Chapter 6 - THE ACCIDENT THAT TOOK NATHAN’S LEGS
Nathan Bennett hated being treated like a victim.
Grace knew that before she entered his rehabilitation room and found three security men outside.
She turned toward Dominic.
“I said no army.”
“You said no decisions without you.”
He leaned on a cane beside her, discharged against several doctors’ preferences.
“You agreed to three.”
Grace hated that he was right.
Nathan looked up from his wheelchair.
“Wow.”
Grace rushed toward him.
“You okay?”
“I was until you arrived with organized crime.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Grace hugged her brother carefully.
Nathan looked at Dominic.
“So you’re him.”
“Apparently.”
“The terrifying Moretti.”
“Depends who you ask.”
“I’m asking me.”
Nathan rolled closer.
“You look terrible.”
Grace covered her face.
Dominic actually laughed.
For a moment, fear loosened.
Then Nathan showed them what Carlo had left.
An envelope.
Inside was $50,000 cash.
And a note.
YOUR SISTER SHOULD FORGET WHAT SHE SAW.
Grace went cold.
“What did you do?”
“Told him to shove it.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Nathan pointed toward a small camera mounted over the rehabilitation gym entrance.
“He forgot this place records everything.”
Footage showed Carlo entering.
Talking to Nathan.
Leaving the envelope.
More importantly, audio captured something unexpected.
Nathan asked:
“Why should my sister be afraid of you?”
Carlo answered:
“Because she already cost my family enough once.”
Grace stared at the screen.
“Once?”
Nathan nodded.
“That confused me too.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“When was your truck accident?”
“Eighteen months ago.”
“And when did Grace begin working at my house?”
Grace answered.
“Fourteen months.”
So her employment came after Nathan’s accident.
Carlo’s statement referred to something earlier.
Grace sat.
“I don’t know these people.”
Nathan looked uncomfortable.
“What?”
He rolled toward his bedside cabinet.
“There’s something I never told you.”
“Please don’t say that today.”
“Sorry.”
He pulled out an old phone.
“The night of my accident, I was driving home from the docks.”
Grace frowned.
“You worked at a grocery warehouse.”
“Next to the docks.”
Nathan had been covering an extra shift.
On his way out, he saw a Bellini Freight trailer parked behind an abandoned storage building.
Men were unloading sealed crates into an unmarked van.
Nathan thought they were stealing.
So he recorded thirty seconds.
“Why didn’t you give this to police?”
“I tried.”
He opened the video.
“After the crash, the phone disappeared from evidence.”
Grace stared at the device.
“But—”
“This is my old cloud backup.”
The video played.
Bellini trucks.
Crates.
Carlo.
Anthony Rizzo.
And another man.
Dominic’s face hardened.
His uncle, Vincent Moretti.
Dead three years.
Nathan continued.
“I didn’t remember the video until therapy helped with some memory gaps.”
“Does anyone else know you recovered it?”
Nathan hesitated.
“One person.”
Grace groaned.
“Who?”
“The lawyer Mom hired.”
“What lawyer?”
“He came through a medical debt charity.”
Dominic and Marco exchanged looks.
“Name?” Marco asked.
Nathan answered.
“Peter Sloan.”
Marco searched immediately.
No legitimate personal-injury license under that name.
Fake.
Someone had inserted a man into Grace’s family after the accident to learn what Nathan remembered.
Nathan looked at his sister.
“I told him about the cloud backup last week.”
Grace stopped breathing.
Dominic looked toward the security team.
“Move Rose.”
Grace turned.
“My mother?”
“Your apartment too.”
“You promised—”
“I’m asking.”
That stopped her.
Not ordering.
Asking.
“Grace, Carlo now knows Nathan has evidence. Let me move your mother somewhere secure.”
Grace looked at Nathan.
He nodded.
“Do it.”
Dominic called Marco.
Then Nathan paused the video.
“Wait.”
He enlarged one frame.
The crates carried a symbol.
A small black cross.
The same design Leo wore.
Dominic stared.
“That symbol doesn’t belong to Bellini.”
“Whose is it?”
Dominic’s answer came slowly.
“My mother’s family.”
And his mother had supposedly died when Dominic was twelve.
May you like
Suddenly the black cross wasn’t merely something Elena had given Leo.
It was tied to a family Dominic had been told no longer existed.
