Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Red Dress
Natalie didn't take Isabella's hand.
Luca moved between them.
"Leave."
Isabella smiled.
"You haven't changed."
"You don't know me anymore."
"I know enough."
She revealed the truth before driving away.
Years earlier, Luca's father had arranged a marriage between Luca and Isabella to unite the Moretti and Vescari families.
Luca refused.
The photograph had been taken when Isabella unexpectedly kissed him during a secret meeting.
The meeting itself was real.
Luca had been negotiating with her because Isabella wanted protection from Gabriel.
Natalie was furious he hadn't told her.
"You keep deciding what I need to know."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"That's not the same as trusting me."
She walked away.
For two days, she ignored him.
Then Elena disappeared.
Natalie found her mother's apartment door open.
A grocery bag lay torn across the floor.
Oranges rolled beneath the table.
Her mother's phone remained on the counter.
Beside it was a note.
BRING THE LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
Natalie called Luca.
He arrived in four minutes.
"No police," she said.
"Agreed."
"No army of men."
"No."
"And I'm going."
Luca stared at her.
"Yes."
She blinked.
"You aren't arguing?"
"I've learned."
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
They traced Elena's phone to an abandoned warehouse.
Inside, they found her tied to a chair.
Alive.
Natalie ran forward.
Too late, Luca saw the wire.
"Stop!"
Natalie's foot froze inches from it.
A voice came through speakers.
Gabriel.
"Very good, Luca."
Luca looked upward.
"Show yourself."
"Soon."
Gabriel demanded the ledger.
Luca placed it on the floor.
A masked man emerged.
He collected it.
Then Elena shouted.
"Don't give him the real one!"
The masked man stopped.
Luca smiled.
The ledger was a copy.
Gunfire erupted.
Luca pulled Natalie behind a steel column.
Marco's men stormed through the rear entrance.
Minutes later, Elena was free.
But Gabriel escaped.
Outside, Elena finally confessed something.
David had left her a key.
She had hidden it for twenty years.
"What does it open?" Natalie asked.
Elena looked at Luca.
"A box your mother gave me."
Luca went pale.
"Where?"
Elena whispered:
"In the Moretti house."
Luca's childhood home had been sealed since his father's death.
They drove there before sunrise.
Dust covered everything.
Elena led them upstairs.
Behind a loose panel in Sofia Moretti's bedroom was a steel box.
The old key fit.
Natalie reached for the lid.
Luca stopped her.
"Whatever is inside changes something."
"Then we change with it."
She opened the box.
Inside was a photograph.
A cassette.
And a birth certificate.
Natalie picked it up.
Her eyes found the father's name.
She stopped breathing.
May you like
Because the surname printed there was not Brooks.
It was Moretti.
