Chapter 9 - THE RECORDING OF THE DEAD
Matteo forced Lorenzo to hand over the memory card.
Then he ordered his men to take Nora and Clara to separate vehicles.
Lorenzo fought back, but a blow to the head sent him crashing to the floor.
When he regained consciousness, he was alone in the basement.
The memory card was gone.
So was Nora.
Marcus lay nearby, pale but conscious.
“Boss,” he whispered, “I got a signal from Nora's pendant.”
Lorenzo looked up.
“Her pendant?”
“She gave me a second tracking device weeks ago. It's hidden in the clasp.”
For the first time that night, Lorenzo smiled.
They followed the signal to an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse outside the city.
Inside, Matteo had assembled a small medical team and connected Nora to monitoring equipment.
She was conscious, furious, and terrified.
“Get away from me!” she shouted as a doctor approached.
Matteo raised a hand.
“Relax. Nobody intends to hurt the baby.”
“You kidnapped me!”
“Your family has been hiding the truth for twenty-six years. I simply intend to uncover it.”
Clara stood behind him, guarded by two armed men.
“You told me Nora was dead,” she said.
Matteo turned.
“I told you what you needed to believe.”
“You used me.”
“I raised you.”
“You imprisoned me!”
Matteo slapped her.
Clara staggered, then looked directly at Nora.
“Don't give him anything.”
Matteo drew his gun.
“Enough.”
A loudspeaker crackled overhead.
Lorenzo's voice filled the warehouse.
“Matteo. Let them go.”
The older man laughed.
“You came alone?”
“Of course.”
Matteo motioned for a guard to check the entrances.
The guard returned seconds later, confused.
“No one else is here.”
Matteo's smile widened.
He didn't realize Marcus had already sent the recording from the basement to the authorities, along with the medical files and the evidence of Matteo's attempted murder.
But Lorenzo had come for more than an arrest.
He wanted answers.
“Tell me who killed my mother,” he demanded.
Matteo's expression changed.
“Your father.”
Nora stared at him.
“That isn't true.”
“Your father discovered that your mother had planned to expose our operations. He confronted her. They argued. She fell down the stairs.”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“My father never mentioned an argument.”
“Because I helped him cover it up.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“Giovanni was afraid you'd grow up hating him. So he blamed an accident and sent me away with the evidence.”
He reached into his jacket and produced a small recorder.
“Your mother left this behind.”
He pressed PLAY.
A woman's voice filled the warehouse.
“If anything happens to me, Giovanni must tell Lorenzo the truth. Matteo has been selling information to our enemies. He knows about the girls. He knows about the baby.”
A second voice followed.
Giovanni's.
“I'll protect them. I promise.”
Then a third voice spoke.
Vanessa's mother.
“It's too late. The child has already been moved.”
Lorenzo's face went white.
The recording ended with a final sentence from his mother.
“Giovanni, if you ever hear this, remember: the person who ordered my death is not Matteo.”
Matteo's smile disappeared.
Someone had opened the warehouse's rear door.
Vanessa stood there with two federal agents.
“It's over,” she said.
Matteo raised his weapon toward Nora.
Lorenzo lunged.
A gunshot thundered through the warehouse.
When the smoke cleared, Matteo lay on the floor.
But Nora was screaming.
Blood stained the front of her dress.
Lorenzo dropped beside her.
“Stay with me. Nora, look at me!”
She gripped his hand.
“The baby…”
Then her eyes closed.
May you like
And the monitor beside her began to sound an alarm.
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