Chapter 4 - The Missing Three Million
Marcus caught the door before it opened.
Roman pulled Sadi behind him.
The man outside lifted both hands.
“No weapon.”
“Then why reach into your coat?” Roman asked.
“For this.”
He produced a flash drive.
Sadi recognized him as Dr. Elias Ward, the private physician who had been summoned after Mateo's supposed death.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Sadi wanted to hit him.
Instead she stepped aside.
“Come in.”
Elias explained that Mateo had survived the attack.
Arturo knew Sadi was secretly copying records.
Mateo had been used to force her obedience.
When an assassination attempt failed, Elias helped Mateo disappear.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know anymore.”
Sadi's anger erupted.
“You came here to tell me you lost him?”
“I came because he contacted me yesterday.”
Silence.
Elias handed her the drive.
“He said you'd know what to do.”
Sadi inserted it into an offline laptop.
One file.
A spreadsheet.
Roman stood behind her.
Three million dollars.
The exact amount moving through Monza.
Sadi traced the transaction chain.
Her stomach tightened.
The money wasn't leaving Roman's dealership.
It was entering it.
Someone was building a financial trail designed to make Roman appear responsible.
“This isn't laundering,” she whispered.
Roman leaned closer.
“What is it?”
“A frame.”
The transactions ended at a holding company.
Sadi knew it.
“Vega Meridian.”
Roman's face hardened.
“Arturo.”
“Maybe.”
She opened metadata.
The file had been created three months earlier.
By M.MORALES.
Sadi stared.
Roman saw it.
“Mateo?”
“Yes.”
Her brother had built the ledger.
But why?
Another file appeared after she entered the password Mateo used as a child.
A video.
Mateo appeared on screen.
Older.
Alive.
“Sadi, if you're watching this, don't trust the obvious enemy.”
The recording flickered.
“Arturo isn't running this.”
Roman and Sadi exchanged a look.
Mateo continued.
“The person running it knows Roman Costa personally.”
Roman went still.
“They know his businesses, his accounts, his family.”
A noise sounded behind Mateo in the video.
He looked over his shoulder.
Then rushed his final words.
“The three million isn't the theft. It's the invitation.”
The recording ended.
Sadi replayed it.
Nothing.
Roman stared at the black screen.
“Invitation to what?”
Sadi opened the spreadsheet again.
At the bottom was one hidden cell.
She revealed it.
A date.
Tomorrow.
11:00 p.m.
And a location.
Costa Shipping Warehouse 17.
Roman swore.
“That building has been closed for six years.”
“Since Luca?”
He nodded.
Sadi understood.
Someone wanted Roman there.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Roman looked at her.
Sadi answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then Mateo whispered:
“Sadi?”
Her knees weakened.
“Mateo?”
Roman straightened.
“Sadi, listen carefully.”
She pressed the phone tighter.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“You're alive.”
“I'm sorry.”
She started crying.
Five years of grief broke open.
“I'm sorry,” Mateo repeated.
“Come home.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
A pause.
Then:
“Because the person standing beside you is why I disappeared.”
Sadi slowly looked at Roman.
Roman's expression changed.
Mateo whispered one final sentence.
“Ask Roman what really happened at Warehouse 17.”
The call ended.
Roman didn't move.
Sadi lowered the phone.
“What happened there?”
Roman looked toward Marcus.
Marcus looked away.
That was enough.
Sadi stepped backward.
“You knew.”
Roman's voice was quiet.
“Not what you think.”
“Then tell me.”
Before he could answer, Elias suddenly collapsed.
A dart protruded from his neck.
Marcus spun toward the window.
The glass shattered.
Roman dragged Sadi down.
Outside, tires screamed.
Marcus rushed to Elias.
Sadi's phone vibrated.
A new message.
WAREHOUSE 17. TOMORROW. COME WITHOUT ROMAN.
A second line appeared.
May you like
OR THIS TIME YOUR BROTHER REALLY DIES.
Then the bedroom closet door slowly opened behind her.
