Chapter 3 - THE FORTUNE TERESA NEVER TOLD HER SON ABOUT
Teresa asked me to make tea after midnight.
Luca was still downstairs with Marco and the attorneys.
Vanessa had been moved to a guest room while security reviewed her access.
I found Teresa sitting in the sewing room, still wrapped in the pale-blue blanket.
“You should be in your bedroom.”
She shook her head.
“Not tonight.”
“It’s yours.”
“No.”
Something about the answer made me sit beside her.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
She stared toward the window.
“My husband left something behind when he died.”
“Money?”
“Something more dangerous than money.”
Downstairs, Luca’s voice rose for the first time.
I couldn’t understand the words.
Teresa closed her eyes.
“He was supposed to tell Luca.”
“Tell him what?”
She looked at me.
“That this house was never Luca’s.”
I stared.
Teresa smiled sadly.
“It belongs to me.”
I thought I had misheard.
“The entire estate?”
“The land. The house. The lake property in Wisconsin. And forty-one percent of Moretti Holdings.”
My mouth opened.
Everyone in Chicago believed Luca had inherited control of his father’s empire.
Apparently everyone was wrong.
“Why doesn’t Luca know?”
“He knows I hold shares. He doesn’t know how many.”
“Why?”
Teresa’s eyes became distant.
“Because when my husband became sick, he discovered one of our sons was stealing from the company.”
I froze.
“One of Luca’s brothers?”
She nodded.
Luca had two brothers.
Matteo lived in Miami and rarely returned home.
Adrian had supposedly died in a boating accident seven years earlier.
“Which one?”
Before she could answer, the sewing-room door opened.
Luca stood there.
His face told me he had heard enough.
“Which brother?”
Teresa went pale.
“Luca.”
“No.”
He stepped inside.
“Everyone keeps deciding what I should know. Not anymore.”
Teresa’s hands trembled beneath the blanket.
“Your father believed Adrian was moving money.”
Luca stared.
“Adrian died seven years ago.”
“I know.”
“How much?”
“Almost sixty million.”
Luca shook his head.
“He couldn’t have.”
“There were records.”
“Then why wasn’t he charged?”
“Because he disappeared before your father could confront him.”
The room went silent.
I looked at Teresa.
She had said disappeared.
Not died.
Luca heard it too.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
Teresa’s face crumpled.
“The boat was found.”
“I know.”
“The body wasn’t.”
“I know that too.”
“Luca…”
His voice became dangerously soft.
“Is Adrian alive?”
Teresa’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t know.”
Then Luca’s phone buzzed.
Marco.
He answered.
“Talk.”
Silence.
Luca’s expression changed.
“Where?”
He listened another few seconds.
Then looked directly at his mother.
“Security just found a car sitting outside the north gate.”
Teresa stopped breathing.
“The driver left this when they approached.”
Marco entered holding an envelope.
Luca tore it open.
Inside was one photograph.
A man walking through an airport in Zurich three days earlier.
Older.
Bearded.
But unmistakable.
May you like
Adrian Moretti.
Alive.
