Chapter 6 - The Account That Shouldn't Exist
The silhouette stepped into the emergency light.
It was Enzo.
His hands were empty.
His face was tense.
"Don't move," Vincent said.
Enzo stopped.
Dante stared at him.
"Where have you been?"
"Trying to find you."
"Marco said you called him from security."
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because I found someone accessing the system."
"Who?"
Enzo looked toward Amelia.
"Richard Vale."
Amelia still held the phone.
"Dad?"
The line was dead.
She lowered it.
Vincent asked Enzo where Richard was.
"Old executive elevator."
Dante frowned.
"That hasn't worked in years."
"It works tonight."
Of course it did.
Every supposedly dead thing in this building seemed determined to come back.
They followed Enzo toward the elevator.
Amelia walked beside Vincent.
"You believed me immediately tonight."
He looked at her.
"I questioned you."
"But you acted."
"There's a difference between questioning someone and ignoring them."
That sentence stayed with her.
At the elevator, the doors were open.
Nobody inside.
On the floor lay a folder.
Vincent picked it up.
Inside was a legal agreement.
Amelia read the first page.
TRANSFER OF CONTROLLING INTEREST.
Starlight Holdings.
Moretti Properties.
Six additional companies.
The proposed recipient was Carmine Delano.
Signature lines waited for Vincent and Dante.
Dante laughed without humor.
"So that's the plan."
Elena shook her head.
"No. Richard doesn't need you frightened. He needs signatures."
Amelia studied the document.
"Unless the signatures aren't the real purpose."
She found an attachment.
A clause triggered if both brothers were legally unable to control the companies.
An interim trustee would assume authority.
Richard Vale.
Vincent understood.
"He wants us divided."
"Or removed from control," Elena said.
Amelia looked again.
"There's another problem."
"What?"
"The trust is backed by an account I've never seen."
She entered the number into her laptop.
The account appeared.
Balance:
$27,947,820.
Exactly twenty-four million more than the suspicious transfers.
Dante stared.
"Where did that come from?"
Amelia traced the source.
Then stopped.
"It's been accumulating for twelve years."
"Whose account?"
She opened the ownership record.
BARRETT-MORETTI PROTECTIVE TRUST.
Vincent stared at her.
Their fathers had created it together.
The missing money had not simply been stolen.
Much of it had been redirected into a protected fund.
A fund Richard wanted.
Amelia kept searching.
Then she found withdrawals.
Recent ones.
Someone had begun draining it.
Authorization:
R. VALE.
"There," she said.
Elena leaned closer.
"Can we freeze it?"
"Not from here."
"Can we move it?"
Amelia thought.
"Maybe."
Vincent looked at her.
"Where?"
"Nowhere."
Dante blinked.
"That's helpful."
"No. I mean we don't move the money. We lock the account."
"How?"
"Dual beneficiary challenge."
"Who are the beneficiaries?"
Amelia opened the original trust certificate.
Her name appeared.
Then Vincent's.
Then Dante's.
All three stared.
Their fathers had tied their children together financially long before any of them knew.
Amelia laughed once, overwhelmed.
"Apparently our fathers had trust issues."
Dante looked at Vincent.
"They weren't wrong."
They initiated the lock.
Amelia entered her authentication.
Vincent entered his.
Dante entered his.
ACCOUNT FROZEN.
For the first time all night, Amelia felt they had won something.
Then another message appeared.
EXTERNAL OVERRIDE REQUEST.
Richard was trying to reverse it.
"How long?" Vincent asked.
"Ten minutes before the bank rejects or accepts the override."
"Can he succeed?"
"If he has the founding trustee key."
Dante looked at the photograph.
"Jonathan."
Amelia understood.
Richard needed her father.
That was why Jonathan had disappeared.
Not simply because he was afraid.
He was carrying the only authority capable of unlocking the money.
Amelia's phone suddenly found one bar of service.
A message arrived.
Unknown number.
She opened it.
A photograph.
Her mother stood in her own kitchen.
The picture had been taken minutes ago.
Amelia's blood went cold.
Below it:
Your father made the wrong choice twelve years ago. Don't repeat it.
Vincent read over her shoulder.
"Call her."
Amelia did.
Her mother answered immediately.
"Amelia?"
"Mom, are you okay?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Is anyone there?"
"No."
"Lock the doors."
"Amelia, what's happening?"
"I'll explain later. Please."
Her mother went quiet.
"Your father?"
Amelia froze.
"Why did you say that?"
Another silence.
Then her mother began crying.
"You know."
"You knew he was alive."
"I knew he might be."
Amelia closed her eyes.
Years of grief shifted beneath her feet.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because the last message he sent said telling you could get you killed."
Vincent watched Amelia carefully.
She asked, "When was that?"
"Seven years ago."
The same year Rosa last saw him.
"Mom, stay inside. Don't answer the door."
"I won't."
The call ended.
Amelia looked at Vincent.
"I'm finishing this tonight."
He nodded.
"So am I."
The elevator suddenly activated.
Numbers descended.
Everyone stepped back.
The doors opened.
Nobody stood inside.
Only a chair.
On the chair was a laptop showing a live video.
Jonathan Barrett appeared on screen.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Amelia covered her mouth.
Her father looked directly into the camera.
Then a second figure entered the frame behind him.
Jonathan's expression changed.
He whispered:
May you like
"Amelia, run."
And Richard Vale stepped into view.
