Chapter 6 - The Secret Rose Bennett Took to Her Grave
I wanted to run again.
Lorenzo wouldn't stop me.
That surprised me.
“If you want to leave New York,” he said, “I'll arrange it.”
We stood inside the mansion's security office while six screens showed every gate, corridor, driveway, and garden.
“And if I stay?”
“I protect you.”
“You couldn't protect Sofia.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
Lorenzo's face went still.
“I know.”
No anger.
That made it worse.
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't be.”
He looked at Mia's photograph on the table.
“You're right.”
I lowered my voice.
“Then tell me how I can trust you.”
“You shouldn't.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“Trust what I do, Clara. Not what I promise.”
That answer stayed with me.
I stayed too.
Not because I trusted the Morettis.
Because someone had dragged my dead mother into this nightmare.
Running wouldn't answer why.
The flash drive gave us the first clue.
One folder contained scanned records from 1998.
Adoption documents.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
My mother and Sofia's mother had been born Rose and Elena Caruso.
Twin sisters.
Their father had worked as an accountant for a criminal syndicate that existed long before Lorenzo inherited the Moretti organization.
When he tried to expose financial crimes, he was murdered.
The twins were separated for protection.
Rose entered foster care.
Elena was raised by relatives.
Decades later, they found each other.
But Rose refused to return.
She had me.
She wanted a normal life.
Sofia had apparently inherited the opposite instinct.
She kept digging.
Then we found an audio recording.
My mother's voice.
I knew it immediately.
“Clara, if you ever hear this, forgive me.”
My knees weakened.
Lorenzo pulled out a chair.
I sat.
The recording continued.
“I told you your father left us. That wasn't the whole truth.”
I closed my eyes.
My father had supposedly disappeared before I turned two.
“His name was Daniel Bennett. He worked financial crimes for the FBI.”
I opened my eyes.
Isabella stared at me.
“He found the same network my father died trying to expose. He believed powerful people were laundering money through hospitals and foundations.”
My throat tightened.
“He was killed when you were eighteen months old.”
I covered my mouth.
All my life, I'd believed my father had abandoned us.
He hadn't.
My mother had lied to protect me.
“After Daniel died, I promised I would never investigate again. But years later, my niece Sofia found me.”
Lorenzo looked away.
“She had evidence. Enough to destroy the network. I begged her to stop.”
The recording crackled.
“She didn't.”
My mother's voice broke.
“And now she's dead too.”
Silence filled the room.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“The person Sofia suspected wasn't Victor Moretti.”
Lorenzo leaned closer.
“She believed the network was being protected by someone inside law enforcement.”
A name followed.
“Commissioner Raymond Hale.”
Isabella whispered, “My God.”
I knew the name.
Everyone in New York did.
Raymond Hale was a decorated former federal prosecutor who had become one of the city's most celebrated law-enforcement officials.
He had attended Sofia's funeral.
Lorenzo stood.
“He investigated her crash.”
“Then he controlled the evidence,” Elena said.
“And my crash,” Lorenzo added.
His security chief, Marcus, entered.
“We found Victor.”
“Where?”
“Brooklyn.”
“Bring him.”
“He's already coming.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“Voluntarily?”
Marcus nodded.
“He says Hale is trying to kill him.”
Victor arrived forty minutes later.
His expensive suit was gone.
He wore jeans, a torn shirt, and dried blood on his forehead.
The brothers stared at each other.
Lorenzo spoke first.
“You drugged me.”
Victor swallowed.
“Yes.”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“They threatened my son.”
Lorenzo froze.
Victor had a twelve-year-old son who lived with his ex-wife in Connecticut.
“Hale sent me photographs of Noah at school. He said if I didn't cooperate, my boy would disappear.”
“You could have come to me.”
“I thought you were going to die.”
“So you helped keep me unconscious?”
Victor's voice broke.
“I kept lowering the dosage. Evelyn wanted more. That's why you started responding.”
He looked at me.
“Then the little girl sang.”
Mia.
Victor gave a hollow laugh.
“She ruined everything for them.”
“What about Sofia?” Lorenzo asked.
Victor's face collapsed.
“I didn't kill her.”
“Did you know?”
“No. Not until afterward.”
“Who did?”
Victor looked toward Isabella.
Then at Lorenzo.
“Hale wasn't alone.”
We waited.
Victor swallowed.
“He had someone inside this house.”
“Who?”
Victor's eyes shifted toward the security monitors.
One screen showed Mia playing in the garden with Elena.
Another showed the kitchen.
Another showed the front gate.
Then Victor pointed.
“There.”
The camera showed Marcus, Lorenzo's security chief.
Lorenzo slowly turned.
Marcus had disappeared from the room.
A second later, the alarm screamed.
The garden camera went black.
I ran.
“Mia!”
Lorenzo caught my arm.
“Clara—”
I tore free.
We reached the garden.
Elena lay on the ground.
Alive.
Dazed.
Mia was gone.
May you like
On the stone path lay her yellow hair ribbon.
And beyond the gates, a black SUV disappeared into Manhattan traffic.
