Chapter 5 - Blood at the Moretti Estate
Emergency lights washed the corridor red.
Luca moved toward the voice.
Marco caught his arm.
“Could be a trap.”
“Then cover me.”
They entered the main gallery.
A man stood between two columns with his hands raised.
Gray streaked his dark hair.
A scar crossed his jaw.
Luca recognized his brother anyway.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Adrian said, “You got old.”
Luca punched him.
Adrian staggered backward.
Clara gasped.
Luca grabbed his brother by the jacket.
“Twelve years.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe I killed you with the things I said that night.”
Adrian stopped smiling.
“I know.”
Luca hit him again.
Then pulled him into an embrace.
Neither man spoke.
Clara watched with tears running down her cheeks.
Adrian finally saw her.
Everything changed.
“Clara?”
She stepped backward.
He approached slowly.
“You look like Margaret.”
“You knew about me?”
“Every birthday.”
Her face hardened.
“You don't get to say that.”
Adrian stopped.
“I watched from a distance whenever I could.”
“That doesn't make you my father.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“It makes me a coward who wanted you alive.”
Before Clara could answer, another burst of gunfire came from outside.
Adrian turned.
“Vittorio's men?”
Luca asked.
“No.”
“Then whose?”
Adrian looked grim.
“The person behind Vittorio.”
They moved to the reinforced safe room.
Sofia clung to Clara.
Luca demanded answers.
Adrian gave them.
Twenty years earlier, Vittorio had secretly built an empire inside the Moretti organization using family charities, legitimate companies and political donations to launder stolen money.
But someone had financed him.
Someone who understood the Moretti family intimately.
“Who?”
Adrian looked at Marco.
“Before I answer, nobody leaves this room.”
Marco's hand moved subtly toward his weapon.
Luca noticed.
So did Adrian.
Adrian drew first.
“Hands where I can see them, Marco.”
Clara gasped.
Luca stepped between them.
“What are you doing?”
“Ask him where he was the night Elena's car crashed.”
Marco stared at Adrian.
Luca turned.
“Marco?”
“At your side.”
“Before that.”
Silence.
“Marco.”
“I was following your orders.”
“What orders?”
Marco's jaw tightened.
“You told me to keep Elena safe.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“You tracked her.”
“Because someone was threatening her.”
“And gave Vittorio her location.”
Marco lunged.
Adrian fired.
The bullet hit the wall.
Luca tackled Marco before he reached Adrian.
They crashed into a table.
A gun slid across the floor.
Clara kicked it away.
Marco stopped fighting.
“Listen to me.”
Luca pinned him down.
“Did you betray Elena?”
“No.”
“Did you give Vittorio her location?”
“Yes.”
Luca's fist rose.
“But I didn't know what he planned!”
Luca punched him.
Marco spat blood.
“Vittorio told me Elena was planning to disappear with Sofia. He said she was unstable. He showed me medical reports.”
“Fake reports,” Adrian said.
“I know that now!”
Luca backed away.
The betrayal hurt because Marco wasn't merely an employee.
They had grown up together.
“You helped them take my wife.”
“I thought I was protecting your daughter.”
“Then why erase footage today?”
“I didn't.”
Luca stopped.
Marco looked at Adrian.
“Vittorio did. I was trying to recover it.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
A loud explosion shook the safe room.
Sofia screamed.
Clara pulled her close.
The backup monitor activated.
Four armed men had entered the east wing.
But they weren't attacking.
They were retreating.
From someone else.
Then a woman appeared on camera.
Dark hair.
Thin face.
A crescent scar on her neck.
Luca stopped breathing.
“Elena.”
He ran.
“Luca!”
Adrian followed.
They reached the east corridor.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Luca saw her silhouette.
“Elena!”
She turned.
Four years disappeared in one second.
She looked older.
There was a scar above her eyebrow.
But it was her.
Luca approached as though one sudden movement might make her vanish.
“You're alive.”
Elena's lips trembled.
“I'm sorry.”
He wanted to rage.
He wanted to demand why she had let him mourn.
Instead, he touched her face.
Real.
Warm.
Alive.
Then he pulled her against him.
Elena broke.
“I wanted to come home.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because every time I tried, someone knew.”
Luca pulled back.
“Who?”
She looked toward the safe room.
“Where's Sofia?”
“Safe.”
“I need to see her.”
They returned.
Sofia stood frozen when Elena entered.
Children understand impossible things differently from adults.
She simply whispered, “Garden Mommy?”
Elena collapsed to her knees.
“My baby.”
Sofia ran.
Mother and daughter hit the floor together.
Elena buried her face in Sofia's hair.
Luca turned away because watching hurt too much.
Clara was crying.
Even Adrian looked broken.
For one brief moment, the nightmare seemed over.
Then Elena looked at Marco.
Her expression hardened.
“You.”
Marco lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
She stood.
“You weren't the traitor I warned Luca about.”
Marco looked up.
Luca frowned.
“Then who was?”
Elena turned toward Adrian.
Adrian's face changed.
“No.”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“I'm sorry.”
Luca looked between them.
“Elena?”
She whispered:
“The person who financed Vittorio wasn't a Moretti.”
A phone began ringing.
It was Sofia's stuffed rabbit.
Everyone stared.
A second device had been hidden deeper inside it.
Luca answered.
Vittorio's voice came through.
“Welcome home, Elena.”
Luca's hand tightened.
“Where are you?”
Vittorio ignored him.
“Elena knows who started this.”
Luca looked at his wife.
Vittorio laughed.
“Ask her why her father helped me fake her death.”
Elena went pale.
Luca's voice dropped.
“Your father?”
Daniel Russo.
The man who supposedly saved Elena.
The man Luca had trusted like family.
Vittorio delivered the final blow.
“Daniel didn't rescue Elena from me.”
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A pause.
“He rescued me from Elena.”
