Chapter 12 - Clara Moretti
“No.”
Clara dropped the letter.
Rico did not touch it.
For once, he seemed as frightened of the truth as she was.
“My father?”
Her voice barely worked.
Rebecca’s letter explained everything.
At twenty-two, Rebecca had briefly worked as Giovanni Moretti’s private nurse after an accident. Giovanni was married. Rebecca left when she discovered she was pregnant and refused his money.
Giovanni monitored Clara from a distance.
Rebecca spent her life making certain Clara never entered the Moretti world.
Rico sank into a chair.
“You’re my sister.”
“Half sister.”
Neither seemed capable of processing it.
Elena covered her mouth.
Leo, unaware of the earthquake shifting the adults around him, climbed onto Clara’s lap.
“Clara sad?”
She hugged him.
“A little.”
He wiped her cheek.
That almost broke her.
Dante inserted Rebecca’s flash drive into an offline laptop.
Folders appeared.
Financial records.
Names.
Transfers.
Recorded conversations.
Enough evidence to dismantle Salvatore’s entire operation.
But one video file was dated only four days earlier.
Dante opened it.
Giovanni appeared on-screen.
Older but alert.
“If Clara sees this,” he said, “then Salvatore has lost control.”
Clara stared at the father she had never known.
Giovanni continued.
“I did terrible things protecting a kingdom that should never have existed. Rebecca was the only person who ever forced me to see myself clearly.”
Rico’s fists tightened.
“Where is he?”
The video answered.
“I am not asking forgiveness. I am asking you to stop Salvatore before he kills another generation of this family.”
A location appeared.
An abandoned waterfront office owned by one of Giovanni’s old companies.
Then Giovanni leaned closer to the camera.
“But understand this, Rico: Salvatore believes Leo possesses something Elena gave him.”
Elena gasped.
Everyone looked toward Leo.
“What did you give him?”
“Nothing.”
Leo reached into his little jacket pocket.
He pulled out a tiny silver button.
Clara recognized it from Elena’s hospital gown.
Elena stared.
“I didn’t put that there.”
Dante examined it.
The button separated.
Inside was a microSD card.
Rico looked toward the door.
The financial files in Rebecca’s locker were copies.
This tiny card might contain the original evidence.
And suddenly the fire alarm began screaming.
May you like
Smoke poured beneath the bank room door.
Somebody knew exactly where they were.
