Chapter 6 - Why Isabel Carter Was Sent Away

The microfilm could not be read with the naked eye.

Dante had an old document scanner brought into the archive.

Nobody returned to the gala.

Outside the golden doors, four hundred guests waited for an engagement announcement that was no longer going to happen.

Inside, Emma watched twenty-five years of lies appear on a screen.

The first pages were financial.

Transfers.

Shell companies.

Judicial payments.

False charitable grants.

Then came letters.

One from Vincent Vescari to Vittorio Moretti.

One from Vittorio to Isabel.

And one from Isabel to Caterina.

Caterina began crying before Dante finished enlarging it.

Emma stood beside her.

“You’ve seen this?”

“No.”

The old woman touched the screen.

“I heard parts of it from Isabel. Never the whole thing.”

Luca read silently.

His face became unreadable.

Emma finally asked, “What does it say?”

He looked at her.

“My grandfather and Vincent’s father used foundation money to buy control of three unions and two judges. Vincent inherited the arrangement.”

“And Vittorio?”

“He found out after he took over.”

Caterina shook her head.

“Isabel found out first.”

The letter confirmed it.

Isabel had been a junior accountant at the foundation.

She traced money that should have built clinics into political accounts and private companies.

She brought the evidence to Vittorio.

He believed her.

Then everything became personal.

Vittorio and Isabel had been secretly involved for months.

When she became pregnant, Vincent saw an opportunity.

“He threatened Emma,” Luca said.

Caterina nodded.

“Not directly. He threatened what would happen if Vittorio acknowledged the child.”

Emma stared at the screen.

The letter used careful language.

If Isabel stayed silent and disappeared from Moretti society, she and the baby would be financially protected.

If Vittorio publicly claimed Emma, copies of forged documents would be released in a way that made Vittorio appear responsible for crimes committed before he controlled the empire.

A manufactured scandal.

Prison.

Asset seizures.

A family war.

Vittorio agreed.

Emma felt sick.

“He chose the empire.”

Caterina looked at her.

“No.”

Emma turned.

“He sent my mother away.”

“He sent her away because Vincent had already ordered someone to follow her.”

“That is still choosing.”

Caterina accepted the accusation.

“Yes.”

The word hurt more because she did not defend him.

Luca stood across the desk.

“My father spent the rest of his life trying to undo it.”

Emma laughed bitterly.

“Quietly.”

“Yes.”

“At a safe distance.”

“Yes.”

Luca did not soften it.

That made her look at him.

He continued.

“He failed you.”

Caterina closed her eyes.

“So did I.”

Emma’s anger shifted.

“You knew where we were?”

“No. Vittorio moved Isabel twice without telling anyone, including me. He said the fewer people who knew, the safer you were.”

“Then how did Vincent keep sending money?”

Dante answered.

“He didn’t.”

Everyone looked at him.

He enlarged the transfer records.

“The account changed twelve years ago. After that, the payments came through a Moretti legal trust.”

Luca’s gaze sharpened.

“Which attorney?”

Dante read the name.

“Gabriel Rinaldi.”

Caterina went pale.

Emma noticed.

“Who is he?”

“Vittorio’s personal attorney,” Luca said.

“Still alive?”

“Yes.”

“Still working for your family?”

A pause.

“Yes.”

Dante was already calling.

No answer.

Again.

Nothing.

Luca looked toward the guards.

“Find him.”

Belini had been silent for several minutes.

Now she spoke.

“My father hated Rinaldi.”

Luca turned.

“Why?”

“He said Rinaldi kept one copy of everything.”

Emma looked at the microfilm.

“Including this?”

“No. Something else.”

Belini hesitated.

“Isabel’s accident report.”

Emma froze.

“What accident?”

Belini immediately realized her mistake.

Caterina stood.

“What accident?”

Belini looked toward the door.

Dante stepped in front of it.

Luca did not move.

“Answer.”

Belini’s voice dropped.

“Eleven years ago. The night Isabel died.”

Emma heard the blood in her ears.

“My mother died after collapsing at home.”

“That is what you were told.”

Emma stared.

Belini continued reluctantly.

“There was a car involved.”

“No.”

“I saw the report in my father’s study years later.”

Emma shook her head.

“No.”

Caterina moved toward her.

Emma stepped away.

“Don’t.”

Nobody touched her.

Luca’s voice became quiet.

“What did the report say?”

Belini swallowed.

“Hit-and-run. Two blocks from Isabel’s apartment.”

Emma closed her eyes.

Her mother had come home that night bruised and exhausted.

She had told fourteen-year-old Emma she had fallen.

Three days later, she died in the hospital from what Emma had been told was an internal complication.

Emma opened her eyes.

“Who hit her?”

Belini’s face emptied.

“I don’t know.”

Dante’s phone vibrated.

He read the message.

Then looked at Luca.

“We found Rinaldi’s car.”

“Where?”

“Airport parking.”

Emma felt cold.

Dante continued.

“He left the country six hours ago.”

Luca’s expression hardened.

“Destination?”

Dante looked at Belini.

“Palermo.”

Caterina whispered, “The original Moretti archive.”

Emma understood.

Rinaldi was not running from them.

He was running toward something.

Luca looked at the golden doors.

“Get the jet ready.”

Emma stared at him.

“You’re going to Palermo?”

“No.”

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His eyes met hers.

“We are.”