Chapter 4 - THE NAME SHE STOLE TO STAY ALIVE
“YOUR WIFE WAS DEAD THREE YEARS BEFORE YOU MARRIED HER.”
Dr. Keller's words echoed through Room 214.
Luca Moretti stared at him.
“That's impossible.”
“The woman listed in the Connecticut fire records was named Isabella Moretti.”
“My wife wasn't a Moretti until she married me.”
Keller nodded.
“Exactly.”
Luca felt the room tilt.
He had married Isabella eight years earlier.
The Connecticut fire had happened nine years ago.
Someone had died using the name she would later acquire.
“Are you telling me my wife stole a dead woman's identity?”
“No,” Keller said. “I'm telling you someone used your wife's future married name to create a death record before she ever married you.”
Luca stared.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It wasn't supposed to. Not until someone investigated the dates.”
Keller opened a locked cabinet beneath the desk.
Inside was a thin folder.
He placed it on the table.
“This is a copy of the material Margaret Ellis asked me to preserve.”
Luca opened it.
The first page was a fire investigation report.
A private residence in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Nine years earlier.
Two people officially declared dead.
One was a woman identified as Isabella Moretti.
The other was a man named Daniel Whitcomb.
Luca recognized the second name.
Whitcomb had been an accountant for his father's businesses.
Antonio had once told him Whitcomb moved overseas.
“Who was the woman?” Luca asked.
Keller shook his head.
“We never established that.”
“Then why use Isabella's name?”
“Someone wanted a false death certificate available before your wife ever needed it.”
Luca looked up.
“Needed it for what?”
“To make a living woman disappear without leaving a trace.”
The answer chilled him.
This wasn't a desperate scheme Vanessa had invented three years ago.
Someone had prepared for Isabella's disappearance years before it happened.
Possibly before Luca had even married her.
He pulled out the next document.
A photograph.
A younger Isabella stood beside Daniel Whitcomb outside a small office building.
She looked barely twenty-five.
Luca remembered that year.
He and Isabella had been engaged.
She had told him she worked as a financial auditor for a consulting company.
“Why was she with Whitcomb?”
Keller folded his hands.
“Margaret believed they were investigating the same thing.”
“What thing?”
“An offshore account connected to your father's businesses.”
Luca frowned.
“Antonio had dozens of legitimate international accounts.”
“This one wasn't legitimate.”
Keller pointed toward a handwritten number on the back of the photograph.
“Whitcomb believed money was being moved through a charitable foundation. He thought the transactions were funding an organization called the Meridian Trust.”
Luca knew the name.
The Meridian Trust had financed medical clinics, shelters, and rehabilitation centers.
Vanessa had joined its board shortly before they became engaged.
His stomach tightened.
“Who controlled it?”
“On paper, several independent trustees.”
“And in reality?”
Keller looked at him.
“That's what Whitcomb was trying to discover when his house burned.”
Luca closed the folder.
“I'm taking this.”
Keller nodded.
“Make copies first. Margaret kept duplicates because she was afraid the originals would disappear.”
“Where is Margaret?”
The doctor hesitated.
“She was supposed to meet me yesterday.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She sent me a message saying she couldn't trust anyone at the hospital anymore.”
Luca stepped toward him.
“And you waited until I came here to tell me?”
Keller looked exhausted.
“Mr. Moretti, I made terrible decisions. I'm trying to correct them.”
Luca studied him.
He believed Keller was frightened.
He did not yet believe he was innocent.
“Then start by preserving every record related to Isabella. Give the police access to everything.”
Keller nodded.
Luca left Room 214 carrying the folder.
Outside, his phone rang.
The caller was from the maternity unit where Emily had been taken.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“This is Dr. Rachel Porter. I'm treating Emily Carter.”
Luca stopped walking.
“How is she?”
“She's stable. The baby has a reassuring heartbeat, and we're monitoring her for signs of complications.”
Relief washed through him.
“Thank God.”
“She'll need continued observation. The abdominal pain has improved, but we're being cautious.”
“Whatever she needs, I'll cover it.”
“That's appreciated. She also asked me to tell you something.”
“What?”
“She says the suitcase had a second key.”
Luca frowned.
“I opened it. There wasn't another key.”
“She says it wasn't for the suitcase.”
“Then what was it for?”
“Room 214.”
Luca looked back toward the corridor.
He had already entered that room.
“What did she say about the key?”
“That Margaret gave it to her separately. She hid it in the seam of her uniform because Vanessa tried to search her.”
“Where is it now?”
“Emily still has it.”
Luca was about to ask another question when his phone displayed a second incoming call.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice spoke.
“Hello, big brother.”
Luca stopped breathing.
Matteo.
Six years of grief compressed into three words.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere you can't send your men.”
“Why did you let me bury you?”
A long silence followed.
Then Matteo said:
“Because Dad told me you'd die if you knew I was alive.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Dad lied to both of us.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you with Vanessa?”
“Because she has something I need.”
“What?”
“The original Meridian ledger.”
Luca looked down at the folder in his hand.
“Isabella was investigating Meridian.”
“I know.”
“Did you help her disappear?”
Matteo hesitated.
“Yes.”
Luca leaned against the wall.
The betrayal hurt more than he expected.
“You watched me suffer.”
“I watched you survive.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why didn't you?”
Matteo's voice broke.
“Because the last person I trusted ended up dead.”
Luca swallowed.
“Who?”
“Daniel Whitcomb.”
Luca looked at the photograph.
The accountant.
The fire.
The false death certificate.
It was all connected.
“Where's Isabella now?”
Matteo didn't answer.
“Matteo.”
“She's alive.”
Luca's knees nearly gave way.
“Where?”
“I can't tell you over the phone.”
“Why not?”
“Because Vanessa isn't the person giving the orders.”
Luca stared ahead.
“Who is?”
Matteo's breathing grew uneven.
“Find Margaret Ellis. She knows how to open the second compartment in Room 214.”
“There's another compartment?”
“Yes.”
“What does it contain?”
“Something Dad kept from both of us.”
Luca glanced toward the hospital corridor.
“Matteo, listen to me—”
The line crackled.
A distant voice shouted.
Then Matteo whispered:
“Luca, if I don't make it, tell Isabella I'm sorry.”
A loud crash followed.
The call ended.
Luca immediately called back.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
He called Caleb.
“Find my brother. Now.”
Then he turned and ran toward Room 214.
The door stood open.
Helen was gone.
Keller was gone.
And the desk had been overturned.
On the floor lay a torn piece of paper.
Luca picked it up.
It was a page from an old hospital visitor log.
One entry had been circled in red.
The date was four months earlier.
The visitor's name was unmistakable.
ANTONIO MORETTI.
Luca stared.
May you like
His father had been dead for fourteen months when someone signed that log.
Continue to Chapter 5: Who was using Antonio Moretti's identity—and what had his sons been forbidden to discover?
