Chapter 7 - THE DEAD BROTHER AT REED'S
The building that once held Reed’s on Ashland was empty now.
The sign had been removed years ago, but I could still see the faded rectangle where our name used to hang.
Snow gathered along the cracked sidewalk.
Luca arrived with Enzo, Marco, Father Bellini, Vanessa, and me.
I did not know why I was included.
Then I saw Matteo waiting inside the dark dining room, standing where my mother’s counter used to be.
Alive.
Thin.
Hard-eyed.
He looked like Luca after a decade of being hunted.
“You brought the maid,” Matteo said.
Luca’s voice sharpened.
“Her name is Emma.”
Matteo smiled faintly.
“So it is.”
I disliked him immediately.
Good. My instincts were returning.
Matteo placed a folder on a dusty table.
“Teresa Reed was the only owner who copied the entire Bellini contract before refusing.”
My heart stopped.
“My mother had a copy?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“That is why I asked you here.”
He looked toward the back wall.
“There used to be a storage room.”
I walked past him.
Down the narrow hallway.
Left door.
Broken handle.
The room still smelled faintly of grease and old wood.
Matteo reached behind a loose baseboard and pulled out a metal recipe box.
My mother’s.
I made a sound before I could stop myself.
Inside were index cards.
Sauce recipes.
Supplier numbers.
Payroll notes.
And a flash drive taped beneath the lid.
My mother had hidden evidence in her recipes.
Of course she had.
Luca’s laptop opened the files.
Contracts.
Invoices.
Photos of city inspectors meeting Bellini men.
And one video.
My mother, Teresa Reed, standing in the restaurant kitchen six years earlier.
“If you are seeing this, Emma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything.”
I started crying immediately.
She explained the Bellini scheme.
The fake invoices.
The pressure.
The threats.
Then she said:
“I went to Carlo Moretti because he claimed he wanted to stop them.”
Luca went still.
My mother had met his father.
She gave him copies.
Trusted him.
Two days later, the final invoice arrived with Carlo’s signature.
He hadn’t stopped the Bellinis.
He had sold my mother’s proof back to them.
Then my mother said something that changed the room.
“Not everyone in the Moretti family betrayed me.”
She looked toward someone off camera.
“Matteo tried to help.”
Matteo looked away.
The video continued.
“He told me to hide copies. If anything happens to Reed’s, he said one day Luca might need the truth.”
Luca turned toward his brother.
“You knew about Emma?”
“No.”
“I knew about Teresa.”
“Why didn’t you come back sooner?”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“Because Father tried to kill me.”
Silence.
He had been exiled first.
Then hunted.
After he helped my mother and several other owners preserve evidence, Carlo arranged the fake death and sent men after him in Sicily.
Matteo survived.
But returned only when he learned Luca was marrying Vanessa Bellini.
“Why tonight?” Marco asked.
Matteo looked at Vanessa.
“Because once the marriage happens, the Bellini claim becomes much harder to unwind.”
Then he looked at Luca.
“And because your fiancée has already signed the transfer papers.”
Vanessa whispered:
“No.”
Matteo threw another document onto the table.
Signature page.
Vanessa Bellini.
Transfer acceptance of consolidated restaurant interest.
May you like
Date:
Yesterday.
