Chapter 9 - The Last Person Using Alessandro’s Name

The login lasted eleven seconds.

Then disappeared.

Matteo traced it anyway.

Old Moretti townhouse.

Brooklyn Heights.

A property sealed since Alessandro’s false funeral.

Luca looked at Carlo.

“You knew?”

“No.”

Belini shook her head.

“I thought it was empty.”

Emma believed both of them.

That made the situation worse.

They reached the townhouse before dawn.

No lights.

No guards.

No alarms.

Inside, dust covered everything except one corridor.

Fresh footprints.

The library door was open.

A man sat behind Alessandro’s old desk.

Silver hair.

Thin face.

Mid-sixties.

Luca stopped.

For one impossible second, Emma thought Alessandro had survived again.

Then the man looked up.

Not Alessandro.

But close.

Luca whispered, “Uncle Marco.”

Carlo closed his eyes.

Emma turned.

Another Moretti.

Marco Moretti.

Alessandro’s older cousin.

Officially dead nine years.

Apparently not.

Marco smiled.

“Family has become very theatrical.”

Luca stepped forward.

“You used my father’s credentials.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To stop Carlo.”

Carlo laughed from behind the guards.

“You expect him to believe you?”

Marco looked at Emma.

“He brought the accountant.”

Emma did not like that he knew who she was.

Marco continued.

“Alessandro told me about you.”

Luca’s jaw tightened.

“You saw him after Prague?”

“No.”

“Then when?”

“Before.”

Marco opened a drawer.

Inside was one sealed envelope.

Luca’s name.

Alessandro’s handwriting.

Real.

Emma recognized the same offset marks along the edge.

Luca opened it.

Son,

If Marco gives you this, then Carlo has finally forced the succession plan into motion.

Emma looked at Carlo.

His face had changed.

Alessandro had predicted everything.

The letter continued.

Marco is not clean.

Neither am I.

But he refused the first plan to remove you.

That is why I let the world believe he died too.

Luca looked at Marco.

“You helped my father?”

“Sometimes.”

“Why not contact me?”

“Because your father was right.”

“About what?”

“That you trusted blood too easily.”

Carlo looked away.

Marco placed a drive on the desk.

“Everything is there.”

Vienna.

The full recording.

Giancarlo Vescari.

Carlo.

Viktor.

Alessandro walking into a hotel room.

A hidden camera.

Arguments.

Then Giancarlo giving an order after Alessandro refused to surrender the ledgers.

The recording ended before violence.

But not before Carlo said one sentence.

“If Luca sees him alive, everything fails.”

Luca’s face became stone.

Carlo whispered, “You don’t understand.”

Luca turned.

“I understand enough.”

Marco raised a hand.

“Not yet.”

Everyone looked at him.

“There is one more person.”

Belini went pale.

Emma did not breathe.

Marco continued.

“Giancarlo did not choose Prague randomly.”

He looked at Emma.

“He was looking for you.”

Emma stared.

“Why?”

“Because Alessandro had already decided you would receive the complete ledger if he died.”

Luca looked at her.

Emma felt the floor shift.

Marco nodded.

“You were never just a witness.”

Emma shook her head.

“No.”

“You were the dead-man switch.”

Belini whispered, “That’s why my father tracked her.”

Marco nodded.

“And why he never killed her.”

Emma frowned.

“If I died, what happened?”

“The ledger released automatically.”

Luca understood first.

“So they had to keep her alive.”

“Yes.”

Until they found the cipher.

Until tonight.

Until the napkin exposed everything.

Emma looked at Carlo.

“You were never trying to kill me.”

“No,” Carlo said.

His voice was tired.

“We were trying to make you irrelevant.”

Luca looked at the drive.

Then at Emma.

Then at his uncle.

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The final truth was finally in reach.

And this time nobody left the room.