Chapter 3 - Chiara's Second Message
The mansion locked down within minutes.
No one entered.
No one left.
Dante ordered every room searched.
The first cassette remained in his pocket.
The second was somewhere outside the house.
Or somewhere inside it.
Marco found the security outage had been triggered remotely.
Professional work.
Someone knew the system.
Dante returned to Sofia.
“You're going to tell me everything.”
This time, she did.
Years earlier, Antonio Moretti had discovered Gabriel Russo manipulating company accounts.
But Gabriel was not stealing for himself.
He was hiding transfers for someone else.
Chiara noticed irregularities after helping Antonio organize charitable accounts.
She began investigating secretly.
Sofia discovered what she was doing.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Chiara made me promise.”
Dante stared at her.
“She trusted you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she write not to?”
Sofia's face crumpled.
“Because I betrayed that promise.”
She had told Antonio.
Antonio confronted Chiara and ordered her to stop investigating.
Chiara believed Sofia had endangered her.
Days later, Chiara was poisoned.
“So she thought you caused it.”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Dante studied his sister.
For the first time, he believed her.
Not completely.
But enough.
“What was on the second cassette?”
“I don't know.”
“Who would?”
Sofia looked at Lorenzo.
The doctor said one name.
“Gabriel.”
They found an address connected to Gabriel in an abandoned warehouse district.
Dante and Marco went alone.
Inside the building, they discovered no Gabriel.
Only a table.
A cassette recorder.
And a photograph of Chiara.
Dante approached.
The recorder clicked on automatically.
Chiara's voice filled the warehouse.
“Dante, if you've reached this recording, Gabriel kept his promise.”
Dante stopped.
She had known Gabriel.
“He isn't the man you should fear. Gabriel helped me copy the records.”
Dante looked at Marco.
Chiara continued.
“The person behind everything sits closer to you than Gabriel ever did.”
A noise came from the darkness.
Dante turned.
A man stepped forward.
Older now.
Gray in his beard.
Gabriel Russo.
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
Dante's hand moved toward his jacket.
Gabriel raised both hands.
“If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't have heard her voice.”
“Give me the second cassette.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because I gave it to the person Chiara told me to trust.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked toward Marco.
Dante followed his gaze.
Marco's expression hardened.
Gabriel said:
“Your mother.”
Dante felt the floor disappear beneath him.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No, Dante.”
A door behind him opened.
Light spilled through.
A woman's silhouette appeared.
May you like
And a voice Dante had not heard since childhood whispered:
“My son.”
