Chapter 3 - Someone Inside the Empire
By morning, Elena wanted answers.
Not later.
Not after recovery.
Not after Adrien's lawyers conducted a quiet investigation.
Now.
Their daughter slept in the bassinet beside her.
Adrien stood at the window speaking softly to Rachel.
Margaret Vale's number had already been disconnected.
The call had bounced through an internet service.
Whoever had made it wanted Adrien to believe Margaret was involved.
Or wanted him to find her.
“Where is the real Margaret?” Elena asked.
Adrien ended the call.
“Arizona, according to company records.”
“Call her.”
“Rachel is trying.”
“No. You call.”
“Elena—”
“You spent months telling me your people could find anything.”
He absorbed that.
“You're right.”
He called.
The number in the personnel archive was disconnected.
Rachel found another.
No answer.
Then a third.
A woman answered.
“Hello?”
Adrien recognized the voice instantly.
“Margaret?”
Silence.
“Adrien?”
Elena watched him.
“Did you call me last night?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think I'd remember calling you after seven years.”
Adrien explained the photograph.
Margaret stopped him before he finished.
“Where did you get that?”
“You know the woman?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Her name was Sofia Ferraro.”
Adrien looked toward Elena.
Ferraro.
Luca.
“What was her relationship to my father?”
“She wasn't involved with your father romantically, if that's what you're thinking. She worked for the company.”
“What did she do?”
“Routing.”
Adrien felt cold.
“Did she create 27B?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Because your father asked her to build a system that could bypass ordinary executive tracking.”
“For what?”
“I never knew.”
“Where is Sofia now?”
Margaret's answer came quietly.
“She died giving birth.”
Adrien sat down.
“And the child?”
“I don't know.”
But Adrien did.
Or thought he did.
Luca Ferraro was thirty-seven.
The timeline fit.
Adrien asked one final question.
“Was Sofia Luca's mother?”
Margaret began crying.
“Yes.”
The call ended minutes later.
Elena stared at Adrien.
“So Luca's mother created 27B.”
“Yes.”
“And died after having him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you know?”
“Luca never talks about her. His father raised him.”
“What if this isn't about me?”
Adrien looked at the sleeping baby.
“Then why track you?”
Elena already knew the answer.
“Because of her.”
Adrien's phone buzzed.
Rachel.
She had found archived documents.
Sofia Ferraro had worked for Moretti Logistics for eleven years.
Three months before her death, she filed an internal complaint.
The complaint itself was missing.
Only the index remained.
The category:
EXECUTIVE MISUSE OF PRIVATE ROUTING SYSTEMS.
Adrien felt sick.
His father had buried it.
The company history he inherited had holes.
And Luca had grown up inside those holes.
Elena watched his face.
“You're thinking your father did something.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn't mean Luca did.”
“I know.”
That distinction mattered.
They needed evidence.
Rachel retrieved warehouse records.
The old 27B system had been inactive for years.
Then six months earlier, someone restored portions of it through a legacy server.
The timing matched Elena's first mysterious package.
The access credential belonged to Luca.
Adrien closed his eyes.
Elena saw the pain.
“He could have been framed.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I don't know what I believe.”
Their daughter stirred.
Elena picked her up.
Adrien watched them.
“What's her name?”
Elena smiled faintly.
“I haven't decided.”
“You had nine months.”
“I had other things going on.”
That almost made him laugh.
“What names?”
“Lucia.”
Adrien's face softened.
“My grandmother.”
“I know.”
“You remembered.”
“I remember everything.”
The words hung between them.
Too much history.
Too much love.
Too much damage.
Adrien sat beside her.
“Elena, when this is over—”
“Don't.”
He stopped.
“Not now.”
“All right.”
She studied him.
“You really have changed.”
“No. I'm trying to.”
“That answer is better.”
Rachel called again.
This time she had found something worse.
A payment trail.
Small monthly transfers from a dormant company account.
Twenty-seven years of them.
The recipient was listed only as S.F. TRUST.
Sofia Ferraro Trust.
The account had continued after Sofia died.
Someone had been paying it.
Adrien's father first.
Then, after his death, the payments continued automatically.
Adrien had never known.
The current beneficiary?
Luca Ferraro.
Adrien called Luca.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Luca texted.
WE NEED TO TALK ALONE.
Adrien replied:
WHERE?
The response came immediately.
OLD RIVER WAREHOUSE.
Elena saw the screen.
“No.”
“I have to.”
“Not alone.”
“He specifically said alone.”
“Exactly.”
Adrien looked at her.
“You're staying here.”
“That sounded like an order.”
He caught himself.
Then corrected it.
“I would feel better if you stayed somewhere with hospital security. But you decide.”
Elena nodded.
“Better.”
Adrien prepared to leave.
Before he reached the door, Elena called his name.
He turned.
“Don't decide Luca is guilty before he speaks.”
Adrien looked at her.
“I won't.”
“And Adrien?”
“Yes?”
“Come back.”
Something moved through his face.
“I will.”
He left.
The old River Warehouse had been closed for nearly a decade.
Adrien arrived with Rachel waiting several blocks away despite Luca's demand.
He entered alone.
The building smelled of dust and old timber.
“Luca?”
A light switched on.
Luca stood beside a metal table.
No weapon.
No security.
Just a stack of old files.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
Adrien approached.
“Did you track Elena?”
“No.”
“Your credentials restored 27B.”
“I know.”
“Explain.”
Luca pushed a file toward him.
“My mother didn't die because of childbirth complications.”
Adrien stopped.
“What?”
“She discovered what 27B was being used for.”
“Which was?”
“Your father was moving corporate money into hidden accounts.”
Adrien stared at him.
Luca continued.
“My mother confronted him. She intended to report everything.”
“And?”
“She went into labor two days later.”
Adrien's expression hardened.
“Be careful.”
“I'm not accusing your father of hurting her.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I'm saying someone erased her complaint after she died. Someone protected the scheme.”
“Who?”
“I've spent years trying to find out.”
Adrien looked at the files.
“And Elena?”
“I restored 27B because someone else started using fragments of the old routing architecture.”
“So you did track her.”
“I tracked the tracker.”
Adrien's anger rose.
“You knew someone was following a pregnant woman and you didn't tell me?”
“I didn't know it was Elena at first.”
“When did you know?”
Luca looked ashamed.
“Baltimore.”
Adrien stepped closer.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because the access logs pointed to you.”
Adrien stopped.
“What?”
Luca turned a laptop toward him.
There it was.
Every package.
Every location.
Every lookup.
Authorized under:
A. MORETTI — EXECUTIVE ROOT.
Adrien stared.
“I didn't do this.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because yesterday the same credential accessed Elena's hospital record while you were sitting in front of me.”
Adrien looked at Luca.
Someone had cloned his highest-level credentials.
“Who has that ability?”
“Only one person ever built the root recovery system.”
“Who?”
Luca reached for another file.
Before he could open it, headlights swept through the warehouse windows.
A car had arrived.
Luca looked toward the entrance.
“I didn't invite anyone.”
Adrien's phone vibrated.
A message from Elena.
May you like
Three words:
SOMEONE IS HERE.
