Chapter 4 - The Call From the Empty House
The telephone had been disconnected for three years. Yet someone was calling it now.
Luca stared at the old cream-colored receiver.
Outside, footsteps crunched across the gravel.
Grace whispered, “That phone doesn't work.”
Luca lifted the receiver.
A woman's voice came through.
“Luca?”
His knees nearly buckled.
“Elena?”
A sob escaped the other end.
“Oh, God. You found it.”
“Elena, where are you?”
“Don't say my name.”
“I'm at the cottage. There are men outside.”
“I know.”
Luca froze.
“How?”
“Because they're following the signal from that phone.”
He looked at the receiver.
Elena spoke quickly.
“Listen carefully. There's a cellar beneath the kitchen. Your father built an emergency exit years ago.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the old boathouse.”
A heavy knock shook the front door.
“Mr. Moretti!” a man shouted. “We know you're inside!”
Luca lowered his voice.
“Is Sofia with you?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
For the first time, he heard a small voice in the background.
“Mommy?”
His daughter.
His little girl.
Elena began crying.
“She's safe, Luca. I promise.”
“Let me hear her.”
“Not now.”
“Please.”
Another knock.
The front door rattled.
Elena whispered, “They'll kill you if you stay.”
“Who are they?”
“Frank's men.”
Luca felt a familiar rage rising.
His uncle.
The man who had carried him into the hospital when he broke his arm at thirteen.
The man who had stood beside him at his father's funeral.
The man who had encouraged him to marry Vanessa.
“Why does Frank want Sofia?”
Elena's answer was barely audible.
“Because of what I found.”
The line clicked.
Dead.
Luca found the cellar entrance beneath a worn kitchen rug.
He helped Grace down the wooden stairs.
Above them, glass shattered.
Someone had broken a window.
Luca closed the cellar door and slid the bolt into place.
The narrow passage smelled of salt and damp stone.
At the far end, a steel door opened toward the shoreline.
They emerged behind the old boathouse.
A fishing boat rocked against the dock.
Grace pointed toward a neighboring property.
“My brother has a truck. He'll help us.”
Luca looked back at the cottage.
A flashlight moved across the upstairs windows.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Caleb.
Boss, wherever you are, don't go home. Frank knows about the bank.
Luca stared at it.
Then typed:
You were in Antonio's study the night Elena disappeared.
The reply came almost immediately.
Yes.
Luca waited.
Another message appeared.
And I've regretted it every day since.
Two hours later, Luca met Caleb at an abandoned service station outside Portland.
Caleb arrived alone.
No weapons visible.
No security detail.
Luca stood beside his car.
“Start talking.”
Caleb looked exhausted.
“Frank recruited me twelve years ago.”
“To betray my family?”
“To keep your father alive.”
Luca gave a bitter laugh.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Antonio owed the Crown money. Not gambling debt. Protection payments from a deal he'd inherited. Frank was supposed to negotiate an end to it.”
“And?”
“Frank became their partner instead.”
Luca stepped closer.
“You knew.”
“I knew pieces.”
“You grabbed Elena in my father's study.”
Caleb lowered his head.
“Yes.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
“You threatened her.”
“I was ordered to recover a ledger.”
Luca's fists tightened.
“You stood there while my wife begged you to leave her alone.”
Caleb looked directly at him.
“I helped her escape that night.”
Luca stopped.
“What?”
“Elena told me she was pregnant.”
The words hit harder than any punch.
“She was pregnant when she disappeared?”
“She'd just found out.”
Luca remembered the final weeks before Elena vanished.
She'd been tired.
Quiet.
She had started avoiding wine at dinner.
He'd assumed she was stressed.
He'd never asked why.
Caleb continued.
“Frank ordered me to bring her to a warehouse. He wanted the ledger. I drove her there, but I couldn't hand her over.”
“So what did you do?”
“I let her go.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Frank showed me photographs of my wife and son.”
Caleb's voice broke.
“He knew their school, their jobs, their addresses. He said they'd die if I told you.”
Luca studied him.
“Where's your family now?”
“Hidden.”
“Do you expect forgiveness?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Caleb nodded.
“I don't deserve it.”
Luca looked toward the highway.
“Tell me what the Crown wants.”
Caleb swallowed.
“The ledger Elena found wasn't just a list of payments. It contained names, shell companies, and government contacts.”
“Frank's network.”
“Part of it.”
“What does Sofia have to do with any of this?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Frank believes Elena transferred the evidence into a trust registered under Sofia's name.”
Luca stared.
“A trust?”
“An encrypted archive. The child is listed as the beneficiary. Frank thinks Elena designed the release mechanism so the records become accessible if anything happens to her.”
Luca felt sick.
“So he wants my daughter as leverage.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa?”
Caleb looked away.
“Vanessa was supposed to keep you distracted.”
“Distracted from what?”
“From Elena.”
Back in New York, Vanessa sat alone in her bedroom.
The engagement ring lay on the dresser.
Her phone rang.
Frank Moretti.
She answered reluctantly.
“Hello?”
“Where's Luca?”
“I don't know.”
“You were supposed to keep him at the mansion.”
“He found the photograph.”
“I know.”
Vanessa began crying.
“Frank, this has gone too far.”
“Don't become sentimental.”
“There's a child.”
Silence.
Then Frank said, “You've known about the child for months.”
“I never agreed to hurt her.”
“You agreed to everything when you took my money.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“I want out.”
Frank's voice turned cold.
“Then give me the recording.”
“What recording?”
“The one Antonio made the night before he died.”
Vanessa froze.
She glanced toward her jewelry box.
Hidden beneath its velvet lining was a tiny silver memory card.
Frank continued.
“I know you have it.”
Vanessa whispered, “If I give it to you, you'll destroy it.”
“That's the idea.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
A pause.
Then Frank said something that drained the color from her face.
“Vanessa, you seem to have forgotten what happened to your sister.”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
“My sister died in a car accident.”
Frank laughed softly.
May you like
“Is that what I told you?”
Continue to Chapter 5: Vanessa discovers the truth about her sister—and the recording Antonio died trying to protect.
