Chapter 6 - The Man Who Buried Us
Dante stepped in front of me.
Vittorio noticed.
He smiled sadly.
“Always the same weakness.”
Dante said, “Protecting my family isn’t weakness.”
“It destroyed your father.”
“My father destroyed himself.”
Vittorio’s smile faded.
Sofia moved slightly.
Vittorio pointed another gun toward her.
“And you.”
Sofia stopped.
“You were always more trouble than your brother.”
“You told me he was dead.”
“And you believed me.”
“You told him the same about me.”
Vittorio shrugged.
“Children believe adults.”
Dante’s voice went quiet.
“We’re not children anymore.”
“No.”
Vittorio looked almost proud.
“That is the tragedy.”
Mercer was shaking.
“I did what you asked.”
Vittorio pressed the gun harder against his skull.
“You talked.”
“I wanted out.”
“There is no out.”
Dante glanced at the laptop.
The footage remained visible.
Vittorio followed his gaze.
“Destroy the drive.”
“No.”
“Elena dies first.”
My heartbeat slammed.
Dante did not look at me.
“If you wanted Elena dead, you would have shot her already.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Good.”
Dante continued.
“You need her alive because once the board discovers she survived, your evidence against me collapses.”
“Partially.”
“You also need Mercer.”
Vittorio’s expression shifted.
“Which means this gun is theater.”
Mercer looked hopeful.
Vittorio shot him.
The sound filled the vault.
Mercer fell.
I screamed.
Dante lunged.
Sofia moved at the same time.
Chaos.
Vittorio fired again.
The bullet hit the wall.
Dante slammed him into a shelf.
Hard drives crashed to the floor.
Sofia kicked the gun away.
I dropped beside Mercer.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes found mine.
“Video.”
“We have it.”
“No.”
He grabbed my wrist.
“Board…”
“What?”
“Live feed.”
Dante pinned Vittorio against the concrete.
Mercer whispered, “He planned to broadcast… edited footage…”
I understood.
Vittorio didn’t need the drive.
He had already prepared his version.
Mercer’s fingers loosened.
“Doctor?”
Nothing.
He was gone.
I looked up.
“Dante! The board meeting!”
Dante turned.
Vittorio laughed.
“Too late.”
Sofia checked her watch.
8:37.
The meeting began at nine.
We were nearly an hour away.
Dante dragged Vittorio upright.
“Call it off.”
“You think they’ll answer me?”
Dante tightened his grip.
Vittorio smiled.
“They already voted.”
Sofia stared.
“What?”
“Emergency session began at eight.”
Dante’s face changed.
Vittorio continued.
“By nine, federal agents will be waiting downstairs.”
Dante released him.
Not because he gave up.
Because he understood something.
He turned to me.
“The footage.”
“What about it?”
“We don’t take it to the board.”
Sofia understood.
“We send it everywhere.”
Vittorio stopped smiling.
Dante looked at his sister.
“News networks. Regulators. Federal prosecutors. Every board member. Every employee.”
Sofia nodded.
Vittorio shouted, “You’ll destroy the company.”
Dante looked at him.
“No. I’ll destroy the secrecy that let you control it.”
That sentence ended the Moretti empire as Vittorio knew it.
We uploaded everything.
Not only the hospital video.
The financial records.
Bribes.
Fake death certificates.
Surveillance logs.
Audio.
Years of blackmail documents from the vault.
Dante did what men like Vittorio never believed powerful men would do.
He exposed his own house to sunlight.
At 8:52, the first file reached the board.
At 8:54, a national network contacted Moretti Holdings.
At 8:56, federal investigators acknowledged receipt.
At 8:58, the board meeting stopped.
At 9:03, six directors withdrew their votes.
At 9:07, trading in Moretti Holdings was suspended.
At 9:11, Vittorio Moretti’s attorney called.
Dante answered on speaker.
“Mr. Moretti,” the attorney said, “my client would like to negotiate.”
Dante looked at Vittorio.
The old man’s face had become gray.
The man who buried us both was finally begging for the footage.
Dante said, “No negotiation.”
Vittorio stared at him.
“You’ll send your own uncle to prison?”
“You sent my children into hiding.”
“I made you.”
“No.”
Dante looked toward me.
“They did.”
Something inside me shifted.
For six years I had believed Dante Moretti’s love was dangerous because his world was dangerous.
Now I saw another truth.
His love could also be the reason he left that world behind.
Police sirens approached the estate.
Sofia had called them herself.
Vittorio listened.
“You think this ends with me?”
Dante said nothing.
“There are men on that board who will never accept those boys.”
My skin went cold.
Vittorio smiled.
“You revealed them.”
Dante stepped closer.
“So?”
“You gave the world three heirs.”
“So?”
“You painted targets on their backs.”
Dante’s eyes changed.
Vittorio whispered, “And one of your enemies already knows where they are.”
I stopped breathing.
Nico and Matteo.
They were at the penthouse.
Protected.
Luca too.
Dante grabbed his phone.
No signal inside the vault.
We ran upstairs.
Sofia called security while running.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dante tried the penthouse directly.
The call connected.
A child answered.
“Dad?”
Dante stopped moving.
It was Matteo.
“I’m here.”
“We played the dinosaur movie.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Good.”
“And the lady came.”
His eyes opened.
“What lady?”
“The one who said she knows Grandma.”
I grabbed the phone.
“Matteo, where is she?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Where are the guards?”
“They’re sleeping.”
My blood froze.
“Matteo, take your brothers into the bathroom and lock the door.”
“But she said—”
“Now.”
We heard footsteps on the line.
A woman’s voice.
“Matteo?”
Then the call ended.
Dante looked at me.
We ran.
The drive back became a blur.
Twenty-three minutes.
Dante made it in seventeen.
The penthouse door was open.
Two security men lay unconscious.
Not dead.
Drugged.
I ran down the hall.
“Boys!”
No answer.
The bathroom door was locked.
Dante kicked it open.
Empty.
A window stood open.
Curtain moving in the morning air.
On the mirror, someone had written a message in red lipstick.
DANTE KNOWS WHO I AM.
Sofia entered behind us.
She read it.
Then her face drained of color.
“No.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
Sofia looked at the handwriting.
“I know who wrote this.”
“Who?”
She whispered the name.
Dante went completely still.
The woman was not an enemy.
She was the wife of the one man Dante trusted more than anyone.
May you like
His security chief.
Marco Bellini.
