Chapter 4 - The Dead Man’s Secret
Dante drew Abigail behind him.
Marco moved toward the opening door.
A nurse stepped inside carrying medication.
Everyone froze.
The nurse froze too.
“Mr. Russo?”
Dante lowered his hand.
Abigail nearly laughed from the absurd release of tension.
Almost.
The nurse changed Russo’s IV and left quickly.
When the door closed again, nobody spoke.
Abigail finally looked at Dante.
“Your father is alive?”
“No.”
“My mother said—”
“I heard her.”
“You buried him?”
“I watched the coffin lower.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Dante’s expression tightened.
“I identified him after the fire.”
“What fire?”
“My father’s country house burned eight years ago.”
“You said he died.”
“He did.”
“Did you see his face?”
A long silence.
“No.”
Abigail closed her eyes.
Russo stared at Dante.
“You never told me that.”
“Nobody asked.”
Marco approached.
“Boss, if Antonio survived—”
“He didn’t.”
But Dante no longer sounded certain.
The next several hours shattered assumptions Dante had lived with for nearly a decade.
The official death certificate showed dental identification.
The dentist who signed it had retired immediately afterward.
His current address was empty.
The country house fire investigator had died two years later.
The coffin had never been opened again.
And Antonio Moretti’s personal physician had moved to Argentina three months after the funeral.
Abigail watched Dante search records in silence.
At noon, Marco found something else.
A property purchased six years ago through a trust.
The trust was controlled by a company.
The company was controlled by another company.
The final attorney on record had once represented Antonio Moretti.
The property stood two hours north.
A private rehabilitation estate.
Registered resident:
Anthony Moran.
Age seventy-one.
Abigail looked at Dante.
“Antonio Moretti would be seventy-one.”
“Yes.”
“Anthony Moran.”
“Same initials.”
“Yes.”
“Are we going?”
Dante stared at the address.
“I am.”
“So am I.”
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“You told me I could walk out whenever I wanted.”
“You can.”
“Then I’m walking toward your car.”
Dante almost smiled.
“Fine.”
They drove north with Marco and four security men.
The estate looked nothing like a hideout.
White fences.
Medical gardens.
A brick residence surrounded by old trees.
Inside, a receptionist checked the name.
“Mr. Moran receives no visitors.”
Dante placed a photograph on the desk.
Antonio Moretti.
Taken ten years earlier.
“Does this man live here?”
The receptionist looked at it.
Her face changed.
“I can’t disclose—”
Dante leaned closer.
“I’m his son.”
Ten minutes later, a doctor escorted them into a private garden.
An old man sat beneath a covered terrace.
Gray hair.
Thin hands.
A cane.
Abigail looked toward Dante.
Dante stopped walking.
The old man slowly raised his head.
Same eyes.
Same nose.
Older.
Weaker.
But unmistakable.
“Dante.”
Dante’s face became stone.
Antonio Moretti smiled faintly.
“You took your time.”
Abigail felt as if she were intruding on something impossible.
Dante walked forward.
“You’re dead.”
“Legally.”
“For eight years.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury you.”
Antonio looked toward Abigail.
“Gabriel’s daughter.”
Dante’s entire posture changed.
“You know her?”
Antonio nodded.
Abigail stepped forward.
“You knew my father?”
“Very well.”
“Did you kill him?”
Antonio’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
“Did you order someone else to?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Antonio looked toward Dante.
“Luca Serrano.”
Abigail’s eyes burned.
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel found the Gray Ledger.”
“My father gave it to my mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“I told him to.”
Dante looked at his father.
“You created the ledger.”
“I created the first version.”
“Why?”
“To know where money went.”
“You bribed officials.”
Antonio gave him a tired look.
“You expected morality from me?”
“I expected honesty from a dead man.”
That silenced Antonio.
Dante continued.
“Why fake your death?”
“Because Luca was building a second organization inside mine.”
“Matteo?”
“Recruited later.”
“Russo?”
“No.”
“Why not tell me?”
