Chapter 4 - THE FAMILY THAT NEVER DIEDThe safe house was an old stone property outside Providence.
Lorenzo had purchased it under a false name years earlier and stocked it with enough supplies to shelter twenty people for several weeks.
David locked the gates, activated the surveillance system, and stationed two armed guards outside.
Meline sat on the edge of a leather sofa while Lorenzo studied the medical document.
Isabella.
He had been seventeen when his younger sister was born. She had followed him everywhere, stealing his jackets and hiding beneath his desk whenever their father raised his voice.
When she was twenty-two, a fire destroyed the family's country residence.
Mateo had been inside.
Isabella had supposedly been trapped upstairs.
Only Mateo's remains had been officially identified. The family was told that Isabella's body had been destroyed beyond recognition.
Lorenzo had never accepted the explanation.
But after months of searching, he had found nothing.
"Why would he need Nicholas?" he asked.
Meline stared at the photograph.
"Isabella is sick."
"What kind of sick?"
"I don't know exactly. Mateo said she needed a transplant. He told me Nicholas was the only person who could help her."
Lorenzo stood.
"He wants to use my three-year-old son as a donor?"
"I heard them discussing surgery. They said it had to happen before his fourth birthday."
Lorenzo looked at David.
"Get me the best pediatric transplant specialist in the country."
"Already arranging it."
"And find Isabella."
David nodded.
Meline suddenly stood.
"Don't."
Lorenzo turned.
"What's wrong?"
"You're making decisions without knowing what Mateo has."
"I know enough."
"No, you don't."
She walked toward the fireplace.
For a moment, she seemed to be fighting with herself.
Then she removed the small metal hairpin holding her shortened hair in place.
Inside its hollow center was a tiny memory card.
Lorenzo stared at it.
"What's that?"
"Everything I managed to steal."
She placed it on the table.
"Mateo has been moving money through shell companies. He's been buying hospitals, warehouses, and political favors. He also has recordings of your father."
"My father died eleven years ago."
Meline nodded.
"That's why I don't understand."
David inserted the card into an isolated laptop.
Folders appeared.
Financial records.
Scanned contracts.
Photographs.
Audio files.
One video showed Mateo sitting in a private office, speaking with a man whose face was turned away from the camera.
Lorenzo leaned closer.
The man's voice was unmistakable.
"Once Isabella is healthy, the boy becomes unnecessary."
Lorenzo felt sick.
Mateo continued.
"And once Lorenzo signs the final transfer, the entire Moretti organization belongs to us."
The other man laughed.
"What if your brother refuses?"
Mateo smiled.
"Then we'll show him what happened to his wife."
The recording ended.
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
There was something familiar about the second man's voice.
He replayed it.
Again.
And again.
Then he recognized it.
Richard Croft.
The wealthy businessman hosting the charity gala where Lorenzo had found Meline.
The same man whose estate had become her prison.
"How long have they been working together?" Lorenzo asked.
Meline lowered her eyes.
"Since before your disappearance."
David opened another file.
It contained a list of transfers from Moretti businesses to Croft Holdings.
The payments went back nearly a decade.
Lorenzo's stomach tightened.
Richard Croft hadn't simply helped Mateo hide.
He had been financing him.
Then another file caught his attention.
It was a scanned document bearing his father's signature.
The date was eleven years earlier.
The title read:
SUCCESSION AND GUARDIANSHIP AGREEMENT.
Lorenzo opened it.
The document stated that if both older brothers were declared deceased, Isabella would inherit the family holding company, while a designated guardian would control the assets until she came of age.
The designated guardian was Richard Croft.
Lorenzo looked at Meline.
"Did you know?"
She shook her head.
"No."
He continued reading.
A second signature appeared beneath his father's.
Mateo's.
But the final signature made Lorenzo's blood run cold.
It belonged to his mother.
His mother had died of a stroke two years before Meline disappeared.
He had never questioned the circumstances.
Now he wondered whether he had been wrong about everything.
David closed the laptop.
"Boss, there's someone at the gate."
Lorenzo reached for his weapon.
"Who?"
"She says her name is Isabella Moretti."
Meline stood so quickly that the chair fell behind her.
"That's impossible."
The security monitor displayed a young woman standing in the snow.
She looked pale and exhausted.
Her dark hair was tucked beneath a wool hat.
She raised her face toward the camera.
And Lorenzo recognized the little girl who had once slept beside his bedroom door because she was afraid of thunderstorms.
He ran outside.
"Isabella!"
She began crying.
But she didn't move toward him.
Instead, she raised both hands.
"Don't come closer, Lorenzo."
He stopped.
"You're alive."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I know what Mateo told you about me."
"Where have you been?"
She looked past him toward the house.
May you like
Then she whispered the words that shattered the reunion.
"Ask your wife what she promised him in exchange for keeping Nicholas alive."
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