Chapter 4 - THE BETRAYER INSIDE THE ROSSI FAMILY
Matteo replayed the recording three times.
Each time, the final sentence felt more dangerous.
The person who betrayed me is still sitting at your family table.
His family.
Not Richard Vale.
Not a rival.
Someone close enough to share meals with him.
Someone Lorenzo had trusted.
Isabella watched Matteo struggle to control his emotions.
"Who could he mean?"
Matteo looked toward the door.
"My uncle."
Alessandro Rossi.
Sixty-one years old.
Chairman of the Rossi family's investment division.
The man who had taken control after Lorenzo disappeared.
And the man who had helped raise Matteo.
"You're not certain," Isabella said.
"No."
"Then don't accuse him yet."
Matteo looked at her.
"Most people would encourage me to destroy whoever I suspected."
"I'm not most people."
A faint smile touched his mouth.
"No. You're not."
Gabriel entered carrying a tablet.
"We recovered part of the hallway footage."
The recording showed someone leaving Room 314.
A tall figure in a dark suit.
Face hidden beneath a hat.
But the man carried a distinctive silver cane.
Matteo recognized it.
Alessandro used that cane after a skiing accident five years earlier.
His expression darkened.
"Where's my uncle?"
"At the reception."
"Bring him to the private library."
Ten minutes later, Alessandro entered looking irritated.
"Matteo, what's so urgent?"
Matteo placed the photograph of Lorenzo on the desk.
His uncle stopped.
"What is this?"
"You tell me."
Alessandro's face drained of color.
"Where did you get that?"
"Is my father alive?"
Silence.
Matteo stepped forward.
"Answer me."
Alessandro lowered himself into a chair.
"I never wanted you to discover it this way."
Isabella felt her heartbeat accelerate.
Matteo stared.
"You knew?"
Alessandro covered his face.
"For years."
The words hit Matteo harder than any physical blow.
"Eleven years?"
"I was told Lorenzo would die if I revealed his location."
"By whom?"
Alessandro looked toward Isabella.
Then away.
"Richard Vale."
Matteo turned his back, fighting to remain calm.
Alessandro continued.
"Your father discovered that Vale was secretly moving company assets through fraudulent partnerships."
"And you helped him?"
"I signed documents. I thought it was temporary."
"You let me believe my father was dead!"
Alessandro's voice broke.
"I know."
Matteo looked at him with unbearable disappointment.
Before he could speak, Isabella noticed something.
Alessandro had been staring at her necklace.
A small gold pendant shaped like a key.
Her father had given it to her when she was fifteen.
"Where did you get that?" Alessandro whispered.
Isabella touched it.
"My father."
Alessandro stood abruptly.
"Daniel gave you that?"
"Yes."
He grabbed the edge of the desk.
"Then your father must have hidden it before the accident."
Matteo frowned.
"Hidden what?"
Alessandro pointed at the pendant.
"The original access key to Lorenzo's private evidence archive."
May you like
His voice trembled.
"And if Isabella has it, Richard Vale has been searching for the wrong person for eleven years."
