Chapter 6 - Isabella's Warning
Luca refused a hospital.
Mara called a doctor who arrived at the safe house carrying a leather bag and no curiosity.
The bullet had passed through the muscle above Luca's shoulder blade without hitting bone.
He complained more about the ruined sweater than the wound.
I sat across the room with my father's memory card in my closed fist.
Dante stood near the door.
"Who was the woman Roman mentioned?" I asked.
He did not pretend to misunderstand.
"Not now."
"That answer expires in ten minutes."
Luca laughed from the sofa and immediately winced.
"I like her better without Roman."
"You liked anyone better without Roman," Dante said.
"True."
The doctor finished bandaging Luca and left.
Mara locked the door behind him.
Then she looked at the memory card.
"We should duplicate that before we open anything."
"Offline," Dante said.
"Obviously."
Mara took out an old laptop that had never been connected to a network.
She copied the card twice.
One copy went into a safe.
The second went into a sealed envelope.
Only then did we open the original.
There were nine files.
Seven were encrypted.
One was a scanned photograph.
One was a video.
I clicked the photograph first.
It showed my mother standing beside Isabella Castellano at a summer party.
They were young.
Maybe twenty-five.
They held hands.
Not casually.
Like sisters.
On the back, someone had written in blue ink.
MARIA + BELLA, 1994, BEFORE THE MEN RUINED EVERYTHING.
I stared at Isabella's face.
"She was in my house today."
Luca stopped smiling.
"My mother?"
"Upstairs."
"You are sure?"
"I know what she looks like."
Luca looked at Dante.
"Why would she be there?"
Dante's expression gave nothing away.
"Ask her."
"She has not answered my calls in three days."
I opened the video.
My father appeared on screen.
He sat in his study, older and more tired than I remembered him.
The date was two weeks before the crash.
He looked directly into the camera.
"Evelyn, if you are seeing this, I failed to keep a promise to your mother."
My hands went cold.
No one in the room moved.
"Maria was born into the Castellano family but never belonged to it."
"Her mother, Sofia, left when Maria was a child and raised her under another name."
"Your mother spent her adult life trying to make sure you would never be used as a bridge back into that family."
I swallowed hard.
"I thought I could control the risk."
"I thought Roman could be separated from the worst parts of his father."
"I was wrong."
My father paused and looked away from the camera.
When he looked back, there was anger in his eyes.
"If Roman marries you after I am gone, it will not be because he won your heart."
"It will be because he believes your blood gives him a claim to the Moretti trust and to something older that Isabella has spent thirty years protecting."
Luca muttered,
"What older thing?"
My father continued as if he had heard him.
"There is a ledger, but the ledger is not the greatest danger."
"The greatest danger is proof of ownership."
"The Castellanos built their legitimate companies using money that belonged to Maria's mother."
"Sofia never surrendered her interest."
"Maria inherited it."
"You inherited it from Maria."
I stopped the video.
The room was silent.
"How much?" I asked.
Mara answered carefully.
"Potentially more than the thirty-eight percent in the Moretti trust."
"How much more?"
"If the original instruments survived, enough to challenge the family's ownership of the holding company itself."
Luca stared at me.
"You could own the Castellano empire."
"I do not want it."
He laughed despite the pain.
"That is exactly why my brother will never believe you."
I resumed the video.
My father leaned closer to the camera.
"Do not try to take everything at once."
"Power makes frightened men reckless."
"Roman is dangerous when he is confident."
"He is catastrophic when he is cornered."
"If Dante Vale is with you, ask him about Sofia."
I paused again.
Dante's face changed by less than a fraction.
It was enough.
"You knew her too."
"I knew of her."
"My father said ask you about her."
"Because my father worked for her."
Luca sat straighter.
"Your father?"
"Michael Vale was Sofia's attorney and financial adviser."
Dante's voice was quiet.
"He helped her move assets out of Castellano control."
"And your family became rich."
"Later."
"With her money?"
Dante did not answer immediately.
