Chapter 8 - A Betrayal Wearing His Name
Adrian's guards opened the door.
Howard Price stood outside.
Blood ran from his temple.
His jacket was torn.
And in his hand was a folded sheet of yellowed paper.
Clara stared.
"You called me thirty seconds ago."
"I was at the gate."
"You said they found you."
"They did."
Behind him, a black sedan burned near the road.
Howard stepped inside.
Adrian reached for the paper.
Howard pulled it away.
"Clara first."
Adrian's eyes hardened.
"You're standing in my house."
"And that's precisely why she reads it first."
Clara took the page.
Howard watched her face.
"Read the last entry."
She did.
October 14.
Payment authorization.
$6,000,000.
Purpose: removal of Samuel Moretti.
Authorized by—
Clara stopped.
Her stomach tightened.
Adrian stepped closer.
"Who?"
Howard whispered, "I told you."
Clara looked at the name again.
ADRIAN MORETTI.
Impossible.
Adrian had been thirteen.
She examined the signature.
It matched his current corporate signature almost perfectly.
Too perfectly.
"It's forged."
Adrian took the page.
His expression didn't change.
"Obviously."
Howard shook his head.
"No."
Clara looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"The signature was authenticated."
"By whom?"
"Samuel."
Silence.
Clara took the sheet again.
There was a notarization code.
Date: three months before Samuel's death.
Adrian was thirteen.
Unless—
"This isn't your signature."
Adrian looked at her.
"It says my name."
"No. It says Adrian Moretti."
She looked toward Dominic.
"Was there another Adrian in the family?"
Dominic went pale.
Howard answered.
"Samuel's father."
Adrian's grandfather.
Clara remembered family succession structures often reused names.
"When did he die?"
"Two months after Samuel."
Adrian stared at the page.
"My grandfather ordered my father's murder?"
Dominic whispered, "No."
Everyone looked at him.
Dominic sat.
"I did."
Adrian's expression emptied.
"What?"
Dominic looked at the floor.
"I used Father's authorization."
Clara felt cold.
"You forged the purpose."
Dominic nodded.
"The six million wasn't for Samuel."
"What was it for?"
"To get Gabriel out."
Adrian stared.
Dominic continued.
"After the explosion, Gabriel survived. Carlo's men were looking for him. I paid six million to move him overseas under a new identity."
Howard looked stunned.
"Then page 117 was altered."
"Yes."
"By Bellandi?"
Dominic nodded.
"He wanted anyone who found it to believe the Morettis killed Samuel."
Clara finally understood Gabriel's hatred.
For twenty years, he had possessed evidence apparently proving his own family had ordered his father's death.
Carlo had poisoned him with a lie.
"Gabriel thinks Dominic killed Samuel," Clara said.
"Yes."
"And he thinks Adrian inherited an empire purchased with Samuel's blood."
Dominic closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Clara looked at the ledger.
Carlo's greatest weapon wasn't violence.
It was narrative.
He made everyone believe the wrong betrayal.
She turned to Howard.
"Why did you take the page?"
"Samuel gave it to me."
"You knew him?"
"I was twenty-six. Junior accountant."
Howard looked ashamed.
"He discovered discrepancies. I helped him trace them."
"Then why work with Gabriel?"
"Because Gabriel found me last year."
"And paid you."
Howard nodded.
"He believed I could help expose Carlo."
"The million dollars?"
"Funding for the investigation."
Clara felt anger rise.
"You could've told me."
"I was trying to keep you outside it."
"You sent me into the middle."
"No."
Howard looked directly at her.
"I told you to review a routine packet."
"Then who told me to wear red?"
Howard frowned.
"I never did."
Clara stopped.
The email.
She had assumed it came from Howard because it used his address.
Spoofed.
Elena had admitted engineering the misunderstanding.
She wanted Clara mistaken for Vivienne.
Why?
To force Adrian to reveal documents.
But there was something else.
Elena had been Gabriel's prisoner.
Could Clara trust her?
Adrian saw the thought.
"Elena."
Clara nodded.
"She told us she sent the complete packet."
"Maybe she sent more than that."
Howard looked confused.
"Elena is alive?"
"Yes."
His face changed.
Not relief.
Fear.
"Then you need to get away from her."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Why?"
Howard stared at him.
"Because Elena Rossi isn't an analyst."
Silence.
"She worked in internal audit," Adrian said.
"No."
Howard shook his head.
"That identity was created six years ago."
Clara's pulse quickened.
"Created by whom?"
Howard looked at the ledger.
"Carlo Bellandi."
Everything stopped.
Clara replayed every conversation.
Elena giving them the warehouse location.
Elena explaining the poison pill.
Elena accusing Dominic.
Elena directing them toward the ledger.
What if she'd never been imprisoned?
What if the warehouse had been staged?
Adrian reached for his phone.
Before he could call, an alarm sounded.
Security.
One guard ran into the study.
"Boss."
"What?"
"Elena is gone."
Adrian's face hardened.
"The ledger."
Everyone looked at the desk.
The black leather book was still there.
Clara opened it.
Pages.
All intact except 117.
Then she saw the inside back cover.
A small rectangular indentation.
Empty.
"What was here?"
Dominic stared.
"The key."
"What key?"
"Samuel kept a physical authentication token inside the ledger."
Clara felt her stomach drop.
"The second Orpheus key."
Dominic nodded.
"Elena has it."
Adrian grabbed his jacket.
Howard looked toward the window.
"Too late."
Headlights moved down the driveway.
Elena was leaving.
Then Clara's phone buzzed.
A message from Elena.
THANK YOU FOR FINDING IT.
Another arrived.
DON'T COME AFTER ME.
Then a photograph.
Vivienne.
Alive.
May you like
Sitting beside Elena in the back seat of a car.
And between them sat Carlo Bellandi.
