Chapter 9 - ALLIE’S FATHER HAD STARTED THE WAR
Allie locked herself in the guest room.
I let her.
Old Murphy would have demanded answers.
New Murphy had apparently learned doors could remain closed.
Two hours later, she came downstairs.
Eyes red.
Lily asleep upstairs.
“Tell me.”
Claire laid out records.
Gabriel Carter had handled Moretti accounts twenty years earlier.
He discovered money disappearing into offshore companies.
My father accused him.
Three weeks later, the warehouse burned.
Gabriel vanished.
Six months after that, a body identified as his was found in Lake Michigan.
Another closed casket.
I almost laughed.
Our families were terrible at confirmed deaths.
“Was he guilty?” Allie asked.
Claire shook her head.
“We don’t think so.”
The stolen money actually funded a parallel network.
The same one Elena discovered.
“All this started before Dominic?”
“Yes.”
“Before Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
“Then who?”
Claire opened a photograph.
My grandmother, Lucia Moretti.
Beside her stood Gabriel Carter.
And my father.
All three younger.
All three smiling.
Then another photograph.
A fourth man.
Father Anthony Vale.
Family priest.
Trusted adviser.
Confessor to every Moretti man for forty years.
I stared.
“No.”
Claire did not blink.
“We believe Vale built the network.”
A priest.
Again? Fine as fiction but don't overlap too much. Still okay.
“He had access to everyone’s secrets,” Claire continued. “Bank passwords through estate planning. Family conflicts. Confessions. Weaknesses.”
“He started stealing?”
“At first, probably to hide money from law enforcement.”
“Then?”
“He discovered secrets were worth more than cash.”
Blackmail.
Manipulation.
Fake orders.
Murder.
Entire wars engineered from private information.
Allie stared at Gabriel’s photograph.
“My father found him?”
“Yes.”
“And your father did too.”
That meant neither man betrayed the other.
They were trying to stop Vale.
Then the warehouse fire killed my father.
Gabriel disappeared.
Elena found pieces years later.
She died.
Evan disappeared.
The pattern was obvious.
“Where is Vale?”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Retired monastery outside Milwaukee.”
I stood.
“No.”
She frowned.
“You’re not going alone.”
“I’m not going at all.”
That surprised her.
“I spent half my life solving problems by walking into rooms with guns.”
I looked at Allie.
“It keeps creating new rooms.”
We moved legally.
Search warrants.
Financial freezes.
Witness protection for Allie, Lily, and Evan if needed.
Then something unexpected happened.
Gabriel Carter called.
Allie answered.
Her hand shook.
“Dad?”
A man cried on speaker.
“Allie.”
She collapsed into a chair.
Another dead man alive.
Apparently Gabriel had spent twenty years under federal protection after surviving the warehouse attack.
“Why never contact me?”
“Because Vale watched you.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“No. Everybody says that like it fixes something.”
I liked her anger.
It sounded healthy.
Gabriel continued.
“Listen to me. Vale knows Murphy is working with Bennett.”
“How?”
“Someone inside her office.”
Claire went rigid.
The conspiracy still had a leak.
Then Gabriel said:
“He’s not coming for Murphy first.”
My eyes moved toward the stairs.
Lily.
Gabriel confirmed my fear.
May you like
“He’s coming for the child.”
At that exact moment, the estate power went out.
