Chapter 6 - The Name on the Birth Certificate
The name was Dominic Moretti.
Vittorio’s uncle.
Elena stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Vittorio said nothing.
Dominic had died nine years earlier.
He had never married.
Officially, he had no children.
Elena stood.
“My father was David Marlowe.”
“Who was David Marlowe?” Vittorio asked carefully.
“My father.”
“I mean what do you remember?”
She opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
Almost nothing.
A photograph.
A birthday card.
Her mother saying he died in a construction accident when Elena was three.
No funeral memory.
No relatives.
No grave she had ever visited.
Vittorio asked Marco to verify.
Hours later, the answer came.
David Marlowe existed.
But he had never married Maria.
He had been a friend.
The name on Elena’s school records was real.
The father on her sealed birth certificate was Dominic Moretti.
Elena walked outside.
The mansion grounds were quiet.
She sat on the stone steps behind the kitchen.
Vittorio found her ten minutes later.
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“Good.”
He sat beside her.
An unusual sight.
A mafia boss and his housekeeper sitting on the staff entrance steps before dawn.
Elena looked toward the garden.
“So what does that make us?”
“Second cousins.”
She laughed once.
“Of course.”
“What?”
“I destroy your furniture and discover we’re related before my first paycheck.”
Vittorio almost smiled.
Then Elena’s face collapsed.
“My mother lied to me.”
“To protect you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
She wiped her eyes angrily.
“I spent six months watching her die.”
Vittorio said nothing.
“She could have told me.”
“Maybe she was afraid.”
“She was always afraid.”
Elena finally understood that.
Locked drawers.
Curtains checked twice.
Changing doctors frequently.
Never staying in one job too long.
Maria had not been cautious.
She had been hiding.
Vittorio’s phone rang.
Marco.
Carlo had contacted the family board.
He claimed Vittorio had abducted him, accused him falsely, and become mentally unstable.
Exactly the plan.
Emergency board meeting.
Nine hours.
“If they remove you?” Elena asked.
“He gains temporary control.”
“And Kent?”
“In custody.”
“Can he testify?”
“If he survives.”
Elena looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Carlo has people everywhere.”
The board meeting occurred in Moretti Holdings headquarters.
Vittorio entered in a charcoal suit.
For the first time Elena saw the public version of him.
Controlled.
Immaculate.
Dangerous.
No sign of the shaking man beside the bed.
Elena remained in a secure office with Marco.
Carlo joined by video.
Bandage around his forehead.
He told the board Vittorio’s sleep deprivation had caused paranoia.
He accused Vittorio of imprisoning employees.
Destroying property.
Threatening family.
Then he mentioned Elena.
“A new housekeeper,” Carlo said, “somehow convinced Vittorio that his own bedroom was attacking him.”
Several board members exchanged looks.
Vittorio waited.
Then placed the devices on the table.
Silence.
An expert explained them.
Carlo dismissed the evidence as planted.
Then Vittorio played Kent’s recorded confession from custody.
Carlo’s face changed.
Only slightly.
The board shifted.
Not enough.
Carlo had prepared.
He produced medical reports signed by Kent documenting Vittorio’s “declining mental condition.”
Fraudulent.
But persuasive.
The deciding vote belonged to an elderly board member named Arthur Bellini.
He hesitated.
Carlo leaned toward the camera.
“Vittorio needs help.”
Vittorio said quietly, “Arthur.”
The old man looked at him.
“Before you vote, ask Carlo one question.”
Carlo’s face tightened.
Vittorio continued.
“Ask why the September vote mattered.”
Arthur frowned.
“What?”
“The recording.”
Vittorio played the audio from the memory card.
He needs to break before September.
Board vote.
Silence filled the room.
Carlo disconnected.
That was his mistake.
The board suspended the vote.
Temporary victory.
But Carlo was now openly at war.
Vittorio returned to the mansion.
Elena waited in the entrance hall.
“You won?”
“Delayed.”
“That sounds less exciting.”
“It usually is.”
Marco approached.
“We found Carlo.”
“Where?”
“Your father’s old lakeside property.”
Vittorio frowned.
Abandoned for years.
Why there?
Then Elena remembered a file from Maria’s drive.
Research storage.
Site B.
Lakeside.
“He’s destroying evidence.”
They left immediately.
The estate stood seventy miles north.
An old stone house above dark water.
Security entered first.
No guards.
No Carlo.
In the basement they discovered a hidden laboratory.
Dusty equipment.
File cabinets.
Old audio systems.
Maria’s name appeared repeatedly.
Elena walked through the rooms slowly.
This was where her mother had worked.
Where she herself had apparently been tested.
On one wall were photographs of subjects.
Dozens.
Children.
Adults.
Elena’s anger became something colder.
Vittorio stood beside her.
“My father did this.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll make it public.”
She looked at him.
“That destroys your family.”
“It should.”
Those words changed something between them.
Marco called from another room.
They found servers.
Still running.
Somebody had accessed them recently.
Carlo.
Elena saw a folder labeled MORETTI SUCCESSION.
Inside was something unexpected.
Vittorio’s father had not intended Carlo to inherit.
Ever.
Documents showed Carlo was not actually a Moretti by blood.
His mother had married into the family.
The “wrong son” message had meant something else.
Carlo had spent his entire life believing Vittorio had stolen his birthright.
There had never been one.
Elena whispered, “He doesn’t know.”
Vittorio looked grim.
“He knows now.”
A printer suddenly activated behind them.
Everyone turned.
One page emerged.
Fresh ink.
Somebody was accessing the network remotely.
Marco grabbed it.
A message.
YOU FOUND THE PAST.
NOW COME SAVE THE FUTURE.
Below was an address.
And a photograph.
Rosa Alvarez.
Teresa the cook.
Three other mansion employees.
All tied inside a warehouse.
Carlo had taken them while everyone was away.
At the bottom, one final line appeared.
VITTORIO COMES ALONE OR THEY DIE.
May you like
Elena looked toward him.
He was already reaching for his coat.
