Chapter 8 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE THE HOUSE
Nobody spoke.
Daniel looked from the photograph to Luca.
“That isn't me.”
I wanted to believe him, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
Same height. Same build. Same dark hair. Even the way the man stood with his hands clasped in front of him looked familiar.
Luca took the phone and enlarged the image.
“Can you identify the man?”
Daniel shook his head.
“The photograph is too grainy. But I can prove where I was when it was taken.”
He placed his phone on the desk and opened his calendar.
At the time displayed on the photograph, Daniel had been attending a meeting with two attorneys at a downtown office. The building's security system had recorded his arrival and departure.
Luca studied the records.
“Then someone wants us to believe you're involved.”
“Or someone knows I have access to the investigation.”
I looked at the photograph again.
The man's face was turned slightly away from the camera. His features were obscured by shadow, but his left hand was visible.
A silver ring circled his little finger.
Daniel didn't wear a ring.
Luca did.
But his ring was on the opposite hand.
“Who in your organization wears a ring like that?” I asked.
Luca glanced down at his own hand.
“My uncle, Vincent.”
Marco went pale.
“Vincent Moretti?”
Luca nodded.
“My father's younger brother.”
I had heard the name before. Vincent had been absent from family events for years, supposedly living overseas after a business dispute. Nobody at the mansion talked about him.
“Why would he help Vanessa?” I asked.
“Because he may believe the ledger contains something that belongs to him.”
Luca called his uncle's former assistant. The woman refused to speak at first, but after Daniel explained that the family was investigating financial fraud, she admitted Vincent had returned to Chicago two weeks earlier.
He'd been staying in a private residence owned by Adrian Bellini.
The conspiracy was no longer just about Vanessa's greed.
It reached into Luca's family.
“Could Vincent have been behind the original fire?” I asked.
Luca's face tightened.
“He was twenty-six then. He was involved in my father's business. If he helped Adrian, it's possible.”
“And the letter says Adrian wanted to eliminate my father.”
“Which means Vincent may know where Samuel is.”
Luca arranged a meeting with the police investigators who had been notified about my father's disappearance. He provided them with the photograph, the threatening message, and the evidence linking the shell companies to the fraudulent transfers.
They agreed to coordinate a rescue operation.
I was instructed to remain with Marco at a secure location while Luca and the officers approached the old restaurant.
I hated it.
But for the first time, I understood that rushing into danger would not make me brave. It would simply give the people holding my father another person to threaten.
At 11:47 p.m., Luca called.
“We've reached the building.”
“Is my father there?”
“We're checking.”
I gripped the phone so tightly my fingers hurt.
Then I heard a shout.
A crash.
A burst of static.
“Luca?”
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Marco stood beside me, his face pale.
“Something's wrong.”
A minute later, Daniel rushed into the room.
“The police found the building empty. There was evidence someone had been there, but Samuel and Vanessa are gone.”
I felt the world collapse.
“Gone where?”
“We don't know.”
Then Daniel placed a second photograph on the table.
It showed the back of a black SUV leaving the property.
The driver was Vincent Moretti.
In the passenger seat sat Adrian Bellini.
Vanessa was in the back.
My father wasn't visible.
Luca returned shortly afterward, furious but controlled.
“They knew we were coming.”
“Someone leaked the operation,” Daniel said.
Luca turned toward him.
“Who knew the location?”
“The police, you, me, Marco, and Emma.”
I stared at him.
“You think one of us told them?”
“I think someone inside the operation compromised it.”
Luca looked at Marco.
“Did you contact anyone?”
“No.”
“Emma?”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Neither did I.”
Luca paced the room once, then stopped.
“We're going to assume every communication channel is compromised until we know otherwise.”
I thought about the photograph.
Vincent's ring.
Adrian's company.
Vanessa's threat.
Then I remembered the letter from Dominic's attorney.
Eleanor Bellini had believed that exposing the arrangement was the only way to stop Adrian.
What if she'd left another copy somewhere?
“What if the ledger isn't the only evidence?” I asked.
Luca looked at me.
“Explain.”
“The letter mentioned an attorney. Maybe he kept copies of the original agreement. Maybe my father knew where they were.”
“Your father may know more than he can tell us,” Luca said.
“Then we need to find him before they move him again.”
At 1:16 a.m., an unknown number sent a message to my phone.
It contained no photograph, only a location and a sentence.
Your father is alive. Come to the place where the fire began.
I looked at Luca.
The address was the old restaurant.
May you like
But this time, the message included a second line.
Bring the woman who speaks Italian.
