Chapter 5 - The Secret Hidden in Elena's Event Files
Elena couldn't breathe.
Her mother.
Margaret Brooks.
Alive.
Standing inside the red room.
And beside her—
Richard Brooks.
Elena's father.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
Thin.
But alive.
"Dad?"
The word broke inside her throat.
Richard stepped forward.
Elena backed away.
He stopped instantly.
Pain crossed his face.
"Ellie."
Nobody had called her that since she was sixteen.
Her knees weakened.
Dante caught her elbow.
Richard looked at his hand touching her.
Something like relief appeared.
"You're protecting her."
Dante's voice was cold.
"At the moment, I'm deciding whether to shoot both of you."
Margaret said, "That would be inconvenient."
Elena stared at her mother.
"You knew."
Margaret's face crumpled.
"Elena—"
"You knew he was alive."
"Yes."
Seventeen years.
Birthdays.
Graduation.
Her first business contract.
Her father's empty chair at every Christmas dinner.
Her mother had known.
Elena slapped her.
The sound filled the room.
Nobody moved.
Margaret touched her cheek.
"I deserved that."
"Seventeen years!"
"I know."
"You watched me mourn him!"
"I know."
"Why?"
Richard stepped forward.
"Because the people hunting us believed I died."
Elena turned on him.
"And you let your daughter believe it too."
"If they knew I survived, they'd use you."
"They're using me now!"
Richard closed his eyes.
"I know."
Dante lowered his weapon slightly.
"Explain everything."
Richard looked toward him.
"You look like Carlo."
Dante's face hardened.
"Don't."
Richard nodded.
"Fair."
Margaret locked the red door.
"The network your father discovered never disappeared."
Dante held up the ledger.
"Who ran it?"
Richard looked at Sofia's photograph.
"We thought it was someone inside the Moretti family."
"Who?"
"We never proved it."
"Then why bring Elena into this?"
"We didn't."
Elena stared at him.
"What?"
Richard looked genuinely alarmed.
"Someone else orchestrated your presence at the mansion."
Margaret added, "The pendant wasn't our idea."
Dante's expression changed.
"Isabella planted it."
"Isabella believed instructions came from us," Richard said. "They didn't."
Elena thought back.
"Then who sent her the photograph of Matteo?"
Richard nodded.
"The same person manipulating all of you."
Dante asked:
"Is Matteo alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"We don't know."
Elena looked at her father.
"And the masked videos?"
"Those were Margaret."
Her mother nodded.
"We needed you to find this room because someone has been searching for it for years."
"Why not just contact us?"
Richard looked at Elena.
"Because we didn't know whether Dante was compromised."
Dante laughed coldly.
"So you endangered Elena to test me?"
"No."
"We only intended the video to reach you after Elena was already publicly connected to you."
Elena frowned.
"Already?"
Margaret nodded.
"Someone predicted the engagement before it happened."
Dante became still.
"Who?"
"That's the problem."
Richard opened the filing cabinet.
Inside were dozens of folders.
He removed one labeled E.B.
Elena took it.
Her entire life.
School records.
Employment.
Addresses.
Photographs.
Then business contracts.
Events she had planned.
Dante looked over her shoulder.
Someone had tracked Elena for years.
At the back was a list of upcoming events.
The Moretti Gala was circled.
Beside it:
CONTACT: ISABELLA VESCARI.
Elena felt sick.
"They planned this before Isabella hired me."
"Yes," Richard said.
"Who had these files?"
"We found copies in an abandoned office connected to the network."
Margaret pulled out another folder.
D.M.
Dante Moretti.
His life.
His businesses.
His relationships.
His routines.
The final page contained two lines.
BROOKS DAUGHTER + MORETTI SON.
PUBLIC UNION REQUIRED.
Dante read it twice.
"Why?"
Richard shook his head.
"We don't know."
Elena looked at the fake engagement ring on her hand.
Someone had wanted this.
Not just access.
Not just scandal.
A union.
Dante asked:
"What happens after the public union?"
Richard opened another envelope.
A photograph.
Dante and Elena, edited together years before they had met.
Below them:
PHASE TWO: SUCCESSION.
Elena whispered:
"What succession?"
Richard looked toward Dante.
"Your father wasn't merely investigating theft."
Dante waited.
"He discovered a hidden ownership structure."