That delay was another wound.
"Some of the capital that became Vale Shipping came from loans Sofia authorized."
"Loans that were repaid?"
"Most of them."
"Most?"
Mara stepped in.
"Evelyn, this is why we need the ledger."
"No."
I looked directly at Dante.
"This is why I need the truth from the man asking me to trust him."
Dante finally sat across from me.
"My father borrowed from Sofia."
"When she disappeared, no one knew who legally controlled the remaining notes."
"Enzo believed Maria inherited them."
"Roman's father believed they reverted to him."
"My father believed he could continue holding them until a court decided."
"And you?"
"I believe they belong to whoever the documents say they belong to."
"That sounds conveniently legal."
"It is the only answer that does not require me to lie to you."
I hated that too.
The video resumed.
My father said,
"The second ring is proof that Maria was recognized as Sofia's heir."
I looked at the sapphire on the table.
"The ring Roman gave you is a reproduction."
"The original carries Sofia's mark inside the band."
"Do not surrender it to Roman."
"Do not surrender it to Luca."
Luca raised his eyebrows.
"Rude."
"And do not surrender it to Dante until he tells you what happened to Claire Vale."
The room went completely still.
I looked at Dante.
He closed his eyes once.
"Claire was my sister."
Roman's words returned.
Ask Vale what happened to the last woman he tried to save from me.
"What happened to her?"
Dante's voice dropped.
"She died."
"Because of Roman?"
"Because of me."
No one spoke.
"Explain."
"Claire was twenty-six."
"She worked in compliance at one of our banks."
"She discovered transfers linked to Roman and Judge Lane."
Vanessa's last name struck me like a match.
"Lane."
Dante nodded.
"Vanessa's father."
"Claire tried to bring the records to federal investigators."
"I told her to wait because I wanted a larger case."
His jaw tightened.
"Three days later, her car went into the river."
I almost stopped breathing.
Another car accident.
"Like my father."
"Yes."
"You think Roman did both."
"I know Roman benefited from both."
"That is not the same thing."
"No."
His honesty irritated me more than certainty would have.
"Did you have proof?"
"Not enough."
"And Vanessa?"
Dante looked at the screen.
"Vanessa was seventeen when Claire died."
"Her father buried the bank inquiry."
"I have never known whether he did it because Roman paid him or because Roman threatened her."
Luca spoke quietly.
"Both."
We turned toward him.
"How do you know?"
He looked at me.
"Because I delivered the photograph Roman used to threaten Judge Lane."
"What photograph?"
Luca's face had gone gray beneath the pain.
"Vanessa leaving school."
I felt sick.
"You helped him threaten a seventeen-year-old girl."
"I was twenty-five and stupid enough to believe loyalty would make Roman love me like a brother."
"He is your brother."
"That has never been the same thing."
My phone rang.
This time the caller ID said ISABELLA CASTELLANO.
Everyone looked at it.
I answered on speaker.
"Why were you in my house?"
Isabella did not bother with hello.
"Because you opened the room."
"Were you watching us?"
"For thirty-one years."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your mother asked me to protect something and I failed."
Her voice sounded older than it did at family dinners.
"Roman knows the second ring exists now."
"He already knew."
"He knew of it."
"Now he knows where it is."
I looked at the sapphire.
"Why does he want it?"
"Because it proves you can destroy his claim to the company."
"Then help me do it."
Isabella was silent.
"You still think this is about the company."
"My father said it was about ownership."
"Your father did not know the last part."
"Which is?"
Her voice dropped.
"Sofia Castellano did not disappear."
Luca's face went blank.
"Mother?"
Isabella continued.
"She was murdered."
"By whom?"
A pause.
"My father."
Luca closed his eyes.
Roman's grandfather.
My great-grandfather.
Isabella spoke again.
"And Roman found the confession two months ago."
"What confession?"
"The one that names the person who helped him."
I looked at Dante.
"Who?"
Isabella exhaled.
"Enzo Moretti."
May you like
My father.
