Chapter 4 - The Man Who Controlled the Money
Luca reached for the door.
Elena grabbed his arm.
"No."
Daniel's voice came again.
"You have sixty seconds."
Marco looked through the window.
"Eight men. Maybe ten."
Matteo checked the rear exit.
"Blocked."
Luca turned to Elena.
"You stay in this room."
"Absolutely not."
"Elena."
"Daniel came here for me."
"Exactly."
"And if you walk outside alone, he'll use me anyway."
Luca stared at her.
She stared back.
Marco spoke quietly.
"She's right."
Luca gave him a murderous look.
Marco shrugged.
"Still right."
Daniel called, "Forty-five seconds."
Elena opened the steel door.
Luca caught her hand.
"If anything goes wrong—"
"It already has."
For one second, despite everything, he almost smiled.
Then it vanished.
They stepped into the storage room.
Marco and Matteo stayed behind them.
Luca opened the front door.
Cold night air rushed inside.
Daniel Price stood beneath a streetlight.
Fifty-two.
Silver hair.
Tailored camel coat.
No weapon visible.
Elena had known him for eight years.
He had attended her mother's memorial every year.
He had held her hand when the foundation nearly collapsed during the pandemic.
He had brought soup when Elena was sick.
Now armed men stood behind him.
Elena felt betrayed before he said a word.
"Daniel."
He looked almost relieved.
"Elena."
"You attacked me?"
"No."
Luca said, "Careful."
Daniel looked at him.
"If I'd attacked her, she wouldn't be standing there."
Luca stepped forward.
"You have exactly one chance to keep breathing."
Daniel smiled faintly.
"Victor used to say the same thing."
Luca's expression hardened.
"You knew my father."
"I worked for him."
Elena stared.
"You told me you met my mother after Victor died."
"I lied."
"About what else?"
"Enough."
Luca said, "Who ordered the crash?"
Daniel looked at Elena.
"Her mother knew."
Elena's chest tightened.
"My mother didn't kill Victor."
"No."
"Then who?"
Daniel nodded toward the storage building.
"You found the archive."
Nobody answered.
"I knew you would eventually."
Luca asked, "Why steal from the foundation?"
"To find it before someone else did."
"You moved fourteen million dollars."
"Temporarily."
Elena almost laughed.
"You stole money from shelters."
"I moved money through dormant accounts because your mother hid routing markers inside them."
"My mother trusted you."
Daniel's face changed.
"Yes."
"Did you betray her too?"
"No."
Luca took another step.
Daniel's men lifted weapons.
Marco and Matteo responded.
Elena moved between them.
"Stop!"
Everyone froze.
She looked at Daniel.
"If you wanted the archive, why threaten me?"
"I didn't."
"The man in the garage wore Victor's ring."
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
"You saw it?"
"Yes."
He looked genuinely concerned.
"Then we're in more trouble than I thought."
Luca said, "Explain."
Daniel glanced at his men.
He raised one hand.
They lowered their weapons.
"We need to get off this street."
Nobody moved.
Daniel sighed.
"The ring was Victor's authentication device."
Elena frowned.
"It opens something?"
"Several things."
Luca's gaze sharpened.
"Who has it?"
"I thought Dominic did."
Silence.
Matteo whispered, "My father?"
Daniel looked at him.
"Victor gave it to Dominic the night before he died."
Luca's face darkened.
"How do you know?"
"I was there."
"Where?"
"Victor's office."
Luca closed the distance between them.
"If you're lying—"
"I'm not."
Daniel held his ground.
"Victor discovered the name of the person selling the family from inside."
"Who?"
"He refused to tell me."
Luca stared.
"Convenient."
"He said fewer people knowing meant fewer people dying."
Elena asked, "Then why give Dominic the ring?"
"Because Dominic was supposed to move the archive."
Matteo shook his head.
"My father said he never knew where it was."
"He didn't."
Daniel glanced at the building.
"Because Elena's mother changed the plan."
Elena's heart raced.
"What plan?"
"She didn't trust Dominic."
Luca looked at her.
Daniel continued.
"Your mother took the archive before Victor died. She split the access keys. One went to Dominic. One stayed with her."
"The clasp."
"Probably."
"Why?"
"Because neither could open the archive alone."
Luca said, "Yet we just did."
"The part you found isn't the complete archive."
Elena felt a chill.
"What did we find?"
"A directory."
Marco muttered a curse.
Daniel said, "Names. accounts. evidence previews. Enough to scare anyone. Not enough to prove everything."
"Where's the rest?"
"That's what fourteen million dollars was helping me trace."
Elena glared.
"You could have told me."
"And put you in danger?"
"They nearly killed me anyway!"
Daniel's face tightened.
"I didn't know someone had started moving."
Luca asked, "Who?"
Daniel looked at him.
"The person Victor identified before he died."
"You keep avoiding the name."
"Because I don't know it."
Luca laughed once.
No humor.
