Chapter 5 - THE UNCLE WHO CAME FOR ME
Matteo Moretti looked nothing like a monster.
That was the first dangerous thing about him.
He entered Adrien’s private meeting room wearing a charcoal coat, silver at his temples, no visible weapon, and the relaxed expression of a man who expected rooms to rearrange themselves around him.
His eyes found me immediately.
He stopped.
For the first time, his control cracked.
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Lena.”
I stood beside Adrien.
Not behind him.
Matteo noticed.
“So Vittorio’s son found you first.”
Adrien’s voice was cold.
“She found me.”
“Semantics.”
“No. Choice.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Then looked at me.
“I’m your uncle.”
“Apparently everyone in New York became family overnight.”
“You look like my sister.”
“Did you love her?”
Silence.
Interesting.
“Did you?”
Matteo removed his gloves.
“Evelyn and I had complicated history.”
“That means no.”
“It means our father put us against each other from childhood.”
“And what did you do when she disappeared?”
“I searched.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“Did you know she had me?”
His eyes darkened.
“No.”
Adrien watched him carefully.
Matteo continued.
“If I had known, you would never have grown up without family.”
Nora laughed from behind us.
Matteo turned.
His face changed.
“You.”
Nora stared back.
“You remember me.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Teresa Cole?”
Matteo’s silence answered too much.
Nora stood.
“What did you do?”
“I did nothing.”
“Liar.”
Adrien raised one hand.
“Sit down.”
Nora ignored him.
“My foster mother disappeared eight years ago.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
“She came to me.”
“Why?”
“To bargain.”
“With what?”
Matteo looked at Lena.
“Information about you.”
My blood chilled.
“She sold me?”
“No.”
“She offered your location in exchange for protection.”
“Did you take it?”
“I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought it was a trap.”
Nora went pale.
Matteo continued.
“Three days later, Teresa disappeared.”
“Who took her?”
“I assumed Reddick.”
Everything circled back.
Reddick.
Marcus.
Henry Blake.
Old men building new crimes from old secrets.
Matteo sat across from me.
“Lena, your grandfather created a trust for Evelyn’s descendants.”
“I don’t want it.”
“That is not the only issue.”
“What else?”
“The trust controls voting shares in Moretti Logistics.”
Adrien’s expression changed.
“How many?”
“Thirty-one percent.”
The room went silent.
Enough to challenge Matteo’s control.
I understood immediately.
“If I exist, your position weakens.”
Matteo held my gaze.
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I came here to tell you before someone else uses it against us.”
“Against us?”
“You are Moretti blood.”
“No. I’m Lena.”
His expression hardened.
“Blood cannot be wished away.”
Adrien stepped closer.
“Neither can consent.”
Matteo looked at him.
“And you care about consent now?”
Something passed between them.
Old history.
I looked at Adrien.
“What does that mean?”
Neither man answered.
“Adrien.”
Matteo smiled without warmth.
“He hasn’t told you.”
“Told me what?”
Adrien’s jaw tightened.
Matteo leaned back.
“Ten years ago, Adrien’s father offered to marry him to my daughter to end a war.”
I stared at Adrien.
“You were engaged?”
“No.”
“Promised?”
“Politically.”
“Same difference in your world.”
Matteo continued.
“Adrien refused.”
“Why?”
Matteo looked at me.
“Because he said he would never use a woman as a peace treaty.”
Adrien’s gaze met mine.
Something inside my chest shifted.
Then Marco entered again.
“We found Henry Blake.”
Marcus’s father.
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Matteo’s face changed.
“How?”
“Executed in his office.”
I felt cold.
“Marcus?”
Marco looked at me.
“Missing.”
Then he placed a photograph on the table.
Henry Blake’s body had been found beside a handwritten note.
One sentence.
THE GIRL WAS NEVER THE HEIR.
SHE WAS THE KEY.
May you like
And beneath it was a symbol Adrien recognized immediately.
The same crest engraved on the sniper casing.
