Chapter 8 - THE PAGE MY MOTHER HID
I did not go alone.
I also did not stay behind.
That distinction caused an argument lasting twenty-three minutes.
Old Vincent ordered me to remain at the hotel.
New Vincent stopped halfway through the sentence.
Closed his eyes.
Then tried again.
“What do you want to do?”
The question stunned both of us.
“I’m going.”
“I’m afraid of that.”
“So am I.”
He nodded.
“Then we plan around the fear.”
Who was this man?
Police arranged surveillance around our former house.
Our former home.
I hated thinking of it that way.
Matteo wasn’t inside.
Instead, a courier had left an envelope beneath the stone lion near the gate.
Inside was the missing deposition page.
My mother’s handwriting filled the margin.
DUPLICATES IN CLAIRE’S TRUST.
I frowned.
“What trust?”
My mother left me almost nothing.
A modest savings account.
Jewelry.
Photographs.
No trust fund.
Vincent’s attorneys searched.
They found it.
A dormant legal trust created when I was six.
Value: $100.
Contents: “personal family property.”
The holding institution still existed.
We went the next morning.
Inside a safe-deposit box sat three accounting ledgers and a cassette tape.
My mother’s voice filled a private room.
“Claire, if you ever hear this, then Matteo Moretti is still dangerous.”
I covered my mouth.
She explained everything.
Matteo had stolen millions.
Antonio Moretti discovered part of it and tried to push him out of the family.
My mother collected proof.
Then someone threatened me.
A six-year-old child.
She stopped cooperating publicly and hid the originals.
“I chose my daughter,” Mom said.
“I would choose her again.”
Tears ran down my face.
Vincent quietly turned away, giving me privacy even though we were sitting three feet apart.
The tape continued.
“Antonio promised Matteo would never be allowed near Claire. If his son Vincent ever discovers this, tell him his father tried to protect us.”
Vincent’s eyes closed.
Then Mom said something neither of us expected.
“Claire once met Vincent.”
I stared at the recorder.
I had been seven.
Antonio brought his teenage son to my mother’s apartment while arranging protection.
Vincent apparently spent twenty minutes repairing the wheel on my broken toy stroller because I refused to stop crying.
I laughed through tears.
“You fixed my doll stroller?”
Vincent looked horrified.
“I have no memory of this.”
“Convenient.”
For one second, we smiled at each other.
Then the recording ended.
The ledgers were enough to expose Matteo’s entire financial network.
Federal investigators moved immediately.
Accounts frozen.
Properties searched.
Associates arrested.
Matteo’s empire began collapsing before sunset.
I thought that meant we were safe.
I was wrong.
At 7:14 P.M., I received a video.
Matteo sat inside an empty warehouse.
Vanessa was tied to a chair behind him.
His voice was calm.
“Bring the original ledgers, Claire.”
Vincent grabbed my phone.
Matteo continued.
“Or the woman who destroyed your marriage dies for it.”
Vanessa looked terrified.
I hated her.
But I did not want her dead.
Matteo smiled into the camera.
“And Vincent?”
May you like
He leaned closer.
“This time, you get fifteen minutes.”
