Chapter 5 - The Murder Alessandro Was Trying to Prevent

Luca did not believe Belini immediately.

That was wise.

He believed evidence.

So Matteo found it.

A sealed archive.

Buried inside an old insurance server.

Created twelve years ago.

Three weeks before Alessandro’s funeral.

The first file contained Luca’s schedule.

The second contained vehicle routes.

The third contained photographs of his guards.

The fourth was a contingency plan for Luca’s death.

Emma read the first paragraph twice.

Succession procedures.

Emergency voting control.

Temporary authority assigned to Carlo Moretti.

Luca looked at his uncle.

Carlo said nothing.

Belini did.

“Now you understand.”

Luca’s eyes stayed on Carlo.

“My father discovered this?”

“Yes.”

“Who wrote it?”

“We never proved it.”

Carlo laughed softly.

“You proved nothing because there was nothing to prove.”

Matteo placed another page down.

A bank payment.

One hundred thousand dollars.

Recipient: a private security contractor.

Authorized by C. Moretti.

Carlo’s smile disappeared.

Luca looked at him.

“You paid them.”

“For legitimate consulting.”

“Three days before someone cut the brakes on my car?”

Emma looked at Luca.

He had never mentioned that.

Luca did not look back.

Carlo said, “You survived.”

“That is not a defense.”

Belini crossed her arms.

“Alessandro believed Carlo was part of it.”

Carlo snapped, “You were in deeper than I was.”

There it was.

Emma saw Belini go pale.

Luca heard it too.

“In deeper how?”

Neither answered.

Matteo opened the next file.

This one was different.

A voice recording.

Old.

Grainy.

Alessandro.

Luca’s father.

His voice filled the private dining room.

“If Luca hears this, then either I failed or someone finally did what I could not.”

Luca went completely still.

Emma watched him.

Alessandro continued.

“I am not dead. Not yet.”

No one moved.

“I chose disappearance because the people trying to remove my son needed to believe I was no longer interfering.”

Carlo closed his eyes.

Belini stared at the table.

“I trusted two people with the operation. Carlo, because he was my brother. Belini, because she controlled legal access.”

Luca looked between them.

“Both were mistakes.”

Belini flinched.

Carlo did not.

The recording continued.

“One of them betrayed me before Palermo. I did not know which.”

Emma’s breath caught.

So Alessandro had not known.

He had used both.

Watched both.

Tested both.

“And if I disappear again after Prague, assume the betrayal has become permanent.”

Prague.

Emma’s stomach tightened.

The final sentence came slower.

“The woman named Emma Reed has nothing to do with our family. Keep it that way.”

Luca looked at Emma.

Alessandro continued.

“She is the only person I found who could follow the money without already belonging to someone.”

The recording ended.

Silence.

Emma stared at the speaker.

Not family.

Not bait.

Not heir.

A witness.

A clean set of eyes.

Luca looked at her.

“My father trusted you because you were outside us.”

Emma nodded slowly.

“I think so.”

Carlo laughed.

“Your father trusted strangers more than blood.”

Luca turned toward him.

“Tonight, I understand why.”

Carlo’s face hardened.

Belini stepped away from the table.

“You still don’t know which of us betrayed him.”

Luca looked at her.

“No.”

She gave him a broken smile.

“But you want it to be me.”

“That would be convenient.”

“For whom?”

Emma looked down at the old transfer reports.

One name appeared repeatedly beside the Prague reversals.

Not Carlo.

Not Belini.

Viktor Karev.

The financier sitting at the same table.

She looked up.

“Luca.”

He turned.

Emma pointed toward the empty chair Viktor had occupied.

“He isn’t here.”

Matteo spun toward the door.

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Too late.

Viktor was gone.