Chapter 5 - Why Elena Secretly Paid Dante

Rico locked the study door.

Clara heard the click.

Dante heard it too.

Neither man moved.

“How much?” Rico asked.

Dante looked at the screen.

“Forty-eight thousand over nine months.”

“You expect me to believe you didn’t know?”

“I knew Elena paid me.”

Rico’s expression changed.

Clara’s stomach dropped.

Dante continued before Rico could speak.

“She asked me to hire someone.”

“For what?”

“To investigate Gabriel.”

Silence.

Rico stared at him.

“You went behind my back.”

“Elena asked me to.”

“And you agreed?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Dante’s voice hardened.

“Because she was afraid you’d do exactly what you almost did ten minutes ago.”

That landed.

Rico looked away.

Dante unlocked his phone and opened a contact.

“Miriam Cole. Former financial crimes investigator. Private consultant.”

He called.

A woman answered on the second ring.

Dante put the phone on speaker.

“Miriam. It’s me.”

A pause.

“You finally told him.”

Rico leaned toward the phone.

“Told me what?”

Miriam was silent.

Then she sighed.

“Mrs. Moretti hired me seven months ago.”

Clara saw Rico flinch at the title.

“She believed Gabriel Moretti was using charitable freight accounts to cover private financial losses.”

“Losses?”

“Bad investments. Hidden loans. Money he did not want the family board to see.”

“So he stole from Elena’s foundation.”

“Yes.”

“Did she have proof?”

“Not enough at first.”

Rico looked at the memory card.

“She did at the end.”

Miriam was quiet again.

“She was supposed to meet me the Monday after the charity event.”

Elena died Friday night.

Clara felt the room shrink.

“What were you going to give her?” Rico asked.

“A packet connecting Gabriel to a transportation supervisor named Tomas Rivas.”

Dante frowned.

“I remember Rivas.”

“He changed Mrs. Moretti’s vehicle assignment the night she died.”

Rico’s head snapped toward him.

“You said the digital request came from Elena.”

“It did.”

Miriam answered.

“Because someone used her login.”

Rico closed his eyes.

“How do you know it was Rivas?”

“His workstation made the change.”

“Where is he?”

“No one knows.”

Dante stepped closer.

“He disappeared after the funeral.”

Clara felt cold.

Miriam continued.

“Elena was also worried someone inside the family security structure was leaking her schedule.”

Rico looked at Dante.

Dante did not look away.

“Was it me?”

“No.”

The answer came immediately.

Dante exhaled.

“Who?”

“I never identified them.”

Rico’s fist tightened.

“Then identify them now.”

“I’ve been trying for six months.”

The call ended fifteen minutes later.

Rico did not apologize to Dante.

Not immediately.

Men like Rico Moretti probably learned apologies late.

But when Dante reached the door, Rico spoke.

“I should have asked before deciding.”

Dante looked back.

“Yes.”

That was all.

Later, Clara found Rico alone on the rear terrace.

Brooklyn stretched beyond the stone wall.

Traffic.

Sirens.

Apartment windows glowing in the afternoon.

“You almost hurt him,” Clara said.

Rico did not deny it.

“I thought he betrayed Elena.”

“So you stopped thinking.”

He looked at her.

“You are very comfortable criticizing me for someone who met me yesterday.”

“I’m terrified of you.”

That surprised him.

Clara continued.

“I just don’t think being terrified means I should lie.”

For a second, something almost like respect crossed his face.

Then the terrace door opened.

Sofia appeared.

“Leo’s asking for Clara.”

Rico’s expression changed immediately.

Upstairs, Leo was sitting on his bedroom floor beside a wooden train set.

He placed one train on the track.

Then another.

Clara sat nearby.

No questions.

No pressure.

After a while, Leo held up the blue elephant.

“Mommy hide.”

Clara’s throat tightened.

“Yes.”

“Mommy say secret.”

“Did she?”

He nodded.

“Daddy mad.”

Clara looked toward the doorway.

Rico stood there.

Leo saw him.

His small face tightened.

Then he whispered, “Mommy say Daddy mad at bad people.”

Rico looked like someone had struck him.

Clara did not translate.

He had heard.

That evening, Miriam sent an address.

Tomas Rivas had renewed a driver’s license under his middle name in New Jersey three weeks earlier.

Dante and two investigators left immediately.

Rico stayed with Leo.

That choice mattered.

At midnight, Dante called.

They had found Tomas.

Alive.

Terrified.

And willing to talk.

But before Rico could ask a single question, Tomas said something over the phone that turned the room silent.

“I didn’t know they were going to kill Mrs. Moretti.”

Rico gripped the phone.

“Who is they?”

Tomas began crying.

“I only changed the car.”

“Who told you to?”

A long pause.

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Then one name.

“Gabriel.”