Chapter 5 - Ledger Seven
Luca reached his mother's townhouse in nineteen minutes.
The front door was open.
No guards.
No staff.
“Mom!”
He entered.
Eva followed despite his order to stay outside.
Matteo came behind them.
The living room was empty.
A lamp had been knocked over.
Luca found his mother, Sofia Moretti, in the study.
Alive.
Sitting calmly beside the fireplace.
Luca stopped.
“Mom?”
Sofia looked at the group.
“You brought Marco's daughter.”
Eva stared.
“You know me?”
“I held you when you were a baby.”
Luca's confusion became anger.
“Someone called me from your phone.”
“I know.”
“Who?”
Sofia looked toward the desk.
A woman stepped from behind the curtain.
Late fifties.
Elegant.
Gray-blond hair.
Victor entered and froze.
“Isabella.”
Eva looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Victor whispered, “Marco's sister.”
Eva's mouth opened.
“My aunt died.”
Isabella Conti smiled sadly.
“That was the safest thing people could believe.”
Eva stepped forward.
“You've been alive this whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you come for me?”
“Because anyone close to me died.”
Eva's face twisted.
“So you let me believe I had nobody?”
“I let you live.”
Luca interrupted.
“Ledger Seven.”
Isabella looked at him.
“You are exactly like Antonio.”
“Tonight everyone keeps saying that.”
“Take it as a compliment.”
“I'll take it as an answer when you give me one.”
Isabella removed a ledger from the desk.
Black leather.
Seven embossed on the cover.
Eva whispered, “You had it.”
“For four years.”
“You were at the vault when Antonio died.”
“Yes.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Did you kill my father?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Isabella opened the ledger.
One page had been marked.
A medical company.
Payments.
A physician.
A private bank account.
Luca recognized the doctor's name.
Dr. Elias Warren.
His father's cardiologist.
“Warren poisoned him?”
“Warren changed his medication.”
“On whose orders?”
Isabella turned the page.
The payment authorization contained initials.
C.M.
Carlo Moretti.
Luca laughed bitterly.
“He lied.”
“No,” Isabella said. “Carlo authorized the payment. He didn't know what it was for.”
“That's convenient.”
“Meridian survives because nobody knows the whole operation.”
Sofia finally spoke.
“Antonio did.”
Everyone looked at her.
Luca stared at his mother.
“How much did you know?”
“Enough to know your father was terrified.”
“My father wasn't terrified of anything.”
“He was terrified of losing you.”
That silenced Luca.
Sofia opened a drawer.
Inside was a recording device.
“Antonio left this with me.”
Luca pressed play.
His father's voice filled the room.
“If Luca ever hears this, then I failed to finish what Marco and I started.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Antonio continued.
“Meridian is not a family. It is a system. Killing one person will not destroy it. Expose the money. Expose the records. And whatever happens, do not let my son become what I became trying to fight them.”
The recording stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Eva touched Luca's hand.
He didn't pull away.
Isabella said, “Ledger Seven contains the accounts connecting every senior member.”
“Then we give it to federal investigators,” Eva said.
Victor laughed without humor.
“Some of them are in the ledger.”
Matteo asked, “Then who can we trust?”
Sofia answered.
“One person.”
She named Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Reeves.
Antonio had quietly worked with him before his death.
Luca knew Reeves by reputation.
Clean.
Aggressive.
Almost irritatingly clean.
“Contact him,” Luca said.
Isabella shook her head.
“They're watching communications.”
“Then we make them watch the wrong thing.”
Eva looked at him.
“What are you thinking?”
Luca's gaze settled on the ballroom invitation still in his pocket.
“The gala.”
“You want to go back?”
“I want Meridian to think we never left.”
Victor understood.
“You make yourself visible.”
“Exactly.”
“That's insane.”
Eva smiled faintly.
“It might work.”
Luca looked at her.
“You're not coming.”
“Try stopping me.”
“I can.”
“Then who are you going to dance with?”
For the first time that night, Luca actually smiled.
They created the plan quickly.
Victor would deliver a fake ledger.
Matteo would quietly retrieve his sister.
Isabella would contact Reeves through an old channel Antonio had created.
Luca and Eva would return to the gala.
Visible.
Public.
Impossible to quietly eliminate without witnesses.
When they entered the ballroom again, the orchestra was still playing.
Most guests had no idea anything had happened.
Luca offered Eva his hand.
“Back where we started.”
She took it.
“This time nobody is aiming at you.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
They moved onto the dance floor.
Luca's hand settled around her waist.
Eva looked up.
“You're better at this now.”
“At dancing?”
“At pretending.”
He pulled her closer.
“I'm not pretending.”
Her expression changed.
For several seconds, the conspiracy disappeared.
The chandeliers.
The guests.
The danger.
There was only the strange woman who had walked into his arms and saved his life.
Then Matteo's voice came through Luca's hidden earpiece.
“We have a problem.”
Luca continued dancing.
“What?”
“Victor never reached the meeting point.”
“Find him.”
“I did.”
Luca waited.
Matteo's next words chilled him.
“He's sitting in a car outside.”
“And?”
“He's dead.”
Eva saw Luca's expression.
“What happened?”
Before he could answer, every phone in the ballroom buzzed simultaneously.
Guests began looking at their screens.
A photograph had been sent to all of them.
Luca and Eva dancing.
Underneath:
LUCA MORETTI HAS LEDGER SEVEN.
Panic rippled across the ballroom.
Then the elevators opened.
Six federal agents walked out.
Daniel Reeves was not among them.
The lead agent pointed directly at Luca.
“Luca Moretti, don't move.”
Eva whispered, “Those aren't Reeves's people.”
May you like
The agents reached inside their jackets.
And Luca realized they hadn't come to arrest him.
