Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Luca read the message twice.
His father, Dominic Moretti, had collapsed in his study ten years earlier. The doctors had called it a sudden cardiac event. Luca had been twenty-eight, Gabriel thirty-three, and their mother had been the only person in the house when Dominic took his final breath.
Or so Luca had believed.
He called Thomas.
“Find whoever fired that shot. Seal every road around the estate.”
“Already working on it, boss.”
“And find out who sent me a photograph of my father with Gabriel.”
There was a pause.
“What photograph?”
Luca looked down.
The message had vanished.
The image was gone, leaving only a blank screen.
He tried to capture the number, but it displayed as a string of symbols. Whoever had sent it knew how to erase their tracks.
Behind him, Sophie was helping Eleanor onto a bench.
“Is she hurt?” Luca asked.
“No. She's frightened.”
“I can hear you,” Eleanor muttered.
Despite everything, Luca almost smiled. His mother had never tolerated being discussed as though she were furniture.
He knelt beside her.
“Mom, I need you to tell me everything about last night. Every word Gabriel said.”
Eleanor took a slow breath.
“He came through the door without knocking. He smelled of rain and cedarwood. He stood near the window, where the floor creaks.”
Luca remembered that particular board. Gabriel used to step over it as a boy to avoid waking their father.
“He asked about the letter,” Eleanor continued. “When I told him I didn't have it, he said you were always the obedient son, always desperate to believe whatever Father told you.”
“And you recognized him immediately?”
“His voice. His breathing. The way he tapped his thumb against his ring when he was nervous.”
Luca looked at Sophie.
“Did you hear anything else?”
She nodded reluctantly.
“He said something about a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“I don't know. He said it was hidden where the family kept its dead.”
Luca went still.
The Moretti family mausoleum stood on a wooded hill three miles from the estate. Dominic's coffin rested there, along with the remains of generations of Morettis.
But Gabriel had never been buried there.
His funeral had been held with an empty casket because no body had been recovered.
Luca rose.
“Thomas, bring the car.”
Sophie stepped forward.
“I'm coming with you.”
“No.”
“The letter belongs to your father. The reason your mother trusted me belongs to my family, too.”
“This isn't a sightseeing trip.”
“I know. That's why I'm coming.”
Luca studied her. Beneath her fear, he saw something he recognized: determination sharpened by grief.
“Stay behind me,” he said finally.
They reached the mausoleum shortly before midnight. Thomas brought two trusted guards, and Luca carried the brass key Sophie had used to open the cabinet.
Inside, the air smelled of damp stone and old flowers.
They searched Dominic's memorial first. The marble beneath his name was immaculate, but Sophie noticed a narrow scratch near the base.
“Someone moved this recently.”
Luca crouched and ran his fingers along the stone.
Together, he and Thomas shifted the heavy memorial panel enough to reveal a small compartment.
Inside lay a black ledger, a photograph, and a folded note.
The photograph showed Dominic at his desk, his hand resting on a thick folder. Gabriel stood behind him. Vanessa stood beside the window, wearing a diamond bracelet Luca had given her three years earlier.
The date stamped on the photograph was eleven years ago.
Before Dominic's death.
Before the yacht explosion.
Before Luca met Vanessa.
He opened the ledger.
The first pages contained ordinary financial entries. Then he found a series of transfers to offshore companies, followed by payments to a private security firm.
One entry was dated the night Dominic died.
Another, five years later, was dated the night Gabriel supposedly perished.
Both had been authorized using Luca's own signature.
He stared at the page.
“I never signed these.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“Someone copied your signature.”
“Who had access to my files?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Your office manager. Your accountant. And Vanessa.”
Luca closed the ledger.
The folded note carried Dominic's handwriting.
Luca, if you found this, the betrayal has reached the heart of our family. Gabriel is not the only son whose life is in danger. Trust the woman who carries the key. The key does not open a door. It opens a memory.
Sophie touched the brass key around her neck.
“My mother said something similar.”
“What?”
“She told me that the truth was never kept in a safe. It was kept in the person everyone had forgotten.”
A sound came from the entrance.
Thomas spun around, weapon raised.
“Who's there?”
A man stepped into the moonlight.
He was tall, lean, and dressed in a dark coat. A scar crossed his left cheek. His hair was longer than Luca remembered, but the eyes were unmistakable.
Luca forgot how to breathe.
“Gabriel?”
His brother raised both hands.
“Don't shoot.”
Luca lifted his gun anyway.
“You've got ten seconds to explain why I buried you.”
Gabriel's expression twisted with pain.
“Because I was trying to save your life.”
“By making me mourn you for five years?”
“By making our enemies believe I was dead.”
“Who are our enemies?”
Gabriel looked toward Sophie.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“Your fiancée, Luca. Vanessa isn't the woman who helped me fake my death.”
He swallowed.
“She's the woman who ordered it.”
A gun clicked behind them.
Thomas turned.
One of the guards had his weapon aimed at Luca's back.
“I'm sorry, boss,” the guard said.
May you like
Then the lights went out.
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