Chapter 6 - The Vescari House Called Before Dawn

Vincent Vescari called at five twelve.

Not Belini.

Not a lawyer.

Vincent himself.

Luca put the call on speaker.

Emma sat across from him in the Moretti library.

Isabella beside her.

Dante at the door.

“Luca,” Vincent said.

His voice was warm.

That made Emma dislike him immediately.

“Vincent.”

“I hear tonight became complicated.”

“You hear quickly.”

“I have a daughter in your house.”

“Not anymore.”

A pause.

“Belini came home upset.”

“She should be.”

Vincent sighed.

“Children make mistakes.”

Luca looked at Isabella’s bruised wrist.

“So do fathers.”

The warmth disappeared.

“Careful.”

No one in the room moved.

Luca leaned back.

“Were you careful with Elena Carter?”

Silence.

Emma’s hands tightened.

Vincent spoke again.

“I don’t know that name.”

“Then you won’t mind me sending her ledger to every bank that financed our joint companies.”

Another silence.

Longer.

“What do you want?”

Emma looked at Luca.

There.

The first confession without words.

Luca’s voice remained calm.

“Truth.”

Vincent laughed softly.

“You run ports, Luca. Don’t pretend truth is the currency you care about.”

“It is tonight.”

Isabella closed her eyes.

Vincent continued.

“Your mother signed the original agreement.”

“Under pressure.”

“She accepted the money.”

“She accepted financing. Not theft.”

“Semantics.”

Emma leaned toward the phone.

“What happened to my mother?”

Vincent did not answer.

Luca looked at her.

He did not stop her.

Emma asked again.

“You knew Elena.”

A breath.

Then Vincent said, “You sound like her.”

Isabella began crying silently.

Emma felt something inside her turn to ice.

“So you did know her.”

“She was reckless.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

Luca spoke.

“Wrong answer.”

Vincent’s voice hardened.

“Do not threaten me.”

“I haven’t.”

That was somehow worse.

Dante received a message.

He showed Luca.

Belini had been picked up on traffic cameras entering Vescari Tower forty minutes earlier.

Luca looked at Isabella.

Then at Emma.

“Vincent.”

“What?”

“Tell Belini to stay where she is.”

“Why?”

“Because if she runs again, I stop assuming she wants a lawyer.”

The call ended.

Emma looked at Luca.

“You think she knows what happened to my mother.”

“I think her father does.”

“And Belini?”

Luca was quiet.

“Enough to be afraid.”

Isabella touched Emma’s hand.

This time Emma did not pull away.

“Your mother came to me once,” Isabella whispered.

Emma turned.

“When?”

“Two months before she died.”

“You said you didn’t know where she was.”

“I lied.”

Luca closed his eyes.

“Mama.”

“She begged me not to tell Vittorio.”

“Why?”

“Because she believed someone inside the Moretti organization was giving Vincent information.”

Dante’s face changed.

Luca looked at him.

“Who?”

Isabella shook her head.

“She never gave me a name.”

Emma thought of the ledger.

The security records.

Belini’s archive access.

Someone had helped.

Luca’s expression became colder.

“This isn’t only Vescari.”

Dante nodded.

“No.”

Emma looked toward the dark windows.

For the first time that night, Belini seemed smaller than the problem around her.

The woman in red had been cruel.

But cruelty was not the same thing as control.

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Someone had been protecting the Vescari secret for eleven years.

And that person might still be inside the Moretti house.