Chapter 6 - The Moretti Ledger
The black door opened three inches.
Josephine saw darkness.
Then Joseph’s face.
Bruised.
Pale.
Alive.
“Joseph.”
She pushed forward.
He shouted, “No!”
Dante grabbed her.
A laser dot appeared on her chest.
Sniper.
Josephine stopped.
Victor Hale stepped into view behind Joseph.
Late sixties.
Tall.
Gray hair.
Elegant black suit.
A man who looked more like a retired judge than someone responsible for decades of disappearances.
He held a gun against Joseph’s back.
“Welcome.”
Josephine stared at her husband.
Three weeks of mourning vanished in a single heartbeat.
Not the grief.
The certainty.
Joseph was alive.
His eyes met hers.
Every apology he could not say was there.
Victor smiled.
“Touching.”
Dante moved slightly.
Victor raised the gun.
“Don’t.”
Dante stopped.
“Where is my father?”
Victor laughed.
“Still obsessed with fathers.”
Josephine said, “Let Joseph go.”
“You have something I need.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have it.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“You came here without it?”
“I memorized enough.”
Victor studied her.
Josephine had not.
But she had learned something from Dante.
Confidence could function like a weapon.
“The files are copied,” she continued. “If Joseph dies, they go public.”
Victor glanced at Dante.
“Your influence?”
Dante answered, “She doesn’t need mine.”
Victor looked almost proud.
That disgusted Josephine.
He motioned them inside.
The underground chamber contained screens.
Servers.
A conference table.
Several armed men.
And Alessandro Moretti.
Dante’s father sat at the end.
Older than in the video.
Frail.
But alive.
Dante said nothing.
Alessandro looked at him.
“Son.”
Dante’s face remained stone.
“You let me bury you.”
“I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
Victor laughed.
“Family reunions are exhausting.”
Josephine moved closer to Joseph.
One guard blocked her.
Joseph said, “I’m sorry.”
“Later.”
“I should have told you.”
“Definitely later.”
Despite everything, Joseph almost smiled.
Victor sat.
“Let us simplify.”
He wanted the full Harbor archive.
Joseph had copied portions but hidden the master encryption key.
Only Joseph knew where.
Victor believed Josephine now had it.
She didn’t.
Or thought she didn’t.
Then she remembered chapter twenty-four.
The flash drive had contained financial records.
But perhaps the key was somewhere else.
“The brass key,” she whispered.
Victor heard.
His eyes changed.
Dante noticed.
Josephine did too.
The physical brass key from Room 814.
She still had it.
Victor held out his hand.
Josephine removed it from her pocket.
“Let them go.”
“Give me the key.”
“Joseph first.”
Victor gestured.
A guard removed Joseph’s restraints.
Joseph stumbled toward her.
Josephine caught him.
For one second, the world stopped.
He smelled like antiseptic and blood.
Real.
Warm.
Alive.
Josephine pressed her forehead against his.
“You idiot.”
“I know.”
“You unbelievable idiot.”
“I know.”
She wanted to hit him.
She wanted to never let go.
Victor cleared his throat.
“The key.”
Josephine tossed it across the table.
Victor caught it.
He inserted the brass head into a slot in one server.
Nothing happened.
His face changed.
Joseph smiled weakly.
“It needs two parts.”
Victor turned.
“What?”
Joseph raised his left hand.
His wedding ring was missing.
But inside the ring had been a microscopic data chip.
Daniel had delivered the ring.
Dante understood.
“The ring.”
Joseph nodded.
“Second half.”
Victor looked furious.
Josephine smiled.
“You don’t have it.”
Victor raised his gun.
Dante’s men killed the lights.
Gunfire exploded.
Joseph pulled Josephine to the floor.
Dante overturned the table.
Alessandro shouted something.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Josephine crawled toward the door.
Joseph beside her.
They reached the corridor.
Dante followed.
Behind them, Victor screamed, “Seal the estate!”
They ran.
Joseph struggled.
His injuries slowed him.
Josephine wrapped his arm over her shoulder.
“Where’s the ring?”
“Safe.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“He gave it to us.”
Joseph stopped.
“What?”
“The courier gave me your ring.”
Joseph’s face went pale.
“No.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t supposed to go to you.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor can track it.”
Josephine froze.
A tiny red light blinked inside the ring case in her coat.
Tracker.
Dante swore.
Guards closed in.
They escaped through the service tunnel seconds before the estate locked down.
Dante’s SUV raced toward Chicago.
Joseph lay in the back seat.
Josephine held his hand.
So many questions.
None seemed large enough.
“Why fake your death?”
“I didn’t plan to.”
“Dante said you did.”
“I planned to disappear briefly after the explosion. Then Victor found me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
Joseph looked away.
“Cowardice.”
“At least that answer sounds real.”
“I was afraid if you knew Victor was my father, you’d look at me differently.”
“I’m looking at you differently now.”
He flinched.
Josephine squeezed his hand.
“Because you’re alive.”
Joseph’s eyes filled.
She leaned into him.
For the first time in three weeks, grief loosened.
Not gone.
Transformed.
Dante’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
Josephine looked up.
Dante put the call on speaker.
Robert’s voice.
Weak from the hospital.
“Victor has Evelyn.”
Josephine sat upright.
“How?”
“She came to check on me. They took her.”
Joseph asked, “Why Evelyn?”
Robert answered, “Because she knows where the original Moretti ledger is.”
Dante frowned.
“I thought the digital archive was the ledger.”
“No.”
Robert coughed.
“That’s only Harbor.”
“Then what is the Moretti ledger?”
“A handwritten record Alessandro kept of every person Victor paid, threatened, disappeared, or killed.”
Alessandro.
Dante’s supposedly dead father.
Josephine looked at Dante.
“Where is it?”
Robert hesitated.
“In a place Victor cannot enter without destroying himself.”
“Where?”
Robert gave an address.
Josephine recognized it.
Her own childhood home.
The house where her parents had supposedly died.
Joseph whispered, “Josie.”
Her phone vibrated.
A new photograph appeared.
Evelyn tied to a chair.
Behind her stood a familiar fireplace.
Josephine’s childhood fireplace.
The message underneath contained six words.
COME HOME OR SHE DIES AT DAWN.
Josephine stared at the photograph.
Then she noticed the mirror above the fireplace.
A figure was reflected inside it.
A woman.
Josephine zoomed in.
May you like
Her heart stopped.
The woman had her mother’s face.
