Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Emergency lights flickered on.
People murmured.
Mara heard footsteps.
Cassandra disappeared into the crowd.
“Mara!”
Gabriel's voice.
He reached her moments later with Daniel.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where's Cassandra?”
“Gone.”
Gabriel looked furious.
Not at Mara.
At himself.
She handed him the envelope.
“Vermont.”
By sunrise, they were driving north.
The retirement home sat beside a lake surrounded by pine trees.
Quiet.
Ordinary.
Mara had expected guards.
Secrets.
Something dramatic.
Instead, an elderly nun greeted them.
When Gabriel gave his name, she stared at him.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Then smiled sadly.
“He has waited a very long time.”
Gabriel stopped breathing for a second.
The nun led them through a garden.
An old man sat beneath a maple tree.
His hair was white.
His shoulders had narrowed with age.
But Gabriel recognized him immediately.
“Dad.”
Antonio Moretti looked up.
Twenty-three years collapsed into one word.
“Gabriel.”
Mara turned away.
Some moments did not belong to strangers.
Except she wasn't a stranger anymore.
Antonio embraced his son.
Gabriel, the man who seemed incapable of visible emotion, held his father like a boy afraid he might disappear again.
Eventually Antonio noticed Mara.
His face changed.
“Elaine?”
Mara swallowed.
“No.”
Antonio stared.
Then understood.
“Mara.”
She nodded.
He began crying.
That frightened her more than anything else.
Antonio reached for her hand.
“Nicholas’s girl.”
Mara sat beside him.
“You knew?”
“From the day you were born.”
“Then why did you leave me?”
The question came harder than intended.
Antonio accepted it.
“Because everyone close to me was becoming a target.”
“Patrick raised me.”
“He saved you.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian Mercer never stopped looking.”
Antonio explained everything.
Mercer's father had built a network of shell companies inside Moretti businesses.
Nicholas discovered it.
Antonio prepared to expose him.
Nicholas died before he could.
Then Antonio realized the corruption reached further than he imagined.
Lawyers.
Bankers.
Officials.
Business partners.
People Gabriel trusted.
So Antonio staged his disappearance.
Patrick hid the evidence.
Edmund Wren altered archives.
The plan was supposed to last months.
Instead, Mercer discovered enough to force Antonio into permanent hiding.
“What are the keys?” Mara asked.
Antonio looked at her.
“Control.”
“Of what?”
“The legitimate Moretti holdings Nicholas discovered were being stolen.”
“And they're mine?”
“They belong to Nicholas's heir.”
Mara exhaled.
“I don't want an empire.”
Antonio smiled.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“That means Patrick raised you correctly.”
Gabriel sat opposite his father.
“Why didn't you trust me?”
Antonio's smile disappeared.
“I did.”
“Then why leave me thinking you were dead?”
“Because you were twenty years old and furious at the world. If you knew I lived, you would have come looking.”
Gabriel could not deny it.
“And Mercer would have followed.”
“Yes.”
Antonio reached for his son's hand.
“I chose to let you hate a dead father rather than bury a living son.”
Silence.
Mara looked at Gabriel.
He looked away.
Antonio then told them about the final ledger.
It contained proof of every stolen property and transfer.
But Patrick divided the key into three parts.
Antonio had one.
Patrick kept one.
Edmund Wren kept the third.
Cassandra inherited Edmund's.
Mara understood.
“That's why Julian needs Cassandra.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
“You inherited Patrick's part.”
“I don't have anything.”
Antonio smiled.
“Yes, you do.”
Mara thought.
Then remembered the brass key inside Patrick's box.
She had brought it.
Antonio examined it.
“Not the key itself.”
He unscrewed the handle.
Inside was a thin strip of paper.
Numbers.
Mara stared.
Patrick.
Always another layer.
Antonio gave her his portion.
They now needed Cassandra's.
Then Mara's phone rang.
Cassandra.
Mara answered.
“Where are you?”
Cassandra was crying.
“I made another mistake.”
“What happened?”
“I went to Julian.”
Gabriel stood.
Mara put the phone on speaker.
“Why?”
“Because I thought I could convince him to stop.”
Antonio shook his head.
Cassandra continued.
“He knows Antonio is alive.”
Everyone froze.
“How?”
“He followed you.”
Mara turned toward the windows.
Outside, the garden remained peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Antonio stood.
“We leave now.”
But Cassandra shouted through the phone.
“Wait!”
Mara stopped.
“What?”
“There is something Gabriel doesn't know.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
Cassandra was sobbing now.
“The betrayal didn't begin with Mercer.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Someone inside the Moretti family gave him access.”
Antonio went pale.
“Who?”
Cassandra whispered a name.
Gabriel stepped backward.
Mara had never seen him look shocked before.
Antonio closed his eyes.
Because the person Cassandra named was still alive.
Still trusted.
Still inside Gabriel's house.
Daniel Moretti.
Gabriel's cousin.
May you like
The man standing three feet behind them.
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