Chapter 11 - SOMEONE PLANNED TO KILL ME AFTER THE BABY WAS BORN
The plan was buried inside Jonathan’s deleted files.
He had not created it.
But he found it.
A document titled MATERNAL TRANSFER CONTINGENCY.
My hands shook before I opened it.
If I died within ninety days of giving birth, temporary control of my trust passed to Dante as surviving spouse.
If Dante was simultaneously under criminal indictment, control passed to the foundation CFO.
Jonathan.
That was why someone created false video evidence connecting Dante to Rafael and Natalia.
They intended to frame Dante for my death.
Remove him.
Remove me.
Then use Jonathan as the legal bridge to seize everything before our son’s trust activated.
Jonathan had discovered the plan and decided to steal the foundation money first.
Greed inside a larger conspiracy.
“Who created the contingency?” I asked.
Elias traced the metadata.
The file originated from a law office used by Vittorio Moretti for decades.
The attorney responsible was still alive.
Marcus Bell.
Eighty-one.
Retired.
When agents questioned him, he admitted Vittorio ordered the document years earlier.
“But Vittorio is dead,” I said.
“Who kept the plan active?”
Marcus Bell gave one name.
Giulia Moretti.
Dante’s mother.
Dante refused to believe it.
Then Giulia confessed.
Not to wanting me dead.
To something worse in a different way.
She had preserved Vittorio’s contingency as bait.
For years, she suspected old loyalists were waiting to seize the trust.
She wanted to see who accessed the document.
Jonathan did.
Then someone else did.
Rafael.
“Why?” Dante asked.
Rafael looked ashamed.
“I was trying to identify the people behind it.”
“Without telling us?”
“I thought I was protecting—”
“Stop.”
Dante’s voice cut through the room.
“No one says that word again.”
For once, I agreed with him completely.
Protection had become the family’s favorite disguise for control.
Then agents identified a third access record.
Natalia.
She went pale.
“I opened it after I started working for Dante.”
“Why?”
“My father left me a code.”
Inside the contingency file, Natalia found a hidden attachment.
A list.
Names of men still loyal to Vittorio.
Judges.
Bankers.
Contractors.
One police commander.
One senator.
The network had survived Vittorio’s death.
And their current leader was someone we all knew.
Someone who had attended the gala.
Someone who hugged me before dinner and told me pregnancy made me glow.
Father Dominic Moretti.
Dante’s uncle.
A priest.
The family’s moral face.
Dante looked physically ill.
“My uncle?”
Rafael nodded.
“Dominic controlled the old accounts after Vittorio died.”
The priest had spent years hearing Moretti confessions while quietly managing the machinery behind them.
Then my phone rang.
A nurse from Northwestern Memorial.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
“Yes?”
“We need you to come in.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“There’s a concern with the baby’s heart rate.”
Thirty-six weeks.
Too early for panic.
Too late to pretend danger was distant.
Then the nurse lowered her voice.
“And Mrs. Moretti? A man claiming to be your husband called ten minutes ago asking what room you would be admitted to.”
I looked at Dante.
May you like
He stood three feet away.
He had not called anyone.