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I know where the second key is."
Everyone went silent.
Elena stared.
"Where?"
Daniel looked at Matteo.
"In Dominic's possession."
Matteo shook his head.
"No."
"Ask him."
Luca said, "We will."
Daniel stepped closer.
"But don't confront him publicly."
"Why?"
"Because if Dominic has the key, someone may be watching him."
"He was already lying."
"That doesn't make him guilty."
Luca looked away.
The betrayal was eating at him.
Elena recognized it because she felt the same thing.
Everyone they trusted seemed to have hidden one more truth.
Daniel said, "There's another problem."
Luca faced him.
"The man in the garage."
"What about him?"
"If he had Victor's ring, then someone already took the key from Dominic."
Matteo pulled out his phone.
"I'll call him."
Daniel grabbed his wrist.
"No."
Matteo shoved him off.
"What are you doing?"
"If they're monitoring Dominic's communications, you'll alert them."
"Who is they?"
Daniel's eyes moved toward the dark street.
"The surviving members of the old council."
Luca said, "The council died with my father."
"No."
Daniel's answer was immediate.
"Victor thought he dismantled it."
"And?"
"He only forced it underground."
Elena asked, "What do they want?"
"The archive destroyed."
"Why now?"
Daniel looked at her.
"Because you activated the directory."
Elena felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.
"The laptop?"
"When you logged in, it probably sent an authentication signal."
Marco swore.
Luca looked toward the building.
"Can it be traced?"
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
They moved fast.
Marco grabbed the laptop.
Matteo called the rest of Luca's security team.
Daniel's men joined the convoy.
Trust wasn't established.
Necessity was.
They returned to the DeSantis mansion twenty-five minutes later.
The front gates were open.
Luca immediately knew something was wrong.
"They should be closed."
Marco accelerated.
Cars filled the circular drive.
But no guards stood outside.
Luca exited before the vehicle fully stopped.
Elena followed.
The front door was open.
Inside, silence.
"Marco."
"I know."
They entered.
The dining room was empty.
Plates remained on the table.
Wine glasses half full.
Chairs pushed back.
No guests.
No guards.
No Dominic.
No Teresa.
No Carlo.
Luca's face hardened.
Matteo ran upstairs.
"Mom!"
No answer.
Elena entered the library.
Rosa was gone too.
The doctor.
Gone.
Everyone.
Daniel looked around.
"This wasn't an evacuation."
Marco checked security.
"Cameras went dark fifteen minutes after we left."
"Internal?"
"Had to be."
Luca walked into the dining room.
He stared at the chair where Dominic had been sitting.
Then at Carlo's.
Elena followed.
Something lay on her plate.
A black-stone ring.
Victor's ring.
Luca stopped.
Nobody touched it.
Beside it was a folded card.
Elena opened it.
Two lines.
YOU FOUND THE FIRST DOOR.
NOW ASK DOMINIC WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER.
Elena's hands began trembling.
"My mother?"
Luca took the note.
Daniel swore quietly.
Matteo came back downstairs.
"They're gone."
Marco said, "All of them?"
"All."
Luca looked at Daniel.
"Tell me everything you know about Elena's mother."
Daniel hesitated.
Wrong move.
Luca grabbed his coat.
Elena stepped between them.
"Enough."
Luca released him.
Daniel straightened his collar.
"There was one night your mother disappeared."
Elena stared.
"When?"
"Six months before she was diagnosed."
"I don't remember."
"You were away at college."
"What happened?"
"She vanished for forty-eight hours."
"Where?"
"Dominic found her."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Where?"
Daniel looked at the ring on the table.
"In a warehouse owned by Victor."
Elena's knees weakened.
"Why was she there?"
Daniel shook his head.
"She never told me."
"Was she hurt?"
"Yes."
The room blurred.
"What kind of hurt?"
"Bruising around her throat."
Elena touched her own neck.
The same place.
Luca saw.
He closed his eyes.
Daniel continued softly.
"Exactly like yours."
Nobody spoke.
Elena's mother had been attacked.
Years ago.
Someone wearing Victor's ring had attacked Elena now.
The same threat.
The same archive.
The same family.
Marco's phone buzzed.
He checked it.
"Incoming security feed."
"From where?"
"The east gate."
The monitor flickered.
A car approached.
Black sedan.
It stopped outside the mansion.
Rear door opened.
Dominic stepped out.
Alone.
His hands raised.
Luca moved toward the entrance.
Then the camera image shifted.
Someone else emerged from the driver's side.
The man's face appeared under the gate light.
Luca stopped walking.
Matteo whispered, "No."
Elena looked at him.
"Who is that?"
Matteo couldn't answer.
Luca stared at the monitor.
The man outside was older now.
Gray at the temples.
A scar along his jaw.
But Luca knew the face.
He had seen it in photographs his entire life.
May you like
The dead man looked directly into the security camera.
Then Victor DeSantis smiled.
