Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW MY FATHER'S SECRET
Isabella Moretti had spent the final years of her life quietly investigating her husband's business.
And according to her journal, my father had been helping her.
Adrien placed a copy of the handwritten pages before me.
I recognized the careful, elegant script from old charity letters I'd seen online.
Isabella described suspicious financial transfers.
Unexplained shipments.
And employees who disappeared after reporting problems.
Then I found my father's name.
Daniel Caruso has agreed to help verify the warehouse records.
My breath caught.
I read the sentence again.
Dad wasn't simply caught in the middle of someone else's crime.
He'd been trying to uncover it.
Isabella continued.
Rosa Bellini has promised to protect his wife and unborn child if anything happens.
Tears filled my eyes.
Grandma.
She'd known.
And she'd kept that promise for twenty-seven years.
I covered my mouth.
Adrien waited quietly.
For once, he didn't rush to explain.
I appreciated that.
After several minutes, I looked up.
"What happened to your mother?"
He swallowed.
"She died after a long illness."
I nodded.
"I'm sorry."
His expression softened.
"Thank you."
Then he continued.
"She spent years trying to make my father's businesses legitimate."
I stared.
"Did he listen?"
Adrien laughed without humor.
"Not enough."
I looked down at the journal.
"Did you?"
He hesitated.
"No."
The honesty surprised me.
He continued.
"I was young. Angry. More interested in proving I could control the organization than asking whether it deserved to exist."
I studied him.
"And now?"
His expression changed.
"Now I'm beginning to understand what she was trying to tell me."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Rebecca returned with news.
The storage unit associated with Grandma's key had been located.
It was still registered under Rosa Bellini's name.
The rent had been paid automatically through a small account she'd established years earlier.
I stared.
"She kept it all this time?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Yes."
We arranged for the contents to be inspected with appropriate legal oversight.
Inside were several boxes.
Old restaurant menus.
Photographs.
A stack of letters.
And a blue leather-bound ledger.
My heart stopped.
The blue ledger.
Grandma's final secret.
The investigator carefully opened it.
Its pages contained dates, shipment identifiers, payments, and handwritten notes.
Some entries connected companies controlled by Angelo Moretti to businesses owned by Victor Bellini.
Others described money being diverted from legitimate vendors.
Then came the most important section.
A series of payments marked:
DANIEL CARUSO — WITNESS PROTECTION EXPENSES.
I froze.
"Witness protection?"
Rebecca leaned closer.
The payments didn't appear to come from a government program.
They had been arranged privately.
But the description raised a terrible possibility.
Maybe Dad hadn't been killed immediately after his disappearance.
Maybe someone had hidden him.
I looked toward Adrien.
His face was pale.
"Did you know?"
He shook his head.
"No."
Then Rebecca turned another page.
A location appeared beside Daniel's name.
A medical facility outside Milwaukee.
The final entry was dated eleven years after Dad disappeared.
My heart hammered.
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca looked toward me.
Then answered carefully.
"It means we need to determine whether your father was alive at that time."
I began crying.
For twenty-seven years, I'd believed Dad abandoned us.
Now I was learning he may have survived for more than a decade.
Then I noticed one final line.
Written in Grandma's handwriting.
DANIEL KNOWS WHERE THE SECOND LEDGER IS.
May you like
And beside it was the name of the person assigned to watch him.
VICTOR BELLINI.
