Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER EXISTED
Elias Ferrante had spent thirty-eight years as Roberto Ferrante’s only son.
At 4:03 a.m., Caroline Marsh told him that was another lie.
“My father had another child?”
“A baby boy.”
Elias stared at her.
“What was his name?”
“I never knew.”
“When was he born?”
“1999.”
Adeline did the math.
Three years before her mother’s supposed death.
“Who was his mother?”
Caroline shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Elias leaned forward.
“Claire took him?”
“She was trying to save him.”
“From whom?”
“Vincent.”
Elias’s face hardened.
Caroline continued.
“Your father discovered that someone was manipulating Ferrante accounts and using the money to finance attacks against rival families. Claire traced it to Vincent.”
“That still doesn’t explain a child.”
“No. But Claire found another account.”
Caroline swallowed.
“It was labeled with the baby’s initials.”
“What initials?”
“L.F.”
Elias’s attention sharpened.
“The account received eight million dollars shortly after his birth.”
Adeline asked the obvious question.
“Why?”
Caroline looked toward Elias.
“Because Roberto had created a trust for his second son.”
“Who controlled it?”
“Vincent.”
The room fell silent.
Elias turned to Marco.
“Search every Ferrante trust from 1998 through 2005.”
Marco nodded.
Minutes later, he found one.
LORENZO FERRANTE FAMILY TRUST.
Beneficiary information sealed.
Current value: $183 million.
Adeline stared.
“Lorenzo.”
Elias looked as if someone had struck him.
“My mother used to say that name.”
“What did she say?”
“When I was little, sometimes she’d stand outside an empty bedroom.”
His voice lowered.
“She called it Lorenzo’s room.”
Marco opened another record.
The trust beneficiary had been declared deceased in 2003.
Age four.
Cause of death unavailable.
Caroline shook her head.
“He wasn’t dead.”
“How do you know?”
“Claire sent me one letter after she disappeared.”
She reached inside her coat and removed a folded piece of paper.
“I kept it all these years.”
Adeline opened it.
Caroline, the boy is alive.
Roberto cannot know where I took him.
Vincent cannot know either.
If anything happens to me, protect Adeline. Never look for Lorenzo.
Adeline reread the final line.
“Why would she tell you never to look for him?”
“Because Vincent wanted him.”
Elias’s phone rang.
Marco answered it.
His expression changed immediately.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Our people found Vincent’s car.”
“Where?”
“Near the old Ferrante cemetery.”
“And Vincent?”
“Gone.”
Marco looked at his screen.
“But there’s blood in the driver’s seat.”
Elias stood.
“Get a team there.”
Adeline followed him.
By sunrise, they were standing beside Roberto Ferrante’s abandoned first grave.
The earth had been disturbed.
Inside the empty concrete burial vault sat a steel box.
Vincent had apparently opened it but left something behind.
A photograph.
Elias lifted it carefully.
Roberto Ferrante stood beside Claire Marsh.
Between them was a boy approximately four years old.
Dark hair.
Dark eyes.
A small crescent-shaped birthmark beneath his left ear.
Adeline looked at Elias.
“You have the same birthmark.”
His expression changed.
He turned over the photograph.
There was writing on the back.
Elias must never know Lorenzo survived.
Below it was another sentence.
Because if he learns the truth, he will know what Roberto did to his mother.
Elias’s hand tightened around the picture.
Adeline whispered:
“What did your father do?”
A voice came from behind them.
“You really want to know?”
They turned.
Salvatore Grasso stood beneath the trees.
May you like
His face was pale.
And in his hand was a pistol.
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