Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Came Back From the Dead
Vincent Moretti had taught Lorenzo to play chess when he was seven. He had also taught him that every family had a weak piece, and the clever player learned to sacrifice it before the enemy could.
Now Lorenzo understood who Vincent had considered expendable.
Marco traced Vincent's Manhattan clinic to a network of shell companies receiving payments from the family trust. Mrs. Gable had been installed as Giovanni's head housekeeper shortly after the stroke. The neurologist's forged prescriptions, the disabled cameras, and the fraudulent invoices all led back to the same companies.
Lorenzo wanted to storm the clinic. Marco persuaded him to bring the evidence to a federal prosecutor first. An unauthorized raid could destroy the case and place Nora in greater danger.
Nora, meanwhile, received an envelope without a return address. Inside was a photograph of her mother, alive and smiling, beside Giovanni Moretti. On the back, in familiar handwriting, were five words: IF NORA ASKS, TELL HER.
The photograph had been taken the year after Evelyn's supposed death.
Nora called Lorenzo. “You said you were going to tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
“Then tell me why my dead mother is standing next to your father.”
He came to the hospital and showed her everything he had verified. He did not pretend to know what the photograph meant. Nora cried without making a sound. Then she demanded to see Giovanni.
The doctors permitted a brief visit after her condition stabilized. Lorenzo drove her to the estate with a medical escort. Giovanni watched her enter, then saw the photograph in her hand.
“Was she alive?” Nora asked. “After the funeral?”
One blink for yes. Two for no. The doctor had confirmed the system repeatedly.
Giovanni blinked once.
Nora pressed a fist to her mouth. “Did you know where she was?”
One blink.
“Did she abandon me?”
Giovanni's eyes filled. Two blinks.
“Then why didn't she come home?”
The communication board clicked through its letters.
SHE WAS PROTECTING YOU.
Before he could explain, Marco entered with an urgent warning. Brody had been detained after attempting to access Nora's hospital chart with forged identification. He claimed he had been paid to obtain the baby's expected delivery date.
“Paid by whom?” Lorenzo asked.
“Vincent's people.”
Nora looked down at her stomach. “Why does he want my daughter?”
Giovanni began blinking furiously toward the board.
The doctor helped him spell three words.
NOT THE BABY.
May you like
Then two more.
THE TRUST.
