Chapter 3 - The Recording Gabriel Left Behind
The wedding guests were dismissed under heavy security.
The flowers remained in place. The musicians packed their instruments in silence. Vanessa's bouquet lay crushed beside the altar.
Luca accompanied his father to a private medical suite, where a doctor confirmed that Antonio was stable but exhausted.
"You must keep him calm," the doctor warned. "His condition is fragile. No unnecessary stress."
Luca nodded.
He had spent three years chasing the truth about Gabriel.
Now the truth was sitting in front of him, wearing an oxygen mask.
Antonio reached for his hand.
"Don't let anger make your decisions."
Luca gave a bitter smile.
"You raised me to be patient. Gabriel raised me to be kind. Look where that got us."
Antonio's eyes filled with pain.
"Your brother's kindness was never his weakness."
"Then why did he die?"
His father looked away.
"Because I made a mistake."
Before Luca could ask what he meant, the doctor returned to check Antonio's oxygen levels.
Luca left reluctantly and met Clara in the corridor.
"Tell me everything you know about the drive."
"Your father found it among Gabriel's belongings after the funeral. He thought it might contain evidence, but he couldn't access the files."
"Why not?"
"Some were encrypted. The others required a password."
"Did Gabriel tell anyone?"
Clara shook her head.
"He told your father he was afraid someone had access to the company's accounts."
Luca inserted the drive into a secure laptop in his private office.
One folder appeared.
Inside were several audio files, a spreadsheet, and a scanned copy of a contract.
The first recording began with Gabriel's voice.
"If you're hearing this, I wasn't able to get the evidence to Luca."
A pause followed.
Then Gabriel continued.
"The Moretti shipping company has been moving money through shell businesses. At first, I thought Uncle Vincent was stealing from us. But the transfers are connected to a series of warehouse fires, missing witnesses, and payments made after people died."
Luca leaned closer.
The recording continued.
"I confronted Vincent. He told me Dad knew everything. I don't believe him, but I need proof."
A door slammed in the background.
Gabriel's voice dropped.
"Someone's here."
The recording ended.
Luca sat motionless.
Clara looked at him.
"What does it mean?"
"It means my brother wasn't killed in a robbery."
He opened the spreadsheet.
Hundreds of payments appeared under coded company names. Many were connected to Sterling Security. Others had gone to an offshore company owned by a trust.
Luca recognized the trust's administrator.
His uncle Vincent.
But one set of payments had a different signature.
A. MORETTI.
His father.
Luca stared at the screen.
"No."
Clara said nothing.
He opened the contract.
It described a secret arrangement involving the transfer of warehouse property, cash payments, and a clause requiring the immediate removal of certain records if a designated person became a liability.
The final page contained two signatures.
Vincent Moretti.
Antonio Moretti.
Luca felt the room tilt.
His father had lied to him.
Maybe not about Gabriel's murder, but about something connected to it.
He called Marco.
"I need you to check every transaction on this drive. Quietly. No one from the company gets access."
"Understood."
"And find out who owns the black SUV in the photograph."
"We're already running the plate."
Luca ended the call and turned to Clara.
"Where's Vanessa?"
"Waiting in the east sitting room."
"Keep her there."
As Clara left, Luca replayed the audio.
Gabriel had mentioned the warehouse fires.
Three years earlier, a fire had destroyed a building that stored shipping records. A night watchman died inside. The company called it an electrical accident.
Luca had signed the settlement papers without reading the details.
He had trusted his uncle to handle everything.
Now he realized the fire had occurred just days before Gabriel's death.
He opened another file.
It was a photograph of a handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, look at the original shipment ledger. Not the copies.
Below it was a location.
The old Moretti warehouse.
The same place his father had mentioned.
Luca stood.
He knew what he had to do.
But before he could leave, his phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice spoke in a low whisper.
"Mr. Moretti, if you want to know who killed your brother, stop looking at your uncle."
Luca froze.
"Who is this?"
The man ignored the question.
May you like
"Your father didn't tell you the worst part."
The line went dead.
