Chapter 6 - The Two Fathers in Switzerland

Daniel was waiting when we returned to Room 814.

He knew something had happened.

Nico placed Sofia’s ledger on the desk.

Daniel stared at it.

“I thought Arthur destroyed that.”

“He tried.”

Nico opened to the last summer entry.

“Why did my mother stop coming to Switzerland?”

Daniel sat down.

For the first time since I met him, he looked older than sixty-two.

“Because Lorenzo came with her.”

Nico remained standing.

“To fight you?”

“No.”

“To threaten you?”

“No.”

Daniel looked at him.

“To ask me to disappear.”

Nico’s face hardened.

“So Arthur was right.”

“Not for the reason he wants you to believe.”

Daniel took a breath.

“Your mother was being followed. Your school driver changed twice in one month. Someone photographed you outside a park.”

Nico’s eyes narrowed.

“Arthur.”

“We believed so.”

“And Lorenzo?”

“Lorenzo knew if Sofia kept meeting me, Arthur would eventually use you.”

Nico looked at Henry.

Henry nodded.

Daniel continued.

“Lorenzo came to Switzerland and offered me money.”

Nico’s mouth tightened.

“I didn’t take it.”

“Then what did you take?”

“His word.”

“What word?”

“That he would raise you without ever making you feel like someone else’s son.”

Nico went quiet.

Daniel’s voice softened.

“He told me something I hated him for.”

“What?”

“He said loving you might mean never letting you know I existed.”

Nico looked toward the window.

Daniel continued.

“I called him a coward.”

“And?”

“He agreed.”

Nico turned.

Daniel gave a sad smile.

“Then he said, ‘But the boy will still be alive to hate me one day.’”

Nobody spoke.

Nico looked down at Sofia’s declaration.

“My father knew everything.”

“Yes.”

“And he still signed this.”

“Yes.”

Nico closed his eyes.

Lorenzo D’Amato had died four years earlier.

There would be no confrontation.

No explanation.

Only paper.

That seemed crueler.

Valeria moved toward the desk.

“Daniel.”

He looked at her.

“My father said Rafael Vale helped you escape.”

Daniel’s expression changed.

“He did.”

“He is my uncle.”

“I know.”

“Is he alive?”

Daniel hesitated.

Nico noticed.

“You know where he is.”

Daniel looked at Valeria.

“I know where he was eight months ago.”

Henry stepped forward.

“You never told me.”

“I promised him I wouldn’t.”

Valeria’s voice shook.

“Where?”

“Montreal.”

She gripped the back of a chair.

“My father said he drowned twenty-two years ago.”

Daniel nodded.

“Arthur needed everyone to believe Rafael was dead.”

“Why?”

“Because Rafael kept records.”

Nico looked at the red ledger.

“What kind?”

“Arthur’s.”

The room went still.

Daniel stood.

“Rafael helped Arthur move money through shell companies in Europe. He arranged meetings. He knew which judges were paid. Which executives were threatened. Which accounts were used.”

Valeria whispered:

“And he kept proof.”

“Yes.”

Nico’s eyes sharpened.

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

Valeria stared at Daniel.

“But you know how to contact him.”

Daniel looked at her.

“I did.”

“Did?”

Daniel reached into his suitcase.

He removed an old prepaid phone.

“The number stopped working three weeks ago.”

Nico took it.

“Last message?”

Daniel hesitated.

Then unlocked the phone.

One message sat on the screen.

IF HENRY RETURNS TO CHICAGO, ARTHUR WILL MOVE THE ARCHIVE.

Nico looked at Henry.

“When was that sent?”

“Twenty-four days ago,” Daniel said.

Henry frowned.

“I returned three days ago.”

Nico looked at Valeria.

“Your father knew.”

She nodded slowly.

“He always knows.”

I remembered something.

“Forty-eight hours.”

Everyone looked at me.

Valeria’s face changed.

“My father told me to get Nico out of the city for forty-eight hours.”

Henry understood first.

“He is moving the archive now.”

Nico looked at the phone.

“Where would Arthur move something he has protected for twenty-six years?”

Valeria looked toward the window.

Then suddenly went still.

“My mother’s house.”

Arthur’s wife had died five years earlier.

Her lake house had been empty since.

Nico looked at her.

“Why there?”

“Because my father sold it last month.”

“When does the sale close?”

Valeria checked her phone.

Her fingers shook.

“Tomorrow.”

Nico stared at Daniel.

Daniel stared back.

The meaning was obvious.

Whatever Arthur had hidden there would disappear with the house.

Nico picked up his jacket.

Henry asked:

“What are you doing?”

Nico slipped it on.

“Meeting the dead uncle nobody bothered to bury.”

Valeria frowned.

“What?”

Nico looked at Daniel.

“If Rafael kept records, he would not trust Arthur’s house.”

Daniel slowly nodded.

Nico continued.

“But he might trust the woman Arthur lied to for thirty years.”

Valeria’s face changed.

“My mother.”

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

Nico looked at her.

“Take us to the lake house.”