Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Knew Everything
Marco stopped when he saw their faces.
"What happened?"
Nobody answered.
Vincent quietly moved between Marco and Amelia.
Marco noticed.
"Boss?"
Dante looked at the screen.
The message disappeared automatically.
Marco hadn't seen it.
Vincent said, "Where are the others?"
"West corridor."
"Go back."
Marco frowned.
"You called me."
"No, I didn't."
Silence.
Marco reached toward his earpiece.
Dante said, "Don't."
Marco stopped.
Vincent's voice became quiet.
"Who told you I called?"
"Enzo."
Amelia looked at Dante.
"Enzo is missing."
Marco's confusion appeared genuine.
"He just contacted me."
"Where?"
"Security room."
Vincent exchanged a look with Dante.
"Stay here."
Marco nodded.
Vincent, Dante, Amelia, and Elena moved toward security.
For the first time, the brothers walked side by side.
Amelia watched them.
Vincent controlled.
Dante restless.
Two men who looked different but shared the same habit of scanning every doorway before passing it.
"How long have you known about my father?" Amelia asked Dante.
"Nine months."
She stopped.
"You knew for nine months?"
Dante turned.
"I found one of his old messages."
"And said nothing?"
"I didn't know whether it was real."
"You knew enough to use me."
"I knew you were the only person who could follow the accounts."
"Everybody keeps saying that like it's a compliment."
Dante lowered his voice.
"It is."
"It doesn't feel like one."
Vincent looked at his brother.
"You should have told her."
Dante gave him a bitter smile.
"Interesting advice from you."
Vincent stopped.
"What does that mean?"
Dante continued walking.
"Ask Dad's ledger."
They reached security.
The door was open.
Inside, dozens of monitors showed static.
Enzo wasn't there.
One chair slowly rotated.
Amelia noticed a coffee cup beside the keyboard.
Still steaming.
"Someone was here seconds ago."
Elena checked the back exit.
Locked.
Dante approached the control console.
"The blackout was initiated locally."
"From here?" Vincent asked.
"Yes."
Amelia noticed a blinking icon.
"What's that?"
Dante clicked it.
A recorded video opened.
Richard Vale appeared.
Silver hair.
Expensive suit.
Calm smile.
Vincent went still.
Richard had advised the Moretti family for nearly thirty years.
The recording began.
"If you're watching this, Vincent, then Amelia Barrett found what her father left behind."
Amelia stepped closer.
Richard continued.
"Jonathan always underestimated the cost of loyalty."
Vincent's hands curled.
Dante whispered, "Keep listening."
"You've probably blamed Dante by now. That was intentional. Brothers are remarkably easy to divide when money is involved."
Dante looked at Vincent.
Neither spoke.
Richard smiled at the camera.
"The interesting question isn't whether Dante betrayed you."
He paused.
"It's whether your father did."
The recording ended.
Amelia immediately searched the file metadata.
"This was uploaded tonight."
"From where?" Vincent asked.
She checked.
Her stomach dropped.
"Accounting."
"My office?"
"Yes."
Someone had accessed her computer after she left.
Dante swore under his breath.
Amelia remembered the footsteps outside.
The pause.
Someone had been waiting.
"Richard was downstairs."
Vincent said, "Or someone working for him."
Dante restored one camera.
The accounting corridor appeared.
At 11:34, Amelia left.
Thirty seconds later, a figure entered.
The face wasn't visible.
The figure stayed three minutes.
Then emerged.
Amelia leaned closer.
"Pause."
Dante froze the image.
A hand was visible.
On one finger was a distinctive ring.
Vincent stared.
"No."
Amelia looked at him.
"Whose is it?"
Vincent didn't answer.
Dante did.
"Our father's."
Amelia turned sharply.
"Your father is dead."
Dante stared at the screen.
"So is yours."
Nobody laughed.
Amelia magnified the frame.
The ring had a black stone engraved with an M.
Vincent remembered his father wearing it every day.
He had also remembered seeing it inside the coffin.
But memory was suddenly unreliable.
"What if neither death was what we were told?" Amelia asked.
Elena shook her head.
"Salvatore's body was identified."
"By whom?"
Elena hesitated.
"Richard Vale."
The room became silent.
Vincent turned away.
Everything he believed about his father's death had depended on a man now openly manipulating them.
Dante opened another camera archive.
"There's one place Richard never knew about."
"Where?"
"Father's private records room."
Vincent stared at him.
"You knew about that?"
"I found it last year."
"You keep finding rooms in my building."
"You keep refusing to look."
Vincent nearly snapped back.
Amelia interrupted.
"Fight later."
Both brothers looked at her.
"We have a live problem now."
That stopped them.
Dante led them downstairs through a service staircase.
They reached a storage area beneath the lounge.
Behind shelving was an old steel door.
Dante entered a code.
Wrong.
He tried another.
Wrong.
Amelia looked at the keypad.
Four digits were worn more heavily.
"What's 1974?"
Vincent answered.
"My father's birth year."
Amelia entered it.
The door unlocked.
Dante stared at her.
"Show-off."
"Bookkeeper."
Inside were shelves of documents.
Boxes.
Old photographs.
Cassette tapes.
Hard drives.
Amelia searched labels.
One box carried her father's initials.
J.B.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Jonathan Barrett holding Amelia as a child.
Behind them stood Salvatore Moretti.
On the back, handwriting read:
If they ever discover what we protected, our children will finish it.
Amelia swallowed hard.
Vincent found an envelope beneath the photograph.
AMELIA.
She opened it.
The handwriting belonged to her father.
She knew immediately.
Millie,
If you're reading this, then I failed to keep you away from the Morettis' accounts.
She almost laughed through sudden tears.
Her father had called her Millie.
No one else did.
She continued.
The money was never the secret.
The names were.
There is a second ledger.
Do not let Richard find it.
Amelia flipped the page.
The next line stopped her.
Vincent knows where it is, even if he doesn't know that he knows.
She looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
Vincent stared at the letter.
Then his expression changed.
He reached beneath his shirt.
A small key hung on a chain.
"My father gave me this the night before he died."
Dante stared.
"You never told me."
"I thought it was sentimental."
"To what?"
"I never knew."
Amelia looked around.
Then she noticed a small wooden box on the highest shelf.
Its lock matched the key.
Vincent brought it down.
He inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a ledger wrapped in cloth.
Amelia opened it.
Names filled the pages.
Judges.
Executives.
Accountants.
Business owners.
People Richard had apparently paid, pressured, or manipulated over decades.
Then Amelia reached the final section.
One name had been circled.
She stared at it.
Dante leaned closer.
His face went pale.
Vincent whispered:
"That's impossible."
May you like
Because the final name wasn't Richard Vale.
It was Amelia Barrett.
