Chapter 11 - THE REAL MAN BEHIND THE MONEY
Adrian survived surgery.
The bullet passed beneath his collarbone and missed the artery by less than an inch.
Teresa sat beside his hospital bed all night.
Luca sat outside the room.
I found him at three in the morning staring at untouched coffee.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“My boss keeps creating overtime.”
He looked at me.
Then unexpectedly laughed.
One quiet breath.
It disappeared quickly.
“I almost lost my mother tonight.”
“But you didn’t.”
“And Adrian.”
“He’s alive.”
His eyes met mine.
“And you.”
The way he said it made something inside my chest shift.
I looked away.
“Vanessa missed.”
“She didn’t miss.”
I looked back.
“Marco reviewed the angle. She fired where you had been standing.”
Cold moved through me.
Luca leaned forward.
“I should have seen what she was.”
“You wanted to believe someone you loved.”
“I didn’t love her.”
The answer came too quickly.
I didn’t know what to say.
He rubbed his hands over his face.
“I thought I would. Eventually.”
That was somehow sadder.
Then Marco arrived.
“We found Matteo.”
Luca stood.
“Where?”
“He abandoned the Escalade near Midway and switched cars.”
“You said you found him.”
“We found where he went.”
Marco placed a photograph on the table.
A private hangar.
Owned by a shell company listed in my father’s ledger.
“He’s leaving the country?”
“No.”
Marco’s expression was grim.
“He’s meeting someone.”
The photo showed Matteo beside a silver sedan.
Across from him stood a man in his seventies.
Carlo Bellini.
But Carlo wasn’t giving orders.
He was handing Matteo a briefcase.
Deferentially.
Almost fearfully.
Adrian’s words were true.
Matteo had not been Carlo’s employee.
He had become Carlo’s boss.
By sunrise investigators pieced together the structure.
Matteo had secretly controlled the shell companies for nearly fifteen years.
Carlo moved the money.
Vanessa infiltrated Luca’s life.
Matteo stayed far away and appeared clean.
The sixty million Adrian had supposedly stolen?
Matteo had moved it.
Adrian had discovered the theft.
Matteo staged his brother’s disappearance to look like guilt.
It worked perfectly.
Until Adrian survived.
Teresa came out of the hospital room.
Her face looked twenty years older.
“I failed him.”
Luca stood.
“No.”
“I failed all of you.”
He took his mother’s hands.
“You loved us.”
“I should have seen what Matteo was becoming.”
“You were his mother, not his prison guard.”
She started crying.
Luca hugged her.
I turned away to give them privacy.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One text.
HANNAH, YOUR MOTHER ISN’T HOME.
A photograph followed.
My mother’s front door.
Open.
I stopped breathing.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
BRING THE LEDGER ALONE OR EVELYN FINISHES WHAT MICHAEL STARTED.
