Chapter 7 - Room 407

The old clinic smelled like dust.

No patients.

No lights except emergency strips.

Dominic's team entered first.

Room 407 was on the fourth floor.

Locked.

Marco's keycard opened the hallway.

Margaret used another key from her old nursing ring.

The door clicked.

Inside:

Bed.

Cabinet.

Old monitor.

Everything covered in plastic.

Luca stood in the doorway.

"This is where she died."

Margaret nodded.

"Yes."

Vanessa remained behind him.

On the bedside table sat a glass bottle.

Empty.

Label faded.

Margaret covered her mouth.

"That's it."

Luca stared.

Seventeen years.

Still there.

Then a voice came from the corner.

"Leave it."

Everyone turned.

Antonio Bellini stepped from the shadows.

Vanessa froze.

"Dad."

He looked exhausted.

No suit jacket.

No tie.

A man who had spent the entire night losing every secret he kept.

Luca stared.

"You came to destroy it."

Antonio looked at the bottle.

"Yes."

Vanessa stepped forward.

"No."

He looked at her.

"Your mother carried that into this room."

"She didn't know."

"That won't matter to everyone."

Vanessa's face hardened.

"It matters to me."

Antonio whispered:

"I wanted to protect her."

"She's dead."

"I know."

"Then who are you protecting now?"

Antonio had no answer.

Luca looked around.

"Where is Marco?"

Antonio shook his head.

"I don't know."

Dominic said:

"Someone entered fifteen minutes before us."

Antonio looked toward the connected treatment room.

Luca moved.

The door was half open.

Inside:

Marco Moretti.

Alive.

Sixty-nine.

Gray beard.

Thin.

One hand pressed to his side.

Vittorio stood behind him.

Gun in hand.

Vanessa gasped.

Dominic's team raised weapons.

Luca stopped.

"No."

Vittorio smiled.

"Luciano."

Marco looked at his son.

"Luca."

His voice broke.

Luca stared.

His father.

Alive.

Twelve years.

No time for reunion.

Not yet.

Vittorio held the gun lower.

Not aimed directly.

But enough.

Luca looked at him.

"You poisoned my mother."

Vittorio shrugged.

"I paid a doctor to make her miss a meeting."

"She died."

"That was not the plan."

Marco snapped:

"Stop saying that."

Vittorio looked at him.

"You spent twelve years pretending death makes you noble."

Marco went quiet.

Luca heard it.

There was more.

He looked at his father.

"What did you do?"

Marco closed his eyes.

Vittorio smiled.

"Ask him why he didn't come home after I lost the board."

Luca's face changed.

"When?"

"Eight years ago."

Marco said:

"Luca—"

"No."

Luca stared.

"Answer."

Marco looked at him.

"Because I had used company money to fund the investigation."

"How much?"

"Four million."

"Illegal?"

"Yes."

"From where?"

"Employee pension reserves."

Silence.

Luca stepped backward.

Marco continued quickly:

"I returned it."

"Later."

"Yes."

"You stole from employees."

"Yes."

"To expose Vittorio."

"Yes."

Luca laughed bitterly.

"There it is."

Vittorio smiled.

"No one in this family is clean."

Luca looked at him.

"That does not make you less guilty."

The smile disappeared.

Marco said:

"The ledger proves everything."

Vittorio tightened his grip.

"Which is why it burns tonight."

Antonio whispered:

"No."

Everyone looked at him.

He stepped between Vittorio and the old cabinet.

Vanessa stared.

"Dad."

Antonio looked at Luca.

"I spent seventeen years protecting the wrong thing."

Then at his daughter.

"I am done."

Vittorio raised the gun.

Dominic moved.

Fast.

One shot hit the ceiling.

Then Vittorio was on the floor.

Gun kicked away.

No one hit.

No one killed.

Just dust falling from old tiles.

Marco sat down hard.

Luca looked at his father.

Then at the bottle.

Then at Antonio.

"Where is the ledger?"

Marco pointed to the old wall oxygen panel.

Margaret opened it.

Behind the metal cover:

A black book.

Wrapped in plastic.

Elena's handwriting across the front.

SOUTH HARBOR.

Luca took it.

Seventeen years of names.

Payments.

Dates.

Signatures.

Vittorio.

Crane.

Antonio.

Marco.

Others.

Even Salvatore Moretti.

Luca frowned.

"My grandfather."

Marco whispered:

"It started before us."

Luca closed the ledger.

"No."

Everyone looked at him.

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He continued:

"It ends with us."