Chapter 15 - Shadows in the Penthouse
The penthouse at the top of the Moretti Tower was completely locked down. Extra security personnel lined the corridors, blast shutters were lowered over the floor-to-ceiling windows, and not a single elevator moved without biometric clearance.
It was 4:00 AM.
Luca stood by the marble bar in his study, pouring three fingers of bourbon into a crystal glass with hands that were unnervingly calm. But I knew him well enough now to see the violent storm raging beneath his composed exterior.
"Lorenzo Valenti didn't survive that fire thirty-four years ago," Luca said, his voice flat, dangerously level. "Dominic ran facial recognition on the security feed from the perimeter cameras. That man was his son, Marco Valenti."
Arthur sat on a leather sofa nearby, holding an ice pack to a bruised shoulder he had sustained when Dominic shoved him clear of the gunfire.
"Marco was supposed to have fled to Sicily when the Valenti family fell," Arthur said softly. "He was just a boy then. If he’s back, he didn't just come for money."
"He came with the black rook," Dominic said, walking into the study and placing the obsidian chess piece onto Luca’s desk. "That was the old syndicate code for an internal purge. The Valentis used to leave that piece behind when they marked an entire bloodline for total extermination."
Luca downed his whiskey in one swallow, setting the glass down with a sharp *clack*.
"He took the briefcase from the vault," Luca said, turning to look at Arthur. "What was in that case, Arthur? Tell me everything. No more omissions. My wife was in the line of fire tonight because of secrets buried thirty years ago."
The room fell dead silent. Hearing Luca call me his *wife* with such fierce, undisputed ownership sent a shiver through me, but the gravity of the situation pulled us back immediately.
Arthur lowered his head. "The briefcase didn't belong to the Valentis, Luca. It belonged to your mother."
Luca went rigid.
For the first time since I had met him, I saw genuine shock flash across Luca Moretti's impenetrable face. His mother, Isabella Moretti, had died of a sudden illness when he was seven years old—or so the syndicate history had always claimed.
"What did you say?" Luca whispered, stepping slowly toward my father.
"Isabella didn't die of fever," Arthur confessed, his voice breaking. "She was trying to run away with you, Luca. She realized what Vito was turning into, and she discovered that Vito had entered into a secret alliance with the city's corrupt judiciary to systematically wipe out his rivals and frame innocent families. She gathered bank records, witness statements, and audio recordings. She brought them to me to hide before she could get you out of the country."
"And Vito found out," I whispered, horror knotting in my stomach.
"He found out she had taken the documents," Arthur nodded grimly. "Before she could reach you, her car went off the bridge into Lake Michigan. Vito called it an accident. But he couldn't find the briefcase. He spent years tearing the city apart looking for it. I sealed it inside Pillar Seven because I knew it was the one place he wouldn't dare dynamite without bringing the entire industrial district down."
Luca closed his eyes, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned stark white.
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"Marco Valenti didn't break into that vault to hide," Luca said, his voice dropping into a register that made the hairs on my arms stand up. "He stole my mother’s evidence. He's going to use it to destroy the Moretti empire from the top down."
***
