Chapter 6 - THE DEAD MAN ON THE VIDEO
Vincent looked older.
Heavier.
Gray beard.
But unmistakable.
Alive.
The video had been recorded through a partially open hospital door.
Claire’s voice whispered behind the camera.
“February eighteenth. St. Agnes.”
Vincent entered Luca’s room.
Luca sat by the window.
Thin.
Cane beside him.
Vincent said:
“You remember too much.”
Luca answered:
“Not enough.”
Adrian froze at the sound of his brother’s voice.
Six years.
He had forgotten its exact weight.
Vincent continued.
“Your family moved on.”
Luca looked at him.
“Adrian didn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“He never does.”
Adrian looked away.
Marco pretended not to notice.
Then Luca said:
“You killed the wrong man at the warehouse.”
Vincent laughed.
“No one intended to kill you.”
There.
A claim.
Not truth.
But important.
“The fire was supposed to destroy the files.”
Luca replied:
“You locked the doors.”
“Marcella locked one.”
“She was trying to keep your men out.”
“So you remember.”
Luca’s expression sharpened.
“Enough.”
Then Vincent said:
“Do you remember who told me you were going to the warehouse?”
Silence.
Luca’s face changed.
“I do.”
“Then say it.”
Luca did not.
Vincent smiled.
“Exactly.”
The video ended.
Adrian replayed that section.
Someone close to Luca had betrayed his meeting location.
That was the person Antonio never identified.
The person “protecting Adrian.”
Then the second file.
Claire speaking to camera.
“If Adrian sees this, I need him to understand something.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Luca is not being held against his will now.”
That surprised everyone.
“He is hiding because he still does not know whether the person who betrayed him is alive or dead.”
Then:
“He refuses to name them because the name connects directly to Adrian.”
Claire’s eyes looked tired.
“I think he’s trying to protect his brother from the truth.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
Of course.
Everyone protecting everyone with secrets.
The family disease.
Then Claire said:
“I found the transport accounts. Vincent has been paying them through a DeLuca foundation donor fund.”
Marcella’s foundation.
Maybe without her knowledge.
Maybe not.
Then:
“If I disappear, follow the donor authorization code.”
A code appeared on screen.
Marco entered it into the foundation audit database.
One authorized user.
ELENA DELUCA.
Adrian stopped breathing.
His mother.
Again.
Marco said:
“Could be stolen credentials.”
“Could be.”
Good.
No assumptions.
Then the final video.
Luca.
Directly to camera.
“Adrian.”
He smiled faintly.
“If Claire actually gives you this, she ignored me.”
Adrian almost laughed.
Luca continued.
“Mom didn’t betray me.”
Relief came too quickly.
“She paid because I asked her to.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“I needed Vincent to think I was still weak. Still dependent. Still hidden.”
Luca had used his own mother’s accounts to keep Vincent watching a controlled trail.
Why?
“To learn who he was working with.”
Then Luca said:
“And I found them.”
Not him.
Them.
More than one.
“Vincent wasn’t stealing for himself.”
“He was funding a partnership.”
“Someone outside the family.”
Then Luca spoke the name.
HARTMAN CAPITAL.
Marco looked up.
Adrian knew them.
Private-equity firm.
Legitimate publicly.
Aggressive privately.
Three years earlier, Hartman Capital had tried to buy a controlling stake in DeLuca Logistics.
Adrian refused.
Now he understood why the offer had been so informed.
Someone inside had been feeding them data for years.
Then Luca added:
“The person who gave Hartman our internal files is still sitting at your table.”
Adrian’s mind moved through names.
Executives.
Advisers.
Family.
Then Luca said:
“Marco knows him.”
Marco went still.
Not Marco himself.
May you like
Someone he knew.
Then the video ended.
