Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER DIED
Adrian stared at Mara as though she had spoken another language.
“Luca is dead.”
“No.”
Mara shook her head.
“He wanted everyone to believe that.”
The security alarm continued screaming.
Adrian ignored it.
For eleven years, he had believed his brother was gone.
He had built his empire partly because Luca's death had left a vacuum no one else could fill.
Now one sentence had turned his entire history into a lie.
“Tell me everything.”
Mara tightened her arms around the baby.
“Elena discovered that Luca was alive three months before she died.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she didn't trust you.”
That answer hurt more than he expected.
Mara continued.
“She believed your father had arranged Luca's disappearance. Luca had been trying to leave the organization. He wanted out.”
Adrian remembered something.
A letter.
One Luca had written him the week before the accident.
Adrian had never received it.
He had always assumed Luca changed his mind.
“What happened to the letter?”
Mara looked at him.
“Your father intercepted it.”
Adrian felt the room become colder.
His father had been dead for six years.
But suddenly, every old family secret seemed alive again.
The penthouse doors rattled.
Someone was trying to force entry.
Adrian pulled open the hidden compartment beneath his desk.
Inside was a handgun and an old photograph.
He stared at the photograph.
Luca stood beside Elena.
And beside them was a third man.
Adrian recognized him immediately.
His uncle Vincent.
The man who had spent years claiming he had protected the Moretti family.
Adrian folded the photograph.
“Where is Luca now?”
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
Mara looked away.
“He contacted Elena shortly before she died. He said he had evidence against Vincent.”
“What evidence?”
“A ledger.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“What kind of ledger?”
“Payments. Names. Judges. Police officers. Business owners. Everyone who had been bought.”
The door shook again.
Adrian looked toward it.
“Where is the ledger?”
Mara hesitated.
“The baby has it.”
Adrian looked at the child.
“You hid a criminal ledger inside a baby's belongings?”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
She reached into the faded lavender onesie and removed a tiny silver bracelet.
Adrian stared.
Inside the bracelet was a concealed memory chip.
Before he could take it, the office door burst open.
Two masked men entered.
Adrian moved faster than either expected.
The first attacker went down.
The second fled.
Adrian chased him into the hallway.
But the man reached the elevator.
The doors closed.
Adrian stood staring at the empty corridor.
Then his phone vibrated.
One message.
YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT. BRING THE BABY TO THE OLD MARINA. COME ALONE.
Below it was an image.
A man standing beneath a streetlight.
Older.
Scarred.
Alive.
May you like
Adrian recognized the face instantly.
Luca.
