Chapter 6 - The Ghost In The Bloodline
Vanessa’s words hung in the smoke-filled air like a curse.
“Keep walking,” Marco growled, shoving Vanessa toward the exit.
I stared after her, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Luca’s father?
“She hid him to protect him from Luca’s.”
It made no sense. Luca had explicitly told me his father died fifteen years ago—two years before Anna even got sick. How could a dead man be a threat to an unborn child?
Luca was still holding Leo, murmuring soft, reassuring words into the boy’s hair. He hadn’t heard Vanessa’s final taunt.
I didn’t want to ruin this moment for him. But the cold dread in my stomach wouldn’t dissipate.
We brought Leo back to the Moretti estate.
The mansion was completely locked down. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter. Inside, the massive house felt too quiet.
Leo was exhausted. The emotional toll of the morning had drained him.
I took him to a guest room on the second floor. I ran a warm bath, found some of Luca’s old t-shirts that hung to the boy’s knees, and tucked him into the massive king-sized bed.
“Are they going to come back?” Leo asked quietly, clutching the covers to his chin.
“No, sweetie,” I said, brushing his dark hair off his forehead. “You are the safest boy in the world right now.”
Leo looked at me with those dark, observant eyes.
“You’re nice,” he said softly. “You’re not like Aunt Vanessa. You smell like soap, not perfume.”
I smiled, my heart breaking a little. “Get some sleep, Leo.”
I closed the door softly and walked downstairs.
Luca was in the library, pouring a massive glass of scotch. He looked up when I entered, his shoulders dropping slightly in relief.
“Is he asleep?” Luca asked.
“Out cold,” I said.
Luca took a deep drink of the amber liquid. He looked around the opulent library, but his eyes were entirely hollow.
“I have a son,” he whispered, as if he still couldn’t believe it. “A son I never knew existed. And Anna… she died alone in that clinic, thinking I had abandoned her.”
“She knew you didn’t abandon her, Luca. She knew Victor was hiding her.”
I hesitated, standing by the doorway.
“Luca… as they were taking Vanessa away, she said something.”
Luca frowned. “What did she say?”
“She said Anna didn’t hide Leo to protect him from Victor. She said she hid him to protect him from your father.”
Luca went completely still.
The glass of scotch stopped halfway to his mouth.
“My father died two years before Leo was born,” Luca said flatly.
“I know. That’s why it doesn’t make sense. Was she just trying to mess with my head?”
Luca didn’t answer. He set the glass down. His eyes darted to the large oil portrait of his father, Antonio Moretti, hanging over the fireplace.
“My father was a ruthless man, Emma,” Luca said quietly. “He built this empire with blood. When I married Anna, she hated this life. She wanted me out. My father… he hated her for it. He said she was making me weak.”
Luca walked closer to the fireplace.
“Fifteen years ago, my father’s car exploded downtown. They said it was a rival family. But we never found the men who planted the bomb.”
He turned to look at me.
“What if Anna found out something? What if Victor knew who killed my father, and used it to blackmail her?”
Before I could process the tangled web of mafia politics, the heavy library doors opened.
Maria, the elderly housekeeper, stood there. She was wringing her apron in her hands, her face pale and lined with deep anxiety.
“Mr. Moretti,” Maria said, her voice shaking.
“Not now, Maria,” Luca said.
“Sir, it’s important. It’s about… it’s about the boy.”
Luca gave her his full attention. “What about Leo?”
Maria took a trembling breath.
“When Mrs. Moretti was locked in that clinic… before she gave the baby to Dr. Harris to hide… she gave me something.”
Maria reached into her apron pocket.
She pulled out a small, tarnished brass key.
“She told me to keep this hidden. She said, if the boy ever came home, I was to give it to the woman who brought him back.”
Maria walked over and placed the key in my hand.
I stared at the cold metal. “What does it open?”
“The cedar chest in the attic,” Maria whispered. “The one that belonged to your father, Mr. Moretti.”
Luca stared at the key.
Ten minutes later, we were in the dusty, dimly lit attic of the mansion.
In the far corner, covered by a white sheet, sat a heavy, ornate cedar trunk.
Luca pulled the sheet off. Dust swirled in the air.
I slid the brass key into the lock. It clicked heavily.
Together, we pushed the heavy lid open.
Inside, the trunk didn’t contain money or weapons.
It contained stacks of financial ledgers.
Luca pulled the top ledger out and opened it. His eyes scanned the columns of numbers and dates.
“These are my father’s private accounts,” Luca murmured. “Money laundering. Payoffs. Hits.”
He flipped to the very last page, dated just three days before his father’s car blew up.
There was a single entry, written in his father’s bold handwriting.
Payment for removal of Anna Bellini. $500,000.
I gasped, covering my mouth.
“Your father ordered a hit on Anna?” I whispered in horror.
Luca stared at the ledger, his entire body rigid.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Underneath the payment entry was a name. The name of the person who accepted the contract to murder Luca’s wife.
Luca read the name, and the ledger fell from his hands, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
I looked down at the open page.
May you like
The name written there was Victor Bellini.
TITLE: The Devil In The Ledger
