Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Never Died
Luca remembered Adrian as reckless laughter and bloody knuckles.
His younger brother had hated the Moretti world.
At twenty-two, Adrian had announced that he was leaving Chicago.
Vittorio called him weak.
Their father called him ungrateful.
Luca had called him selfish.
Three months later, Adrian was supposedly dead.
For twelve years Luca had carried guilt over their final argument.
Now he wondered whether even his grief had been manufactured.
The DNA test took less than twenty-four hours because Marco used a private laboratory.
The result was conclusive.
Clara was a Moretti.
Adrian's daughter.
She read the report without speaking.
Then she folded it carefully.
“I don't want your money.”
Luca almost smiled.
“I didn't offer it.”
“You were going to.”
“I was going to tell you that you have family.”
Clara looked toward Sofia, asleep on the sofa of Luca's private library.
“I thought Margaret Bennett was my family.”
“She was.”
“Then why lie?”
“Maybe she was protecting you.”
“Everyone keeps calling lies protection.”
Her words hit him.
Elena had lied.
Margaret had lied.
Vittorio had lied.
Perhaps Luca had spent his entire life surrounded by people deciding what truths he could survive.
That night, Marco recovered part of the erased security footage.
It showed Vittorio entering the kitchen corridor at 6:11 that morning.
But another camera showed something stranger.
At 5:58, Vittorio received an envelope from a guard named Thomas Vale.
Thomas had served the family for eleven years.
When Marco tried to locate him, Thomas's room was empty.
Inside his closet they found a burner phone.
One message remained.
If Luca hears the song, Phase Two begins.
Luca read it twice.
“The song was expected.”
Marco nodded.
“Meaning Clara was expected.”
Clara stiffened.
“So somebody knew I would eventually sing it?”
“Or wanted you to.”
Sofia woke behind them.
“Daddy?”
Luca turned.
She was holding her stuffed rabbit.
“Come here.”
She climbed into his lap.
“Is Uncle Vittorio bad?”
Luca looked at Clara.
“Why would you ask that?”
Sofia's small face became serious.
“Because Mommy didn't like him.”
The room froze.
Luca whispered, “What did you say?”
Sofia frowned.
“Mommy didn't like Uncle Vittorio.”
“You were three when your mother died.”
“I know.”
“How do you remember that?”
Sofia shook her head.
“Not old Mommy.”
Luca felt something inside him stop.
“What does that mean?”
Sofia looked confused by his reaction.
“The lady Mommy.”
Clara crouched beside her.
“Sofia, sweetheart, did you see a woman who looked like your mother?”
The girl nodded.
“Where?”
“In the garden.”
Luca stood with Sofia in his arms.
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“How long?”
Sofia counted silently.
“When I was five.”
Two years after Elena's funeral.
Luca struggled to breathe.
“What happened?”
“She stood behind the fence.”
“Did she speak to you?”
Sofia nodded.
“What did she say?”
“She told me not to tell Uncle Vittorio.”
Luca's blood turned cold.
“What else?”
Sofia rested her head against his shoulder.
“She sang our song.”
That explained why Sofia knew the melody.
Luca closed his eyes.
Elena had been close enough to touch her daughter.
Yet she had stayed hidden.
Why?
Then Sofia said, “She gave me something.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“My bunny.”
Luca stared at the stuffed rabbit.
Sofia had carried it everywhere for two years.
He had assumed a housekeeper bought it.
“Give it to me.”
She hesitated.
“Daddy—”
“I won't hurt him.”
Luca carefully examined the toy.
One seam along its back looked different.
Marco brought a small knife.
Sofia protested until Clara held her hand.
Luca opened three stitches.
Something hard was inside.
A flash drive fell onto the table.
Nobody spoke.
Marco connected it to an isolated laptop.
There was one video.
Elena appeared on-screen.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Luca sat down.
“If Sofia found this, then I managed to get close enough.”
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“Luca, I know you think I abandoned you.”
His eyes burned.
“I didn't.”
She explained that Vittorio had arranged the car crash after discovering she had evidence against him. Daniel Russo helped Elena escape but warned her that returning openly would put Sofia in immediate danger.
Vittorio controlled police officers, accountants, judges and men inside Luca's security team.
But Elena had discovered something even worse.
Vittorio wasn't working alone.
Someone closer to Luca was helping him.
Someone Luca trusted completely.
Elena had never learned who.
“So I stayed dead,” she said.
“For you. For Sofia.”
Her voice cracked.
Then she looked off-camera.
A man's voice spoke.
Luca froze.
He knew that voice.
Adrian.
His brother appeared beside Elena.
Older.
Scarred.
But alive.
Clara made a sound between a sob and a gasp.
Adrian looked into the camera.
“Luca, if you're seeing me, I'm sorry.”
Luca touched the screen.
“Adrian…”
His brother continued.
“Vittorio tried to kill me twelve years ago because I discovered he'd been stealing from the family. Margaret helped me disappear. She was pregnant with Clara.”
Clara covered her mouth.
Adrian looked broken.
“I stayed away because Vittorio promised he'd kill my daughter if I returned.”
Then Adrian said something none of them expected.
“Elena and I built a case against him.”
A folder appeared on-screen.
Names.
Transactions.
Photographs.
“Everything is stored in an account that only Sofia can unlock.”
Luca frowned.
“How?”
Elena answered as though anticipating the question.
“The song.”
Clara looked at him.
The melody wasn't sentimental.
It was a code.
But before Elena could explain, the video distorted.
Then another clip began.
Elena was crying.
Blood marked her sleeve.
“Luca, something went wrong.”
She looked behind her.
“They found us.”
The camera shook.
“If Adrian and I don't make it, trust Clara.”
Clara stared at the screen.
“She didn't even know me.”
“She knew who you were,” Luca said.
Elena leaned closer to the camera.
“And Luca…”
She hesitated.
“The traitor isn't Vittorio.”
Luca's brow furrowed.
“He's only the man you can see.”
The video ended.
Silence.
Then Marco's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed instantly.
“What?”
Luca stood.
Marco lowered the phone.
“Someone just breached the north gate.”
“How many?”
“We don't know.”
Gunfire suddenly exploded outside.
Clara grabbed Sofia.
Luca drew his weapon.
The lights went out.
And from somewhere inside the darkened house came a man's voice.
“Luca!”
Luca froze.
He knew that voice.
May you like
He had just heard it on the recording.
“Adrian?”
