Chapter 7 - The Grave Between Brothers
Lorenzo did not remember crossing the hangar.
One moment Adrian stood ten feet away.
The next Lorenzo had him against the metal wall.
“You killed our father?”
Adrian did not resist.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He asked me to.”
Lorenzo hit him.
Adrian dropped.
“Try again.”
“He asked me to.”
Another punch.
Isabella grabbed Lorenzo’s arm.
“Stop.”
He pulled free.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Adrian coughed blood.
“Dad was dying.”
Lorenzo froze.
“What?”
“Cancer.”
“Our father had no cancer.”
“He did. Pancreatic. Late stage.”
Lorenzo stared.
“He hid it.”
“From everyone except me and his doctor.”
“Why would he ask you to kill him?”
“He didn’t ask me to kill him.”
Adrian stood shakily.
“He asked me to make his death look natural before Sanz could capture him.”
Lorenzo frowned.
Adrian continued.
“Dad had copied part of Sanz’s records. Sanz found out. He threatened to take him alive and torture the location out of him.”
“So you poisoned him.”
“A medication that stopped his heart.”
Lorenzo looked away.
His father’s final dinner returned.
The older man had hugged him unusually long.
Lorenzo thought it had been sentiment.
Perhaps it had been goodbye.
“Why not tell me?”
“Because you had just married Isabella.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Dad knew she was Carvelli. He knew Sanz would eventually come for her. He wanted you outside it for as long as possible.”
Lorenzo looked at Isabella.
“Our entire marriage was surrounded by people deciding what I could survive knowing.”
She nodded through tears.
“Yes.”
“That ends now.”
“Yes.”
“No more secrets.”
“No more.”
Adrian wiped his mouth.
“Sanz will expect us in Zurich.”
“Good.”
Crane looked at Lorenzo.
“You’re going?”
“Yes.”
“With Lucia?”
“No.”
“Then the vault won’t open.”
“We don’t need it to.”
Isabella understood.
“We need Sanz to believe it will.”
They built the plan before dawn.
Maria and Emma were moved to a secure location with Matteo and Jeppe.
Lucia stayed with them.
Lorenzo hated leaving her after finding her.
But bringing her to Switzerland was impossible.
Before he left, Lucia hugged him.
“You’ll come back?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
She held up her pinky.
Lorenzo stared at it.
“What?”
“Emma says promises work better this way.”
The most feared man in three countries hooked his little finger around his daughter’s.
“Then we’re covered.”
Lucia smiled.
Isabella watched from the doorway.
When Lucia left with Maria, Isabella said, “You’re good with her.”
“I’ve had roughly twelve minutes of practice.”
“She already trusts you.”
“That scares me.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t earned it.”
Isabella approached.
“You spent six years loving a child you thought was dead.”
“That isn’t the same as being her father.”
“No.”
She touched his face.
“But you have time now.”
He looked at her.
“Do we?”
She understood the other question.
Us.
Their marriage.
Six years.
Her deception.
His grief.
“I don’t know.”
Lorenzo nodded.
It hurt.
But truth was supposed to.
“I can accept that.”
She seemed surprised.
“I’m still angry.”
“You should be.”
“I may be angry for years.”
“I know.”
“But I love you.”
Her eyes closed.
“That makes it worse.”
“I know.”
She kissed him.
Not passionately.
Not as though six years disappeared.
It was the kiss of two people acknowledging that something damaged still existed.
Then they went to Switzerland.
The private bank sat beneath an ordinary office building in Zurich.
Sanz arrived at eleven forty.
Viktor Sanz looked nothing like a monster.
He was thin, elegant, white-haired, and walked with a cane.
He entered the private conference room with two attorneys and no visible guards.
Lorenzo hated him immediately.
Sanz smiled at Isabella.
“You resemble Sofia.”
Isabella said nothing.
Sanz turned to Lorenzo.
“And you resemble your father when he was still useful.”
Lorenzo leaned back.
“You killed him.”
Sanz smiled.
“Your brother handled that.”
Adrian’s hand tightened beneath the table.
