Chapter 3 - The Lie Beneath the Moretti Name
Norah could not speak.
Eleanor crossed the distance between them.
Norah remained frozen until her mother touched her face.
Warm.
Real.
Then nine years of grief broke open.
Norah grabbed her.
Eleanor held her tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
Norah shoved her away.
“You’re sorry?”
“I had to disappear.”
“You let me bury you!”
“I know.”
“You let me think I had nobody!”
Eleanor cried silently.
“If they knew I survived, they would have used you to find me.”
“They did anyway.”
“I know.”
Norah looked toward Adrian.
“Tell me about his father.”
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
“Vittorio Moretti ordered Samuel to stop investigating the stolen accounts.”
Adrian shook his head.
“My father wouldn’t—”
“Your father threatened him.”
“That doesn’t mean he killed him.”
“No.”
Eleanor reached inside her coat.
“It doesn’t.”
She handed Norah a recorder.
Samuel’s voice filled the archive.
“If anything happens to me, the person behind Northern Bridge is not Vittorio Moretti.”
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
The recording continued.
“Vittorio is trying to help me. Someone inside his family has been using his companies to move money and test the compound.”
Eleanor looked at Adrian.
“I wanted Norah away from you because I didn’t know whether you were like your father.”
“You just proved my father was innocent.”
“Of Samuel’s murder.”
Adrian stared.
“What else?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with regret.
“He helped cover it up.”
Silence.
Vittorio had protected the Moretti name.
Samuel’s murder had been recorded as natural death.
Evidence disappeared.
Witnesses were paid.
“He promised me he would find the killer,” Eleanor said. “Instead he protected the family.”
“Who killed my father?” Norah asked.
“I never proved it.”
“But you know.”
“I suspect.”
“Who?”
Eleanor looked at Adrian.
“His uncle.”
Carlo Moretti.
Adrian’s father’s younger brother.
Adrian walked away.
Norah saw his hands tighten.
Carlo was Moretti Maritime’s vice chairman.
The smiling philanthropist on hospital billboards.
The man who had practically raised Adrian after his mother died.
“You have evidence?” Adrian asked.
“Not enough.”
“Then why return now?”
“Because Carlo finally found the account.”
Norah understood.
“But he can’t open it.”
“No.”
“Because of me.”
“Yes.”
Leo had been sent to bring her in.
The abuse.
The manipulation.
The return to the café.
All roads led to the same thing.
Her mother’s key.
“How do I open it?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“I never knew.”
“You created it.”
“Your father did.”
“My father died when I was five.”
“Before he died, he created a biometric encryption protocol.”
Adrian looked at Norah.
“Biometric?”
“Not fingerprints,” Eleanor said.
“Then what?”
“A sequence derived from Norah’s childhood medical records and Samuel’s private cipher.”
Norah almost laughed.
“So an entire criminal empire depends on my childhood blood tests?”
“Essentially.”
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“It was designed twenty years ago.”
“That doesn’t make it less stupid.”
Adrian almost smiled.
Then the archive lights went out.
Sofia swore.
Gunfire cracked somewhere above them.
“Move!”
Marco pulled Norah behind shelving.
Adrian grabbed Eleanor.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Sofia spoke into her radio.
No answer.
“They cut communications.”
Adrian looked toward the rear exit.
“Carlo.”
They moved through the archive.
A bullet struck metal.
Norah flinched.
Adrian shielded her with his body.
“Stay behind me.”
“You’re not bulletproof.”
“The vest helps.”
“That wasn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
They reached the service tunnel.
Eleanor stopped.
“The ledger.”
“I have it,” Sofia said.
“No. The second ledger.”
Everyone turned.
“What second ledger?” Adrian asked.
Eleanor pointed toward another locker.
“Everything Vittorio hid.”
Adrian opened it.
Inside was a black notebook.
Before he could read it, footsteps thundered down the stairs.
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel leading to the river.
At a secure Moretti townhouse, Sofia examined the ledger.
Names filled the pages.
Judges.
Executives.
Shipping agents.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Then Adrian found Carlo.
Beside his name was a single notation written by Vittorio.
C.M. SUSPECTED. NEVER CONFRONT ALONE.
Adrian stared at it.
His father had known.
“Why didn’t he stop him?” Norah asked.
“Because family loyalty was my father’s greatest strength.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“And his greatest weakness.”
Adrian closed the ledger.
“It won’t be mine.”
Later, Norah stood alone on the townhouse balcony.
Adrian joined her.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t sleep much.”
“I noticed.”
“You noticed?”
“You came into my café looking exhausted every morning.”
“I thought I hid it.”
“You’re terrible at hiding things.”
“That is becoming increasingly obvious.”
Norah looked at him.
“Did you really come because your mother liked Bell & Steam?”
“At first.”
“And afterward?”
He met her eyes.
“Afterward I came because you were there.”
The honesty unsettled her.
“You watched me.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds creepy when you say it like that.”
“It sounded worse in my head.”
She smiled despite herself.
Then he became serious.
“I never knew who you were, Norah.”
“I believe you.”
“Why?”
“Because when Leo dropped that vial, you looked more surprised than I was.”
He nodded.
She touched the bruise around her wrist.
Adrian saw.
“He did that often?”
“Things like it.”
His jaw tightened.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Look like you want to kill him.”
“I do.”
“I don’t need you to.”
“No?”
“No. I need you to let the police handle Leo.”
“And Carlo?”
Norah looked toward the city.
“Carlo is different.”
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A video.
Leo appeared on-screen.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Someone stood behind him.
Carlo Moretti.
Older than Adrian, silver-haired, impeccably dressed.
“Good evening, Norah.”
Adrian took the phone.
Carlo smiled.
“I imagine Eleanor has told you a beautiful story.”
Eleanor entered the room and went pale.
Carlo continued.
“Unfortunately, your mother has omitted the most interesting part.”
Norah stared.
“What part?”
Carlo leaned closer to the camera.
“Ask her who actually created Northern Bridge.”
Norah slowly looked at Eleanor.
Her mother said nothing.
Carlo smiled.
“Ask her why Samuel Bennett wanted a divorce three weeks before he died.”
“Stop,” Eleanor whispered.
“And then ask her whose signature authorized the first human test.”
Norah’s stomach turned.
Carlo held up a document.
At the bottom was a signature.
Eleanor Bennett.
Norah looked at her mother.
“Tell me it’s fake.”
Eleanor’s silence was unbearable.
“Mom.”
Tears filled Eleanor’s eyes.
“It isn’t.”
Norah stepped backward.
The phone vibrated again.
Carlo sent an address.
Then one final message appeared.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE REST OF YOUR FATHER’S RECORDING.
Norah stared at the screen.
Beneath the message was an audio file.
She pressed play.
Samuel’s voice filled the room.
May you like
“Norah, if you ever hear this, there is one thing you need to know about your mother…”
The recording cut off.
