Chương 4 - THE TRADE NICO REFUSED TO MAKE
Nico said no before Salvatore finished making the offer.
His father didn't.
That was how I learned exactly what kind of family I had spent three years living beside.
We moved to one of Nico's older houses in Westchester.
No staff except Arthur.
No predictable security rotation.
No one Nico hadn't known since childhood.
Alessandro arrived two hours later.
He entered the library already furious.
“We make the exchange.”
Nico stood.
“No.”
“Valentina is your sister.”
“And Elena isn't currency.”
Alessandro looked at me as if I'd become inconvenient furniture.
“Salvatore wants her for a reason.”
“That's exactly why she doesn't go.”
I hated needing Nico to say it.
I hated loving that he did.
Alessandro turned toward me.
“What do you know?”
“Apparently less than everyone.”
He ignored the sarcasm.
“Did Valentina ever give you anything?”
“No.”
“Documents?”
“No.”
“A drive?”
“No.”
Then I remembered.
Three weeks before she supposedly moved to Milan, Valentina gave me a necklace.
Cheap.
Silver.
A tiny saint medal.
She said she'd bought it at a church in Rome.
I still had it.
Not in Nico's safe.
In the pocket of an old coat I'd left at a dry cleaner months earlier.
Nico watched my face.
“What?”
“Valentina gave me something.”
Within an hour, Arthur retrieved the coat.
The medal looked ordinary.
Until Nico pressed the back.
A seam appeared.
Inside was a tiny encrypted memory card.
Alessandro swore.
Nico looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
We opened it on an isolated computer.
Hundreds of files.
Bank records.
Construction contracts.
Payoffs.
Political donations.
Photographs.
Valentina had copied evidence of a financial network operating inside Bellandi companies.
Nico scanned the names.
Then froze.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward me.
One account belonged to Alessandro.
Another belonged to Marco Bellandi.
The largest transfer recipient was Salvatore Rizzi.
All three men had been moving money together.
Nico looked at his father.
“You told me Salvatore became our enemy after Carlo died.”
“He did.”
“These payments are from six months ago.”
Alessandro's face hardened.
“Business is complicated.”
“Is kidnapping your daughter complicated?”
“Watch your tone.”
Nico laughed coldly.
“My sister disappeared after uncovering this.”
Alessandro glanced at the door.
Arthur blocked it.
For the first time, the old man looked nervous.
Then another file opened automatically.
A video.
Valentina appeared on screen.
Tired.
Terrified.
Alive at the time of recording.
“Nico, if you're watching this, Dad knows.”
Alessandro's face drained.
Valentina continued.
“The missing money isn't the real secret.”
She looked off-camera.
Then back.
“Ask Dad what happened to Elena's mother.”
I stopped breathing.
My mother had died when I was sixteen.
A supposed drunk-driving accident in New Jersey.
Nico turned slowly toward his father.
May you like
Alessandro whispered, “That's impossible.”
But he didn't say he knew nothing.
