Chapter 2 - The Man Who Was Supposed To Be Dead
"Luca..."
The voice from upstairs came again.
Older.
Calmer.
Impossible.
Nobody moved.
The entire mansion fell into silence.
Even the security team, men who had faced bullets without blinking, stood frozen.
Because they all knew that voice.
Luca Moretti slowly looked toward the staircase.
His mother's fingers tightened around his hand.
"No," Elena whispered.
Luca looked down at her.
"You know that voice?"
His mother didn't answer.
That frightened him more than anything.
Elena Moretti had never been afraid of anyone.
Not even Luca's enemies.
Not even the men who had tried to destroy their family.
But now she was shaking.
"Luca," she whispered again. "You cannot let him come downstairs."
The words hit him harder than the voice itself.
Because his mother wasn't warning him about danger.
She was warning him about a person.
Luca turned toward his security team.
"Nobody moves unless I tell you."
The men nodded.
He walked slowly toward the staircase.
Every step felt heavier.
At the top of the stairs, the hallway was dark.
The lights flickered.
Then a shadow appeared.
A man stepped forward.
Luca stopped.
His face remained controlled.
But inside, everything collapsed.
Because the man standing in front of him was wearing the same black suit he had been buried in six years ago.
His father’s closest friend.
The man who had supposedly died protecting the Moretti family.
Adrian Vale.
"Hello, Luca."
Luca stared at him.
"No."
Adrian smiled slightly.
"That is usually the first thing people say when they see someone they buried."
The security guards behind Luca raised their weapons.
Adrian didn't react.
He simply looked at Luca.
"You should lower those."
"Why?"
"Because if I wanted your family dead, you would have arrived too late."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"Where have you been?"
Adrian looked past him.
Toward Elena.
"I think your mother knows."
Luca turned.
His mother looked away.
That was the moment everything changed.
Because Luca had spent his entire life believing his mother had always told him the truth.
Now, in one night, two people he trusted had hidden something from him.
His future wife.
His mother.
And a dead man standing in front of him.
Luca walked back downstairs.
"Everyone leaves."
Nobody questioned him.
The security team moved away.
Naomi remained.
Luca looked at her.
"You too."
Her expression changed.
"Luca, I was trying to help you."
"Leave."
"But your mother—"
"Leave."
The coldness in his voice made Naomi stop.
For the first time that night, she looked afraid.
She grabbed her purse and walked toward the entrance.
But before she reached the door, Luca noticed something.
A small flash drive attached to her keychain.
A black one.
With a silver mark.
The same symbol he had seen on documents from his father's old business files.
Luca remembered something.
Years ago, his father had told him:
"Never trust anyone who carries the key to a secret they didn't create."
Naomi noticed him looking.
She quickly covered it with her hand.
Too late.
Luca saw it.
"Where did you get that?"
Naomi froze.
"What?"
"The drive."
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
But Luca saw fear.
Real fear.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Luca stepped closer.
"You just lied."
Naomi shook her head.
"Luca, please. You don't understand."
"No."
His voice became quieter.
"You are right."
He looked at her.
"I don't understand anything anymore."
Naomi stared at him.
Then she whispered:
"Ask your mother what happened six years ago."
The words hung in the air.
Luca looked toward Elena.
His mother closed her eyes.
And that was enough.
Because Luca understood.
There was a story everyone knew except him.
Ten minutes later, Luca sat across from Adrian in his father's old office.
The room had not changed.
The same wooden desk.
The same photographs.
The same books.
But Luca felt like he was seeing everything for the first time.
"Start talking."
Adrian leaned back.
"Your father wasn't killed because of a business war."
Luca said nothing.
"He was investigating someone inside the family."
"Who?"
Adrian looked at him.
"Naomi's father."
Luca's expression hardened.
"What?"
"Your father discovered financial records proving that someone had been moving money out of the Moretti organization for years."
Luca stood.
"And you waited six years to tell me?"
"I was trying to protect you."
"By pretending to be dead?"
Adrian looked down.
"Yes."
Luca laughed once.
A cold, empty laugh.
"Everyone keeps saying they protected me."
He looked toward the window.
"My mother protected me."
"Yes."
"Naomi protected me."
Adrian didn't answer.
That silence was enough.
Luca turned.
"She was never trying to save my mother tonight, was she?"
Adrian's eyes moved toward him.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"Then why did she call me?"
Adrian reached into his jacket.
He placed a photograph on the desk.
Luca picked it up.
His blood ran cold.
The picture showed Naomi standing inside the Moretti mansion.
Not tonight.
Six years earlier.
Standing beside his father.
And beside them was another person.
Someone Luca recognized.
Someone who should have been impossible.
Because the third person in the photograph was...
Elena Moretti.
His mother.
Luca stared at the image.
"Why was my mother there?"
Adrian didn't respond.
Instead, he pulled out another item.
A small envelope.
"Your father left this for you."
Luca looked at it.
His name was written on the front.
In his father's handwriting.
For six years, Luca had believed there was nothing left from the man who raised him.
No final words.
No explanation.
No goodbye.
But now, holding the envelope, he felt something he hadn't felt since the night his father died.
Hope.
Then Adrian spoke.
"But before you open it..."
Luca looked up.
Adrian's face had changed.
"You need to know one thing."
"What?"
"Your father didn't die because someone betrayed him."
A pause.
"He died because he found out who the real traitor was."
Luca slowly opened the envelope.
Inside was a single piece of paper.
Only one sentence.
His father's handwriting.
"Luca, if you are reading this, it means your mother has already been replaced."
The lights in the office suddenly went out.
Then Luca heard a sound behind him.
A woman's voice whispered his name.
Not from Adrian.
Not from his mother.
From inside the locked room beside them.
May you like
"Luca..."
The door handle began to turn.
