Chapter 6 - THE DEATH THAT CONNECTED OUR FAMILIES
My father’s name was Robert Bennett.
Accountant.
Quiet man.
Never involved with organized crime.
At least, that was what my mother told me.
Alexander looked worse than I felt.
“I didn’t know.”
I believed him.
That terrified me.
Because if he truly didn’t know, his family had secrets even he couldn’t control.
Dante contacted us through Sophia.
One encrypted message.
Come to Milan.
No security.
No phones.
I almost refused.
Then I remembered my father.
I went.
Alexander came too.
Dante Moretti was alive.
Older.
Scarred.
Leaner.
But unmistakably Alexander’s brother.
The reunion was not warm.
Alexander punched him.
Dante accepted it.
Then hugged him.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
I looked away.
Some grief belongs to the people who carried it.
Later, Dante handed me a file.
“My father used Bennett Accounting to hide offshore transfers.”
I stared.
“My father worked for Salvatore?”
“Not knowingly at first.”
Robert discovered falsified accounts.
He threatened to report them.
Salvatore arranged his death to look accidental.
The boat explosion had never been random.
I stopped breathing.
“Did Elena know?”
Dante looked away.
“Yes.”
My anger became cold.
Alexander whispered:
“Claire.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Dante continued.
“I found the records years later.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
Alexander said sharply:
“She was my wife.”
Dante stared at him.
“That’s why I didn’t.”
Silence.
Dante explained that after my marriage to Alexander, he feared revealing the truth would put me in danger.
Everyone protected me by hiding things.
Again.
I laughed.
“I’m beginning to hate the word protection.”
Dante nodded.
“Fair.”
He gave me copies.
Bank records.
Recorded calls.
A photograph of Salvatore meeting my father three days before he died.
Proof.
Real proof.
Then Dante said:
“There’s one more thing.”
I almost didn’t want to hear it.
“Your father left something behind.”
“What?”
“A trust.”
“For me?”
“No.”
Dante looked at Alexander.
“For whichever Moretti exposed Salvatore.”
Alexander frowned.
“What does Claire’s father have to do with that?”
“Robert knew your father would eventually destroy his own family.”
The trust held documents and assets seized from illegal Moretti accounts.
Almost seventy million dollars.
Beneficiary conditions required cooperation with federal authorities.
Dante had been trying to activate it.
But someone else already had.
Alexander stared.
“Who?”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“Elena.”
May you like
His mother had moved the money.
And disappeared from Chicago that morning.
