Chapter 5 - The Evidence Against Adrian Moretti
The first thing I noticed was Adrian's face.
Not his reaction.
Not his words.
His face.
Because the man who had stood between me and danger every single time suddenly looked like someone who had been exposed.
And that scared me more than anything Luca had said.
The folder sat on the table.
My father's handwriting was on the cover.
Three words burned into my mind.
"Evidence against Adrian Moretti."
I stared at it.
Then I looked at Adrian.
"Tell me this isn't true."
He didn't answer.
That was the worst answer he could have given.
"Adrian."
His eyes met mine.
"I need you to listen to me."
I shook my head.
"No."
My voice cracked.
"I have spent my entire life being told half-truths."
I pointed at the folder.
"My father disappeared."
I pointed toward Luca.
"Your family knew why."
I looked back at Adrian.
"And now I find out your own father left evidence against you?"
The silence was unbearable.
Luca stood near the door, watching everything.
He wasn't smiling anymore.
He looked like someone who had waited years for this moment.
"I told you she deserved the truth."
Adrian turned toward him.
"You don't get to decide that."
Luca laughed quietly.
"That's exactly the problem, Adrian."
He stepped closer.
"You always think you are the only person allowed to make decisions."
The tension between them was immediate.
Not like two enemies.
Like two brothers who had spent years carrying the same wound.
I looked at Adrian.
"What did you do?"
He looked down.
And for a moment...
I saw something I had never seen before.
Guilt.
"I made a mistake."
The words felt like a knife.
"A mistake?"
He looked at me.
"Miranda..."
"No."
I stepped back.
"Don't use my name like that."
His expression broke.
But I couldn't stop.
"You knew my father."
"No."
"You knew of him."
"Yes."
"You knew your father was investigating him."
"Yes."
"You knew there was a connection between our families."
"Yes."
Every answer made my chest tighter.
"Then why did you marry me?"
The question came out quietly.
But it destroyed the room.
Adrian looked like I had hit him.
"Because I loved you."
I wanted to believe him.
God, I wanted to.
But love couldn't erase secrets.
It couldn't erase years of missing pieces.
Luca opened the folder.
Adrian immediately moved.
"Don't."
Luca looked at him.
"She has the right."
Then he pulled out the first page.
A document.
Old.
Yellowed.
My father's signature at the bottom.
I walked closer.
The words were blurry at first.
Then they became clear.
"Subject: Adrian Moretti."
My stomach dropped.
The report continued.
"Potential involvement in unauthorized family operations."
I looked at Adrian.
"Unauthorized?"
He closed his eyes.
"Miranda."
"No."
I kept reading.
The report wasn't about murder.
It wasn't about crimes.
It was about something else.
Something more complicated.
My father had been investigating Adrian because he believed Adrian was trying to separate himself from his family's darker history.
But there was one sentence underlined.
One sentence my father had written himself.
"Adrian knows more than he admits."
I looked up.
"Is this true?"
Adrian didn't answer.
"Is this true?"
Finally, he whispered:
"Yes."
The word broke something inside me.
"What did you know?"
He sat down.
For the first time since I met him, Adrian Moretti looked powerless.
"My father wasn't the man everyone thought he was."
I stayed silent.
"When I was younger, I discovered things about my family."
"What things?"
"Things that made me hate the name Moretti."
Luca looked away.
Because he knew this story.
"I wanted out."
Adrian continued.
"I wanted to build something different."
"Then why did my father investigate you?"
"Because he thought I was hiding something."
"Were you?"
Adrian looked at me.
"I was hiding my family's secrets."
I waited.
"And one of those secrets was connected to your father."
The room went quiet.
I felt dizzy.
"What happened the night my father disappeared?"
Adrian didn't answer immediately.
Then:
"I was there."
My heart stopped.
"You were what?"
"I was there."
The words came slowly.
"Five years ago?"
"No."
He looked at me.
"Fifteen years ago."
The room spun.
I stared at him.
"You were there when my father disappeared?"
"I was twenty years old."
"And you never told me?"
"I didn't know who you were."
I froze.
"What?"
"I didn't know you were Daniel Carter's daughter until after we met."
I shook my head.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It does."
He looked at the photograph.
"Your father saved my life that night."
The anger inside me paused.
"What?"
Adrian swallowed.
"Someone was trying to kill me."
Luca looked at him.
"You never told her that part."
Adrian ignored him.
"Your father found me before they did."
"And then?"
His eyes became darker.
"He disappeared."
I whispered:
"Because he saved you?"
Adrian nodded.
"I spent years trying to find him."
"And you never found him?"
"No."
Luca interrupted.
"Because someone made sure nobody did."
I looked at him.
"Who?"
Luca looked at the folder.
Then at Adrian.
"The same person who wants Miranda dead."
The words froze me.
"What?"
Adrian immediately turned.
"Don't."
But Luca continued.
"The person who sent the message."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"What message?"
Luca looked confused.
"You don't know?"
Nobody spoke.
Then Adrian slowly reached for his phone.
The screen showed a new message.
One that had arrived minutes earlier.
He opened it.
His face changed.
I grabbed the phone before he could stop me.
The message contained one picture.
A photograph.
My mother.
Standing beside a man.
A man I recognized.
Because I had seen his face before.
In Adrian's family photographs.
His father.
And below the picture was one sentence.
"Your mother has been working with us all along."
I looked at Adrian.
"What does this mean?"
He didn't answer.
Because another message appeared.
This time with a location.
A place.
A name.
And a time.
Luca read it.
Then his face went pale.
"That's impossible."
"What?"
He looked at me.
"The location."
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"Where?"
Luca whispered:
"It's the place where Daniel Carter disappeared."
Adrian immediately grabbed his coat.
"We have to go."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
He stopped.
Because he knew.
He knew what I was about to ask.
"Because if that message is real..."
He looked toward the door.
"Your father may still be alive."
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Then Adrian opened the apartment door.
And standing outside was the one person none of us expected to see.
My mother.
She looked at me.
And whispered:
"Miranda, you can't go there."
I froze.
May you like
Because behind her...
Someone was holding a gun.
