Chapter 8 - THE RABBIT'S EAR
Bernard the rabbit contained enough evidence to send half a dozen powerful men to prison.
Lily was mostly upset that Marco had to cut open his ear.
“You can sew him back?”
Teresa promised.
Lily narrowed her eyes.
“Properly?”
Teresa looked offended.
“I raised three children and repaired thirty years of toys.”
Lily considered.
“Okay.”
Adrian almost smiled.
Then he watched Marco remove the memory card.
They used an isolated laptop.
The files belonged to Adrian's father, Salvatore DeLuca.
He had documented Victor's hidden freight routes.
Weapons.
Narcotics.
Extortion payments.
Bribery.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Judges.
Then a folder:
SUCCESSION.
Inside were audio recordings.
Salvatore confronting Victor.
“You are done.”
Victor laughing.
“You think Adrian can run this family clean?”
“He won't have to run your business at all.”
“What about Matteo?”
“Matteo takes freight. Adrian takes development and hotels. Everything else ends.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
His father had planned a different future.
Victor had destroyed it.
Another file contained bank transfers connected to the warehouse fire.
Payments to Marco.
The doctor.
Investigators.
Then something unexpected.
A payment made eighteen months ago.
To Sofia Hart.
Adrian stared.
Sofia went pale.
“I didn't take money from Victor.”
Matteo looked at her.
“Sofia?”
“I didn't.”
The bank account was in her name.
$500,000.
Adrian's stomach tightened.
“Who opened it?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Marco checked the routing.
“Connecticut.”
Sofia stood.
“I've never banked there.”
Matteo looked wounded despite himself.
Adrian recognized the pattern.
Plant money.
Create mistrust.
Victor had done it before.
“Don't.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Don't what?”
“Become exactly as suspicious as Victor needs you to be.”
The irony wasn't lost on either brother.
Marco traced the account.
It had been opened using Sofia's identity documents.
Copies stored inside a safe house Victor once controlled.
Framed.
Again.
Matteo exhaled.
Then apologized.
Immediately.
That mattered.
Sofia accepted the apology without pretending the suspicion hadn't hurt.
Adrian watched them.
They had survived six years because apparently they had learned the thing his family never had.
Say the ugly part quickly.
Don't let silence ferment into poison.
The final file was encrypted.
Password hint:
THE FIRST THING WE STOLE TOGETHER.
Matteo smiled.
“Peaches.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You remember?”
“We were seven and nine.”
They had stolen peaches from a neighbor's tree.
Their father made them apologize and work two Saturdays in the man's garden.
Password accepted.
The folder opened.
One video.
Salvatore DeLuca sat in his study.
Two weeks before his death.
Not a heart attack.
Officially, stroke complications.
Adrian leaned forward.
His father looked exhausted.
“If this recording is being watched, Victor may have succeeded.”
Silence.
“I believe my medication is being altered.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Matteo whispered a curse.
Salvatore continued.
“I have asked Dr. Romano to test it independently.”
The family physician.
The same man who later falsified Matteo's dental identification.
“If Elias fails me, trust no medical record connected to this family.”
Adrian looked toward Marco.
Then back at the screen.
Salvatore said:
“Victor believes Adrian will be easier to control if Matteo is gone.”
Adrian's hands clenched.
“And he believes Matteo will be easier to manipulate if he thinks Adrian betrayed him.”
Exactly what happened.
Then Salvatore revealed the final secret.
“If both my sons survive this family, there is one person who can legally end Victor's control.”
Adrian frowned.
The video cut to a document.
A trust.
Shares.
Voting rights.
Adrian read the beneficiary name.
Not him.
Not Matteo.
Sofia Bell.
His father had transferred a controlling block of DeLuca Freight shares into a dormant trust six years before the fire.
Why Sofia?
The video answered.
“Because the only person in this family who never wanted power is the safest person to hold it.”
Sofia stared.
Matteo laughed softly.
Adrian looked at her.
May you like
Victor wasn't only hunting the ledger.
He was hunting the woman who unknowingly had the legal power to dismantle his entire empire.
