Chapter 12 - THE PRICE OF MY FATHER’S TRUTH
I made it three steps before Luca stopped me.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
He saw my face.
“What happened?”
I showed him the phone.
His entire expression changed.
Within five minutes, Marco had teams moving toward my mother’s house.
Empty.
No struggle.
No blood.
My mother’s cane remained beside the sofa.
Her medication sat on the kitchen counter.
Matteo had taken her.
“He wants the ledger,” I said.
Luca shook his head.
“He wants you.”
“Why?”
“Because only you can authenticate the chain of custody from Box 314.”
My father had named me in the recording.
The bank had documented the retrieval.
Without me, Matteo could claim the ledger had been fabricated or altered.
With me gone, his lawyers could create doubt.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“It’s my mother.”
“Hannah.”
“It was your mother two hours ago and you went.”
His jaw tightened.
“That’s exactly why I know what fear makes people do.”
I stepped closer.
“And what would you do if someone had your mother?”
“Anything.”
“Then stop asking me to do less.”
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Luca exhaled.
“You don’t go alone.”
The exchange point was an abandoned freight terminal.
I carried a copy of the ledger.
The real one was already with federal investigators.
Matteo stood beneath a broken overhead light.
My mother sat in a chair behind him.
Alive.
Terrified.
“Hannah.”
“I’m okay, Mom.”
Matteo smiled.
“You look like Michael.”
“You said that already.”
“I hated that man.”
“You were afraid of him.”
His smile disappeared.
I held up the ledger.
“Let her go.”
“Bring it here.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“You think Luca will save you?”
“I think you’re already finished.”
That made him laugh.
“You really are Michael’s daughter.”
Behind him, my mother suddenly shouted, “Hannah, down!”
I dropped.
A shot cracked.
Not from Matteo.
From above.
Luca’s team.
Matteo fired back.
Lights shattered.
My mother tipped her chair deliberately and rolled behind a concrete barrier.
I ran to her.
Within seconds, Marco’s men closed in.
Matteo disappeared through a loading door.
Luca chased him.
I freed my mother.
Then another shot echoed.
Silence.
“Luca?”
No answer.
I ran.
Outside, Matteo stood near the river.
Luca faced him ten feet away.
Both armed.
Matteo laughed.
“Always the favorite.”
Luca’s voice was cold.
“You chose every road that brought you here.”
“You got everything.”
“No. I got responsibility. You wanted power without earning trust.”
Sirens approached.
Matteo looked toward the river.
Then toward Luca.
He lowered his weapon.
For one second, I thought he would surrender.
Instead he smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
Luca frowned.
Matteo whispered:
“Vanessa wasn’t supposed to marry you.”
He looked directly at me.
May you like
“She was supposed to marry Adrian.”
And with that, federal agents surrounded him.