“You were twenty-six.”
“I was your son.”
“You were not ready.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“And apparently abandoning me made me ready.”
Antonio looked away.
Abigail understood something then.
Power did not protect families from being broken.
Sometimes it merely made the damage more expensive.
“My mother,” Abigail said.
Antonio looked at her.
“Where is she?”
“If Elena followed our plan, she has gone somewhere Luca cannot reach easily.”
“What plan?”
Antonio stood slowly using his cane.
“Gabriel discovered the ledger in one of my cars. He confronted me.”
Abigail stared.
“He confronted you?”
“Your father had courage.”
“He had children.”
“He told me that too.”
“What happened?”
“I explained Luca had altered entries to frame certain people and protect others.”
“Why?”
“To create leverage.”
Dante frowned.
“Against whom?”
“Everyone.”
Antonio walked to a small fountain.
“Your father had already copied several pages. I asked him to hold the authentication notebook while I removed Luca.”
“But Luca killed him.”
Antonio closed his eyes.
“Before I could act.”
Abigail’s voice shook.
“And you did nothing?”
“I moved Elena and you into protection.”
Abigail laughed.
“Protection?”
“You were never attacked.”
“My mother lived terrified for seventeen years.”
“You survived.”
“My father didn’t.”
Antonio looked ashamed.
She continued.
“And Matteo put me into a debt system.”
Antonio’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Dante watched him.
“Luca rebuilt under Salerno Lending.”
Antonio sat again.
For the first time, he looked genuinely shocked.
“That operation was shut down.”
“Apparently not.”
Antonio gripped his cane.
“Then Luca has more resources than I thought.”
Abigail moved closer.
“My mother called me.”
Antonio looked at her.
“She said the ledger names were changed.”
“Yes.”
“She said you were alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why tell me now?”
Antonio frowned.
“She shouldn’t have.”
“She sounded afraid.”
Antonio stood suddenly.
“Repeat exactly what she said.”
Abigail did.
His face changed.
“That was not a warning.”
“What?”
“It was a code.”
Dante looked at him.
“For what?”
Antonio turned toward the doctor.
“Bring my phone.”
The doctor hesitated.
“Mr. Moran—”
“Now.”
Minutes later Antonio dialed an old number.
Disconnected.
Then another.
A voicemail answered.
He entered four digits.
A recording began.
Elena Vega’s voice.
“If you hear this, Luca has the notebook.”
Abigail covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“He still needs the original Gray Ledger to match the authentication sequence. I moved it before Gabriel died. Antonio knows where.”
Dante stared at his father.
Antonio looked suddenly alarmed.
The message continued.
“If Abigail is with you, tell her I’m sorry. I hid everything because I wanted her to have a normal life.”
Abigail’s eyes filled.
“I love you, Abby.”
Then another voice entered the recording.
Male.
Calm.
“Mrs. Vega.”
Elena gasped.
The recording ended.
Abigail turned toward Antonio.
“Where is the original ledger?”
Antonio did not answer.
“Where?”
He looked toward Dante.
“The Moretti house.”
Dante stared.
“What?”
“I never removed it.”
“You lived there for decades.”
“That was the point.”
“Where?”
Antonio took his cane and struck the marble terrace once.
“Beneath the kitchen.”
Abigail’s blood ran cold.
The basement kitchen.
The room where she had been scrubbing copper pans.
The room where Dante found her.
Antonio continued.
“There is a sealed chamber behind the western wine wall.”
Dante called Marco.
“Get everyone back to the house.”
Marco dialed.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Dante’s face changed.
Security feeds appeared on his phone.
Black screens.
Every camera at the Moretti residence was offline.
Then one feed flickered alive.
The basement kitchen.
Someone stood beside the sink.
A tall man wearing a dark coat.
Abigail recognized the silver watch.
Luca Serrano slowly looked directly into the camera.
Then he raised a hand.
May you like
Behind him, tied to a chair, sat Elena Vega.
And Luca pointed toward the wall.