"Of what?"
"Everything."
Richard pointed toward the ledger.
"Moretti companies. Vescari companies. Shell corporations. Political donations. Shipping routes."
Dante frowned.
"Controlled by one network."
"Yes."
"And succession?"
"Whoever controls both bloodlines gains legal access to assets created through the original partnerships."
Elena stared.
"My bloodline?"
Richard nodded.
"You think you were just an accountant's daughter."
Apparently not.
Margaret spoke quietly.
"Your grandfather, Samuel Brooks, was the attorney who created the original trusts."
Elena turned.
"What?"
"Those trusts contain billions."
Dante exhaled slowly.
"And joining Elena to me activates something."
Richard nodded.
"A clause."
"Marriage?"
"Marriage between designated heirs."
Elena laughed in disbelief.
"This is medieval."
"No," Richard said. "It's corporate."
"Worse."
Dante looked at her.
Despite everything, a faint smile touched his face.
Then a gunshot blasted through the door.
Everyone ducked.
Dante pulled Elena behind the desk.
Richard drew a weapon.
Margaret did too.
Elena stared.
"Mom!"
"Later."
More shots.
The lock broke.
Dante's guards shouted from outside.
Then Isabella's voice:
"Dante!"
He opened the door.
Isabella ran inside.
Blood stained her sleeve.
"Matteo," she gasped.
"What?"
"They moved him."
"Where?"
"I know where."
Richard stared at her.
"How?"
Isabella looked at him.
"Because he called me."
Everyone froze.
"He said the person behind this is inside the Moretti mansion right now."
Dante's expression changed.
"My mother."
"No," Isabella said quickly. "She's not the target."
"Who is?"
Isabella swallowed.
"The person controlling the network wants Sofia to sign something."
Dante grabbed his phone.
No signal.
Jammer.
Richard cursed.
"We have to go."
Dante turned toward Elena.
"You stay here."
"No."
"Elena."
"My mother has a gun, my dead father is alive, and apparently my marriage can unlock a billion-dollar criminal trust. I'm done staying anywhere."
Richard almost smiled.
"That's my daughter."
Elena glared at him.
"You're still in trouble."
"Understood."
They moved.
Outside, the corridor was empty except for one wounded guard.
Dante crouched beside him.
"Who attacked?"
"Not sure."
The guard handed him a phone.
"One message came through before the jammer."
Dante read it.
His face went still.
Elena looked over his shoulder.
A photograph showed Sofia sitting in the Moretti library.
Across from her sat a man.
Dante whispered:
"No."
Elena recognized him from the gala.
The senior security adviser.
Marco Bellini.
The man who had served the Morettis for twenty-five years.
The man who knew every code.
Every camera.
Every weakness.
Beneath the photograph was a message.
THE FOURTH PARTNER HAS BEEN WAITING INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Marco."
Richard's expression darkened.
"I knew his face."
"From where?"
Richard stared at the photograph.
"The night your father died."
Elena's phone suddenly rang.
Marco Bellini.
Dante motioned for silence.
Elena answered.
"Hello?"
Marco's calm voice came through.
"Miss Brooks."
She swallowed.
"Where is Sofia?"
"Safe."
Dante's eyes burned.
Marco continued.
"For the moment."
"What do you want?"
"What I've wanted for seventeen years."
"The trust."
"Very good."
Elena's skin crawled.
"And what does that have to do with me?"
Marco laughed softly.
"Everything."
A pause.
"Come back to the mansion with Dante. Bring the red ledger."
"And if we don't?"
"You've already lost enough parents once, haven't you?"
Elena looked at Richard.
Marco knew he was alive.
Then Marco said:
"One more thing."
Elena waited.
"Don't tell Dante what your father wrote on page ninety-seven."
The line went dead.
Everyone turned toward Richard.
Dante slowly opened the ledger.
Page ninety-seven.
Richard whispered:
"Don't."
Dante found it.
He read one line.
Then another.
His face changed.
Elena reached for the book.
"What does it say?"
Dante looked at her.
For the first time since she'd met him, there was hurt in his eyes.
He turned the ledger around.
Richard Brooks's handwriting filled the page.
May you like
CARLO MORETTI MUST DIE BEFORE DANTE LEARNS THE TRUTH.
And beneath it was Richard's signature.
