Chapter 6 - The Corner No Camera Could See
The woman stepped out.
She was seventy.
White-haired.
Thin.
Matteo knew her.
“Teresa.”
Teresa Bellini had been the Ferraro family midwife.
Everyone believed she died twelve years earlier.
“I disappeared,” she said. “There is a difference.”
Leonardo stared at her.
“Which one of us is a Ferraro?”
Teresa looked at both men.
“Neither.”
The answer landed like a bomb.
Their mother, Sofia, had been pregnant before marrying Vittorio Ferraro.
Vittorio knew.
He raised the twins as his sons because he loved Sofia.
But the twins' biological father belonged to another criminal family.
Carlo DeLuca.
He had been murdered before they were born.
Carlo had left an enormous legitimate trust to his firstborn child.
Matteo.
But the trustees believed Leonardo was firstborn because the hospital records had been altered.
“Why?”
“To keep both of you alive,” Teresa said.
Carlo's brother, Enzo, would inherit if no legitimate heir survived.
Gemma understood.
“The crash.”
Teresa nodded.
“Enzo learned the truth seven years ago.”
Matteo's voice hardened.
“Where is he?”
Teresa looked toward the manuscript.
“Closer than you think.”
Russo worked for Enzo.
The crash had been an assassination attempt.
Daniel Riley had seen Russo leave the second car.
Joseph had helped hide evidence—but not to hurt the twins.
Vittorio had ordered him to bury the truth because exposing it would have started a war.
Leonardo laughed bitterly.
“So everyone protected us by lying.”
Teresa lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
They returned home before dawn.
Matteo did not go to the surveillance room.
He went to Leonardo's sitting room.
Gemma made three cups of tea.
Matteo took one.
“Plain?”
Gemma asked.
He nodded.
Leonardo almost smiled.
It was small.
But Gemma saw it.
So did Matteo.
For several nights, life became strangely ordinary.
Matteo ate dinner with Leonardo.
Leonardo showed him the manuscript.
They argued over fictional characters rather than seven-year-old guilt.
Gemma watched the distance between their chairs slowly shrink.
But Russo remained missing.
Enzo remained invisible.
And Daniel remained missing.
Then, on the sixth Friday, Leonardo found a note beneath his tea.
It wasn't Gemma's handwriting.
COME TO THE BLIND SPOT AT 2:17.
ALONE.
Leonardo did not tell Matteo.
He told Gemma.
“That isn't alone,” she said.
“I know.”
At 2:12, Gemma pushed Leonardo toward the south window.
At 2:16, they entered the blind corner.
At 2:17, the old hidden phone rang.
Leonardo answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice spoke.
“Leo?”
Leonardo's hand trembled.
Gemma saw tears fill his eyes.
“Who is this?”
The man breathed shakily.
“Tell Gemma I'm sorry.”
Gemma grabbed the phone.
“Dad?”
Silence.
Then:
“Gemma.”
Her knees nearly failed.
Daniel Riley was alive.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Seven years!”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead!”
“I know.”
She began crying.
“Why?”
“To keep them from knowing what I had.”
“What?”
“The original recording.”
Gemma looked at Leonardo.
“Where is it?”
Daniel's voice lowered.
“In the place Matteo never watches.”
Gemma looked around.
“The blind spot?”
“No.”
A pause.
“His brother.”
Leonardo went completely still.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel whispered, “Leonardo has carried the evidence for seven years.”
The call ended.
Gemma stared at Leonardo.
He slowly looked down at his wheelchair.
Then at the orthopedic brace surrounding his right leg.
The brace had been recovered from the hospital after the crash.
Repaired many times.
Never replaced.
Leonardo touched a narrow metal seam.
Gemma fetched a screwdriver.
Inside the brace was a hidden compartment.
And inside it was a tiny black memory card.
Leonardo stared at it.
Then footsteps approached.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Someone stopped just outside the blind corner.
May you like
A gun appeared first.
Then Russo stepped into view.
