Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Inside the Family
“Open the door, Damian.”
Damian recognized the voice.
His uncle.
Thomas Moretti.
Damian opened the door only after security confirmed Thomas was alone.
Thomas entered wearing an expensive overcoat.
Sixty-three.
Silver-haired.
Calm.
The younger brother of Damian's late father.
He looked at Elena.
Then Lena.
His expression barely changed.
That was enough.
Damian understood.
“You knew.”
Thomas removed his gloves.
“About some of it.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Lena stared at him.
“Are you the traitor?”
Thomas looked offended.
“No.”
Damian held up the photograph.
“Then explain.”
Thomas sighed.
“Your father asked me to watch Elena.”
“Why?”
“To keep her alive.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“You did a terrible job.”
Thomas accepted the insult.
“Yes.”
He sat.
Twenty-six years earlier, Antonio Moretti had discovered someone inside his organization was feeding information to Salvi.
Antonio suspected three people.
One was Thomas.
That suspicion destroyed the brothers' relationship.
Thomas spent years proving his innocence.
The actual traitor disappeared before Antonio could expose him.
“Who?” Damian asked.
Thomas looked toward Lena.
“Your father.”
Lena blinked.
“My father is dead.”
“Christopher Hale wasn't your father.”
Elena stood.
“Stop.”
Lena turned toward her.
“What?”
Elena shook her head.
“Thomas is lying.”
“Am I?”
Damian stepped between them.
“Enough riddles.”
Thomas looked at Lena.
“Christopher Hale agreed to have his name used if necessary. He was Elena's friend.”
Lena's chest tightened.
“Then who was my father?”
Thomas didn't answer.
Elena did.
“Antonio.”
Silence.
Damian's father.
Lena stared at Damian.
The relationship shifted again.
Not cousins.
Half-siblings.
Damian sat down.
For once, he had no words.
Lena almost whispered, “You're my brother?”
Damian looked at her.
Apparently even Chicago's most feared man could look completely lost.
“Yes.”
Elena explained.
Antonio had been married.
He loved his wife.
But during a period of separation, he and Elena had made a mistake that became something neither considered a mistake after Lena was born.
Antonio wanted to acknowledge his daughter.
Elena refused because it would expose Lena to Salvi.
Then the ledger complicated everything.
Salvi learned the baby might be Antonio's.
That made Lena leverage.
So Elena disappeared.
Damian's mother eventually reconciled with Antonio without knowing the full truth.
“Did my mother know?” Damian asked.
“Not about Lena,” Elena said.
Pain crossed his face.
“My father lied to her.”
“Yes.”
Damian walked away.
Lena understood that grief.
Every new truth required mourning an older one.
Thomas continued.
“The traitor learned Lena existed.”
“Who?” Damian demanded.
Thomas hesitated.
Then said the name.
“Marcus Bell.”
Damian froze.
Marcus Bell was Damian's godfather.
His father's closest friend.
A man who had attended every Moretti Christmas.
A man Damian still trusted.
A man who had access to the mansion.
Security.
Bank contacts.
Everything.
Damian immediately called his chief.
“Find Marcus.”
The answer came seconds later.
Marcus wasn't home.
His phone was off.
Thomas looked unsurprised.
“He knows.”
“How?”
“Because Robert works for him.”
Lena thought of twenty years of Robert Kane.
His marriage to Evelyn.
His questions.
His violence.
All of it connected to a man she'd met without knowing.
Marcus had even visited the mansion during her first week working there.
He had looked directly at her.
Had he recognized her?
A memory surfaced.
Marcus staring at her wrist when she carried a tray.
The birthmark.
Lena felt sick.
“He knows who I am.”
Damian nodded.
“We move everyone somewhere secure.”
Thomas stood.
“Not your mansion.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus designed part of the security system.”
Damian swore.
They relocated to an old Moretti property near Lake Michigan.
No staff.
No networked cameras.
Only Damian's most trusted security.
For several hours, nobody spoke about family.
Lena sat beside a window holding the gold necklace Elena had saved.
Damian entered.
He placed two mugs of coffee on the table.
“I don't drink coffee.”
He looked at her.
“You worked overnight as a maid and don't drink coffee?”
“Tea.”
“This family relationship is already under strain.”
She laughed quietly.
Then silence returned.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
“Good.”
She looked at him.
“Good?”
“I'd be concerned if either of us thought this was normal.”
Lena smiled.
Then looked at her bruised arm.
“I'm sorry you found me like that.”
Damian frowned.
“You're apologizing because someone hurt you?”
“No. Because it started all this.”
“This started before either of us was born.”
He sat opposite her.
“And for what it's worth, I'm glad I walked into that room.”
“Why?”
“Because otherwise you would've gone home to Robert.”
Lena looked away.
He was right.
“I thought staying was helping Mom.”
“You were sacrificing yourself.”
“There's a difference?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Helping someone shouldn't require letting another person destroy you.”
The sentence landed.
Lena swallowed.
Damian continued.
“I've spent most of my life confusing those things too.”
She studied him.
The feared boss.
The controlled man.
The brother she'd met hours ago.
“Did you really mean it?”
“What?”
“That you wouldn't let Robert touch me again.”
“Yes.”
“You can't promise that.”
“No.”
Damian looked toward the dark lake.
“But I can promise you won't face him alone.”
Lena nodded.
That was a promise she could accept.
Elena entered carrying an old leather notebook.
“The second copy.”
Damian stood.
“You have it?”
“Not exactly.”
She opened the notebook.
Inside was a sequence of numbers.
“Coordinates?”
“Bank boxes.”
“No.”
Elena pointed.
“Page references.”
“To what?”
“The original ledger.”
Damian stared.
“You know where it is?”
“I know where Antonio hid it.”
Thomas entered behind her.
“Where?”
Elena looked at Damian.
“Your mother's grave.”
Damian's face hardened.
Elena explained that Antonio had hidden the ledger inside a sealed compartment beneath the stone base of the family mausoleum.
He believed nobody connected to organized crime would risk disturbing his wife's resting place.
Damian looked furious.
“My father hid criminal evidence beneath my mother's grave?”
“Antonio had a sense of irony.”
“He had several other problems too.”
They left before sunrise.
Damian.
Lena.
Elena.
Thomas.
Four security men.
The Moretti family mausoleum stood inside a private cemetery outside Chicago.
Damian unlocked the gate.
They entered.
Behind a stone panel they found a metal case.
Inside was the ledger.
Still intact.
Lena exhaled.
“This can end it?”
Elena nodded.
“It can expose everyone who survived.”
Thomas opened the ledger.
His face changed.
“What?”
He turned several pages.
One had been removed.
Elena stared.
“No.”
“What was on it?” Damian asked.
“The list of current accounts.”
A phone vibrated.
Lena's.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Evelyn sat tied to a chair.
Lena screamed.
They had believed Evelyn was safe at the lake house.
The next message appeared.
BRING THE LEDGER.
Then another.
NO POLICE.
Then a final photograph.
Marcus Bell stood behind Evelyn.
Beside him was Robert Kane.
May you like
Robert smiled into the camera.
And in his hand was the missing page.
