Chapter 9 - The Man Inside Serena's Company
His name was Victor Moretti.
Serena knew it only from family photographs.
Dominic’s older brother.
Officially dead at twenty-nine after a boating accident.
No body had been recovered.
Apparently, death had become a flexible concept in Serena’s family.
Victor looked directly into Grant’s office camera.
Then he waved.
The feed vanished.
Dominic stood motionless.
Samuel closed the laptop.
“We leave now.”
“No,” Serena said.
Dominic turned.
“Serena.”
“No more running.”
“Victor is dangerous.”
“So was ignorance.”
Grant watched her.
The woman he had called timid was standing in a room filled with men who had spent their lives around power, and she was the only person who seemed unwilling to retreat.
Grant finally understood something.
Serena had never lacked strength.
She simply had not needed to perform it.
Samuel reopened Model 44.
“Victor must have built the network with Margaret.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“My brother hated the legitimate businesses.”
“Why?”
“He thought our father was destroying the family by moving away from crime.”
Grant glanced at Serena.
Dominic noticed.
“Rumors about my family have existed for decades. Some are false. Some refer to an era I spent most of my adult life trying to end.”
Serena said, “Victor didn’t want it ended.”
“No.”
Samuel traced transactions.
“Margaret gave him the financial infrastructure. He gave her access to Moretti companies.”
“And my mother?” Serena asked.
Dominic looked down.
“Isabella discovered them.”
“Did Victor kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
Serena’s eyes hardened.
“We find proof.”
At Holloway Financial, Margaret and Victor entered the archive.
Victor was sixty-nine now.
Tall.
Silver-haired like Dominic.
But his smile had none of Dominic’s restraint.
“You were right about the boy,” he told Margaret.
“Grant?”
“Easy to control.”
Margaret opened the safe behind Grant’s shelves.
“He wanted applause.”
“Most men do.”
“And Serena?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“She wanted freedom.”
“That made her harder.”
“It made her dangerous.”
Margaret removed a hard drive.
“Once this is gone, Model 44 cannot establish chain of custody.”
Victor nodded.
Then an alarm sounded.
The elevator opened.
Serena walked out.
Grant stood beside her.
Dominic and Samuel followed with federal investigators Nathan had contacted hours earlier.
Margaret stared.
Victor laughed.
“My niece.”
Serena stopped ten feet away.
“You know me?”
“I’ve watched you your entire life.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Stay away from her.”
Victor smiled.
“Still pretending to be the good brother?”
Dominic did not respond.
Serena looked at Margaret.
“Did you kill my mother?”
Grant held his breath.
Margaret’s expression did not change.
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
“No.”
Victor’s smile faded.
Serena watched both.
“Then who did?”
Margaret looked at Dominic.
Serena’s stomach tightened.
“No.”
Dominic said, “Don’t.”
Margaret laughed.
“She deserves to know.”
“Know what?”
Margaret’s eyes returned to Serena.
“Your mother was driving to meet Dominic the night she died.”
“I know.”
“No, sweetheart. You don’t.”
Serena flinched at the word.
Margaret continued.
“She had evidence against Victor. She called Dominic and told him.”
Serena looked at her father.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“She asked him to send protection.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Serena’s voice became quieter.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought she was wrong.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Margaret said, “Dominic believed accusing his brother would start a war.”
Serena stared at him.
“So you left Mom alone.”
“I made the worst decision of my life.”
Victor interrupted.
“How touching.”
Federal agents ordered him to put his hands where they could see them.
Victor slowly raised them.
Margaret did the same.
Grant looked toward the hard drive.
Margaret noticed.
She suddenly threw it.
Victor caught it.
Then he ran.
Agents moved.
A door slammed.
Dominic chased his brother into the emergency stairwell.
Serena followed.
“Dad!”
Victor reached the lower landing.
He held the drive over the open stairwell.
“One step and twenty years of evidence disappears.”
Dominic stopped.
Victor smiled.
“You always chose business over blood.”
“No,” Dominic said. “I chose the wrong blood once.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
Serena stepped closer.
“Give me the drive.”
“Why?”
“Because you want something.”
Victor looked at her.
Clever.
“Finally.”
“What?”
“My inheritance.”
Dominic stiffened.
Victor continued.
“Your grandfather left controlling ownership to the eldest surviving Moretti son.”
Dominic said, “That trust was dissolved.”
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“It was hidden.”
Serena understood.
If Victor was alive, Dominic’s control could be challenged.
All of this had been about money.
Power.
And revenge.
Victor held out the drive.
“Come with me, Serena. I’ll give you everything your father hid.”
She took one step.
Grant whispered her name.
Serena ignored him.
Another step.
Victor smiled.
Then Serena stopped.
“No.”
Victor’s face changed.
“I spent eight years living beside a man who thought money made him important.”
Grant absorbed the blow without protest.
Serena continued.
“I’m not spending another minute learning the same lesson from you.”
Victor’s hand tightened.
The drive slipped.
Grant lunged.
He caught it against the railing.
Agents seized Victor.
For one breath, it seemed over.
Then Serena’s phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
One photograph.
Her mother.
Alive.
Timestamped fourteen minutes earlier.
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Beneath it were six words:
If you want Isabella, come alone...
