Chapter 4 - The Letter Leo Never Sent
Matteo Viscari held the photograph like it was something alive.
Nobody in the conference room moved.
Nobody dared to speak.
Because the message written on the back was impossible.
The handwriting belonged to Leo.
The symbol belonged to Leo.
The warning sounded like Leo.
But Leo had been dead for nine years.
Clara watched Matteo’s fingers tighten around the photograph.
For the first time since she met him, she saw something beyond control.
She saw a man trying to understand how the past had returned.
“Mr. Viscari…”
The security officer stopped speaking when Matteo looked up.
“Everyone leaves.”
The executives immediately stood.
Nobody questioned him.
Within seconds, the conference room emptied.
Only Matteo, Clara, and Victor remained.
Victor stared at the photograph.
His face was unreadable.
But Clara noticed something.
He recognized it.
Not the photograph.
The message.
“You know what this is,” Clara said.
Victor looked at her.
“I know grief can make people see things that aren’t there.”
Matteo turned slowly.
“Leave.”
Victor looked surprised.
“Matteo—”
“I said leave.”
A long silence followed.
Victor nodded.
But before walking away, he looked at Clara.
A warning.
Not a threat.
Something worse.
Confidence.
Like he knew something she didn’t.
The door closed.
Matteo remained standing.
Clara looked at him.
“You believe it.”
He didn’t answer.
“You believe Leo wrote that.”
Matteo placed the photograph on the table.
“I know his handwriting.”
“Then why do you look like you’re trying to convince yourself it isn’t real?”
That question hit harder than she expected.
Matteo walked toward the window.
The city stretched below them.
Thousands of people.
Thousands of lives.
But he looked completely alone.
“Because if Leo knew something…”
He stopped.
Clara waited.
“He should have told me.”
The sadness in his voice was quiet.
Almost invisible.
But she heard it.
“He was my brother.”
A pause.
“My best friend.”
Matteo looked at the photograph.
“If he found something dangerous, he would have come to me.”
Clara thought about that.
“Unless he thought coming to you would put you in danger.”
Matteo turned.
“What?”
“Look at the message.”
She pointed.
“‘If you are reading this, they already know I found out.’”
She looked at him.
“He wasn’t warning you about what he discovered.”
She paused.
“He was warning you that someone was watching him.”
Matteo said nothing.
Because she was right.
Leo had not written like someone leaving information.
He had written like someone running out of time.
Matteo picked up the photograph again.
“Where was this found?”
“Inside your office.”
“No one enters my office without authorization.”
Clara looked at him.
“Apparently someone does.”
That answer made him uncomfortable.
Not because it was wrong.
Because it was true.
The most secure room in Viscari Holdings had been entered.
Documents had been changed.
Messages had been planted.
And someone knew exactly how to reach him.
Clara noticed something on the photograph.
“Wait.”
Matteo looked at her.
“What?”
She pointed at the corner.
“There’s a mark.”
A tiny crease.
Almost invisible.
Matteo examined it.
Then he turned the photograph over.
Behind it was a small compartment.
Hidden between the paper layers.
Inside was a thin piece of folded material.
Clara stared.
“What is that?”
Matteo carefully opened it.
It was not paper.
It was a memory card.
The room went silent.
A message from a dead man.
And now a secret hidden inside it.
Matteo looked at Clara.
“We need a secure computer.”
Twenty minutes later, they were inside a private analysis room.
No internet connection.
No outside access.
Only Matteo and Clara.
The memory card contained one folder.
No name.
No date.
Just one file.
Leo.
Matteo stared at the screen.
His breathing changed.
Clara noticed.
“Do you want me to open it?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation told her everything.
For nine years, Matteo had searched for answers about Leo’s death.
But now that the answer was in front of him…
he was afraid.
Finally, he nodded.
Clara clicked.
The screen went black.
Then a video appeared.
Leo.
Alive.
Laughing.
The image shook slightly, like it had been recorded secretly.
Matteo froze.
His brother looked exactly as he remembered.
The same smile.
The same careless expression.
The same person Matteo had lost.
“Matteo…”
Leo’s voice filled the room.
Matteo closed his eyes.
For a second, he was no longer the feared businessman.
He was just a brother hearing a lost voice.
Leo looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, something happened.”
He smiled sadly.
“I really hoped you’d never see this.”
Matteo leaned closer.
The video continued.
“I know you’ll blame yourself.”
A pause.
“You always do.”
Matteo looked away.
Clara watched him.
Because Leo knew him perfectly.
“I need you to listen carefully.”
Leo’s expression became serious.
“The attack wasn’t meant to kill me.”
The room froze.
Matteo looked back at the screen.
“It was meant for you.”
Clara felt a chill.
Everyone knew that.
Everyone believed that.
But hearing Leo say it made it different.
Leo continued.
“Someone inside the organization gave them information.”
Matteo whispered.
“No…”
Leo looked down briefly.
“I don’t know who.”
The video flickered.
“But I know they are close.”
Matteo’s hands tightened.
“Close enough to know our schedules.”
Leo looked back into the camera.
“Close enough to know what hurts you.”
The video paused.
Then Leo said the words that changed everything.
“Don’t trust the people who stood beside me after I died.”
Matteo went completely still.
Clara looked at him.
Because only one group of people had been beside Matteo after Leo’s death.
The Viscari inner circle.
The people he trusted most.
The video continued.
“I tried to find proof.”
Leo took a breath.
“I found part of it.”
He lifted a folder toward the camera.
“But someone found me first.”
A shadow moved behind him.
Leo immediately looked toward the door.
The video shook.
Then Leo lowered his voice.
“Matteo, if I don’t make it…”
The screen distorted.
“Don’t look for the person who wanted me dead.”
A pause.
“Look for the person who needed me gone.”
The video ended.
The room remained silent.
Clara looked at Matteo.
He did not move.
For several seconds.
Then he spoke.
“Play it again.”
She looked at him.
“Matteo—”
“Again.”
She replayed it.
They watched every second.
Every movement.
Every word.
Until Clara noticed something.
“Stop.”
The video froze.
Matteo looked at her.
“What?”
“Go back.”
She pointed at the background.
Behind Leo.
A reflection appeared in a glass cabinet.
A person standing outside the room.
Not clear.
But visible.
Matteo leaned closer.
The image was blurry.
Almost impossible to identify.
Almost.
Then Clara noticed the object in the person’s hand.
A silver watch.
Her eyes widened.
“Matteo.”
He looked at her.
“That watch.”
The color drained from his face.
Because he knew that watch.
He had seen it every day for fifteen years.
The person in the reflection was not a stranger.
It was someone who had stood beside the Viscari family for years.
Someone who had comforted Matteo after Leo’s death.
Someone who had helped him rebuild the empire.
Matteo whispered the name.
“Victor.”
May you like
And for the first time in nine years…
Matteo Viscari realized his brother’s killer might have been sitting beside him all along.
