Chapter 5 - The Dead Man Behind the War
Sebastian did not speak.
Vittorio smiled from the phone screen.
Nine years earlier, Sebastian had stood beside his father’s coffin.
Now the dead man was looking at him.
“You’ve grown careless,” Vittorio said.
Sebastian’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You have thirty seconds.”
“Still impatient.”
“Twenty-nine.”
Vittorio laughed.
Harper understood suddenly where Sebastian had learned that terrifying calm.
“I have Daniel Evans,” Vittorio said. “Bring the ledger.”
“And Harper?”
“She comes too.”
“No.”
Vittorio’s smile vanished.
“She has something that belongs to me.”
Harper stepped closer.
“What?”
Sebastian tried to stop her.
Too late.
Vittorio heard.
“Evelyn’s daughter.”
Harper stared at the screen.
“You knew my mother.”
“I made the mistake of trusting her.”
Harper felt sick.
“Did you kill her?”
Vittorio tilted his head.
“Come ask me yourself.”
The call ended.
Sebastian hurled the phone across the room.
It shattered.
Nobody spoke.
Then Harper said, “That was dramatic.”
Sebastian looked at her.
She shrugged weakly.
“I panic through sarcasm.”
He crossed the room and pulled her against him.
Harper’s joke died.
His heart was pounding.
The great Sebastian Valerio was terrified.
Not for himself.
Maybe not even for her this time.
His father had returned from the grave.
“I buried him,” Sebastian whispered.
Harper held him.
“I know.”
“I watched them close the coffin.”
“I know.”
“I took over because he was dead.”
“I know.”
Sebastian pulled back.
“What if everything I built was what he wanted?”
“Then we find out.”
Dante entered.
“I verified the video. No signs of manipulation.”
Sebastian straightened.
The vulnerable son disappeared.
The boss returned.
“Plan.”
They would not give Vittorio the real ledger.
Dante created a duplicate.
Bianca offered access to Lorenzo’s private communication network.
For the first time, Conti and Valerio resources worked together.
Not because their families had arranged a marriage.
Because their children had finally stopped obeying them.
Harper insisted on going.
Sebastian hated it.
But he did not forbid it again.
That mattered.
The warehouse stood beside an abandoned rail yard.
Harper entered beside Sebastian.
The crimson gown was gone.
She wore black trousers, boots and a coat.
Somehow Sebastian still looked at her the same way.
Daniel sat tied to a chair.
Lorenzo stood behind him.
Vittorio stood beside Lorenzo.
Harper stopped.
“So you were working together.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Temporarily.”
Vittorio looked at Sebastian.
“You disappoint me.”
“Get in line.”
“You would destroy decades of work for an assistant?”
Sebastian glanced at Harper.
“Yes.”
No speech.
No hesitation.
Just yes.
Harper would remember it forever.
Vittorio’s eyes hardened.
“Evelyn made you soft too.”
Harper stepped forward.
“My mother?”
“She believed records mattered more than loyalty.”
“She discovered what you were doing.”
“She misunderstood necessity.”
“Did you kill her?”
Vittorio said nothing.
Harper understood.
Lorenzo laughed.
“He did.”
Vittorio looked at him sharply.
And the alliance fractured.
Lorenzo continued.
“Your precious father ordered the car sabotaged. I arranged it.”
Sebastian went utterly still.
Harper’s eyes filled with tears.
“My mother died because she found your accounts.”
Vittorio shrugged.
“She threatened everything.”
Daniel lunged against the ropes.
“You monster.”
Vittorio barely looked at him.
“You helped me disappear.”
Harper turned to her father.
“What?”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
Years of shame appeared all at once.
“I didn’t know about your mother then.”
“You helped him fake his death?”
“I thought Vittorio was protecting you.”
Harper stepped backward.
Sebastian caught her hand.
Vittorio smiled.
“Everyone lies to survive, Harper.”
She looked at him.
“No.”
His smile faded.
“My mother didn’t.”
Vittorio raised a gun.
Everything happened at once.
Dante’s team entered from the rafters.
Lorenzo grabbed Daniel.
Bianca appeared behind her father.
“Let him go.”
Lorenzo stared at his daughter.
“You betrayed me.”
“You offered me like property.”
“I gave you a future.”
“You gave me an assignment.”
Gunfire erupted.
Sebastian pushed Harper behind a steel pillar.
Dante reached Daniel.
Bianca struggled with Lorenzo.
Vittorio disappeared through a side door.
Sebastian started after him.
Harper grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
“He killed your mother.”
“And he wants you angry.”
Sebastian looked toward the doorway.
Then at her.
He stayed.
That decision saved his life.
A second later, an explosion tore through the corridor Vittorio had entered.
The blast shook the building.
“He rigged it,” Dante shouted.
Sebastian stared at the flames.
His father had expected him to follow.
Lorenzo used the distraction to escape.
Bianca remained.
Daniel was freed.
Everyone survived.
Almost.
Dante found a wounded guard beside the exit.
And beside him, page forty-seven.
Vittorio had dropped it.
Harper picked it up.
The page contained Evelyn’s final notes.
Vittorio ordered sabotage.
Lorenzo executed payment.
But another entry appeared below.
A scheduled transfer made years later.
Someone had continued paying Victor Salvi.
Someone still inside Sebastian’s organization.
The initials were D.M.
Harper looked toward Dante Moretti.
Dante saw the page.
His face changed.
Sebastian slowly turned.
“Dante.”
The security chief raised both hands.
“It isn’t me.”
“Those are your initials.”
“I know.”
“Who else?”
Dante looked at the paper.
Then suddenly laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he understood.
“My mother.”
Sebastian stared.
“Diana Moretti?”
Dante nodded.
“She worked for your father.”
“Diana died five years ago.”
“No.”
Dante’s voice broke.
“She disappeared five years ago.”
Harper almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Does anyone in this world actually die?”
Nobody answered.
Later, back at the estate, Daniel finally told Harper everything he knew.
Diana Moretti had been Evelyn’s closest friend.
She helped preserve copies of the evidence.
If Diana was alive, she might possess the final records needed to expose both Vittorio and Lorenzo publicly.
Dante searched old family properties.
One location appeared repeatedly.
A farmhouse outside Lake Geneva.
Sebastian prepared to leave immediately.
Harper stopped him in the hallway.
“You need to sleep.”
“So do you.”
“Look at us agreeing.”
He touched her cheek.
“Harper.”
“Yes?”
“When this is over…”
He stopped.
She smiled.
“You finally lost your words again.”
“Only around you.”
“Good.”
He kissed her forehead.
Then Dante called from the study.
They found him staring at his laptop.
“What?”
Dante turned the screen.
The farmhouse security camera was live.
A woman stood on the porch.
Silver-haired.
Alive.
Diana Moretti.
But she was not alone.
Vittorio stood beside her.
And between them was Bianca.
A gun pressed against her back.
Diana looked directly into the camera.
Then she raised a piece of paper.
Four words were written across it.
DON’T TRUST DANIEL EVANS.
Harper felt her father move behind her.
She turned.
May you like
Daniel was holding a gun.
And it was pointed directly at Sebastian.
