Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Dante stared at the photograph until the face on his phone began to blur.
Eleven years.
For eleven years, he had carried the memory of his younger brother's death like a bullet lodged beneath his ribs. He had paid for the funeral, watched a closed casket disappear into the earth, and personally ordered the warehouse where Luca died to be demolished.
Now a photograph had appeared on his desk, and the dead man was standing outside a restaurant in Milwaukee.
Alive.
Or someone who looked enough like Luca to make Dante question everything he thought he knew.
Elena watched her husband struggle with a past he had never allowed her to touch.
"Why didn't you tell me about the photograph?"
Dante locked his phone.
"Because I didn't know what it meant."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
She looked down at her stomach. Their daughter moved beneath her palm, a small, reassuring reminder that something in her life remained real.
"Three weeks, Dante. You've known for three weeks that your brother might be alive, and you didn't tell your wife."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From what? The truth?"
His jaw tightened.
"From the people who might be watching me."
Elena slowly raised her eyes.
"And you decided I was safer if I knew nothing?"
He had no defense that didn't sound like another excuse.
Before he could answer, a sharp knock came from the hallway.
His head turned.
"Stay here."
Elena almost laughed.
There it was again. Another order disguised as concern.
"No."
Dante looked at her.
"Elena."
"I'm not a child, and this is not your headquarters. If someone is coming into my home, I deserve to know why."
For a moment, something resembling pride crossed his face. Then he looked toward the door.
"Come in."
His chief of security, Marcus Reed, entered with a tablet in one hand and a grave expression.
"Boss, we have a problem."
Dante stood.
"Talk."
"Victoria's car is still in the driveway, but she's not in the house."
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"I told you not to let her leave."
"We didn't let her leave. She went into the east wing twenty minutes ago. Nobody saw her come out."
Marcus placed the tablet on the bed.
The security footage showed Victoria entering a corridor near Dante's private office. Three minutes later, the camera feed went black.
When it returned, the corridor was empty.
Dante's expression hardened.
"Who has access to the system?"
"Four people. Me, you, the night supervisor, and Victoria."
"Why Victoria?"
"She was added to the access list six weeks ago. Your authorization was recorded."
Dante looked at Elena.
She said nothing.
But he saw the question in her eyes.
Had he given Victoria access to their home without remembering it?
Or had someone used his credentials?
"Find her," he ordered.
Marcus nodded and left.
Elena pushed herself to her feet.
Dante reached for her elbow.
She stepped away.
"Don't."
His hand fell.
"Elena, please. We need to discuss this."
"We need to discuss a great many things. But right now, I need to understand why another woman has access to my husband's private office and why nobody thought to tell me."
"She was investigating the photograph."
"With you?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
Dante hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
Elena turned toward the window.
She remembered the evenings Victoria had appeared in the dining room carrying folders. The phone calls Dante took behind closed doors. The way he had once canceled their appointment with the obstetrician because Victoria had supposedly uncovered something urgent.
Elena had believed him.
That was what hurt most.
Not that she had been foolish enough to trust her husband.
That he had made trusting him feel foolish.
"I want you to sleep somewhere else tonight," she said.
Dante went completely still.
"Elena."
"I can't look at you right now without wondering what else you haven't told me."
"I'm not leaving you alone."
"You already have."
The words landed harder than any threat.
Dante looked as if he wanted to argue, but something in her face stopped him.
He nodded once.
Then his phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
One message.
STOP LOOKING FOR LUCA. HE WASN'T THE ONLY MORETTI WHO DIED IN THAT FIRE.
Dante read it twice.
Elena saw the color drain from his face.
"What does it say?"
He handed her the phone.
She read the message and looked up.
"Who else died?"
Dante said nothing.
Because for the first time, he remembered something he had spent eleven years trying to forget.
The warehouse had not been empty when the fire started.
A second vehicle had been parked inside.
A vehicle registered to his father.
And according to the official report, its driver had never been identified.
Then Marcus appeared in the doorway again, breathless.
"We found Victoria."
"Where?"
Marcus looked toward the floor.
"Your office."
Dante's gaze sharpened.
"What's she doing there?"
Marcus swallowed.
"Nothing, boss. That's the problem."
He placed a small plastic evidence bag on the bed.
Inside was a gold wedding band, blackened around the edges.
Dante recognized it immediately.
It had belonged to his father.
And engraved inside it were two words that made Elena's blood run cold.
May you like
FOR LUCA.
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