
“I wanted the research.”
“You altered her medical records.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated Alina.”
“Yes.”
“You killed my father?”
His smile faded.
“I didn't kill him.”
“Then who did?”
Victor looked directly at me.
“Your mother.”
The room went silent.
My mother had died three years earlier.
Cancer.
Or so I believed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask her.”
“She is dead.”
“Exactly.”
He turned toward the door.
I grabbed his arm.
He stopped.
“You're not leaving.”
He looked at me.
“You still think this is a war between us.”
“What is it?”
“A family secret.”
Then he left.
I stood frozen.
My mother.
The woman who had raised me.
The woman who had always told me my father was a complicated man.
The woman who had insisted I stop asking questions about his death.
Could she have known?
That night, I found something in my mother's old belongings.
A cassette tape.
Old-fashioned.
Unlabeled.
I played it.
My mother's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, Marco, I failed.”
I sat down.
She continued.
“Your father discovered Victor's research. I helped him hide it. But Victor found out.”
Her voice shook.
“I made a terrible choice.”
The tape clicked.
Then:
“I gave Victor the location of the files.”
I closed my eyes.
“But I didn't know he would kill Alessandro.”
My hands went cold.
Then came the final sentence.
“The man who ordered your father's death wasn't Victor.”
I stared at the recorder.
My mother whispered:
“It was Daniel Rourke.”
The tape ended.
I sat alone in the dark.
Then Alina entered.
She saw my face.
“What happened?”
I told her.
She sat beside me.
For the first time, she looked less afraid.
“Then we know who to find.”
I nodded.
But neither of us noticed the tiny red light outside the window.
May you like
Someone was watching.
And someone had just heard everything.