Lorenzo did not react.
“Where is Lucia?” Sanz asked.
“Safe.”
“Then we have nothing to discuss.”
“We have the key.”
“Half the lock.”
“We also have evidence scheduled for release.”
Sanz laughed softly.
“No, you have a bluff.”
Lorenzo placed a phone on the table.
The journalist’s number appeared onscreen.
Sanz’s smile faded slightly.
“Even if you open the vault, publishing the ledger destroys your own family.”
“Yes.”
That answer bothered Sanz.
“You would sacrifice the Duca empire?”
“Yes.”
“For a child you barely know?”
Lorenzo leaned forward.
“My daughter.”
Sanz studied him.
“You were always your father’s weakest son.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“He says thank you.”
Sanz looked at him with contempt.
“You should be dead.”
“I’ve heard that.”
Isabella placed the key on the table.
“We want one thing.”
Sanz glanced at it.
“What?”
“You leave our daughter alone.”
“Impossible.”
“Then the ledger goes public.”
“You can’t open it without her.”
Isabella smiled.
“Who said Lucia is the only genetic match?”
For the first time, Sanz looked uncertain.
Matteo’s revelation had given them the answer.
Isabella herself was Sofia Carvelli’s daughter.
The bank’s original vault protocol had been designed before Lucia existed.
The biometric lock required a direct Carvelli descendant.
Not specifically Lucia.
Sanz had spent years believing the newer heir was essential because Isabella was presumed dead.
Isabella stood.
“I can open it.”
Sanz’s face changed.
That was the moment Lorenzo knew they had won something.
Not everything.
But enough.
They descended with the bank director.
Sanz’s attorneys remained upstairs.
Lorenzo, Isabella, Adrian and Sanz entered the secure level.
The vault recognized the key.
Then Isabella’s palm.
Then a retinal scan.
Heavy steel doors opened.
Inside sat one black case.
Thirty years of secrets.
Isabella reached for it.
Sanz’s cane clicked behind them.
Lorenzo turned.
The bottom of the cane had opened.
A narrow pistol emerged.
Sanz pointed it at Isabella.
“You were always the problem.”
Lorenzo moved between them.
Sanz smiled.
“Like your father.”
Adrian stepped sideways.
“You won’t leave this building.”
“I own this building.”
“No,” Adrian said.
“You used to.”
Sanz frowned.
Alarms began sounding.
Marco’s voice came through Lorenzo’s earpiece.
“Police are entering.”
Sanz’s face finally broke.
“What did you do?”
Lorenzo smiled.
“I stopped being a mafia boss for ten minutes.”
Swiss federal investigators flooded the corridor.
Sanz fired once.
Adrian shoved Lorenzo aside.
The bullet struck Adrian.
Lorenzo fired back.
Sanz’s weapon fell from his hand.
Officers tackled him.
Isabella screamed Adrian’s name.
Lorenzo dropped beside his brother.
Blood spread across Adrian’s shirt.
“Stay awake.”
Adrian laughed weakly.
“I’ve died before.”
“Not funny.”
“A little.”
Lorenzo pressed his hand against the wound.
Adrian looked at him.
“Tell Lucia…”
“No.”
“Tell her her uncle—”
“You tell her.”
Adrian’s eyes fluttered.
“Lorenzo.”
“Stay awake.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For Father?”
“For everything.”
Paramedics rushed in.
They pulled Lorenzo back.
Adrian disappeared beneath hands and equipment.
The black Carvelli case sat open behind them.
Inside were ledgers.
Photographs.
Files.
Enough evidence to dismantle an empire of corruption.
Isabella held Lorenzo’s hand.
An officer approached.
“Mr. Duca.”
“What?”
“We found something else inside the case.”
He handed Lorenzo a sealed envelope.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
Lorenzo opened it.
My sons,
If this reaches you, then the family has finally chosen truth over power.
Below it was another sentence.
One that made Lorenzo look at Adrian as the medics carried him away.
May you like
The final line read:
There is one more Duca child, and Sanz has known where she is all along.
