Chapter 7 - THEIR FATHERS' SECRET
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Luca listened to the recording three times.
He did not move during any of them.
Norah watched his face instead of the old recorder.
The first time, he looked stunned.
The second, angry.
The third, empty.
That frightened her more.
Samuel Bennett’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“Antonio Moretti came to me because one of the foundations was using exhibition transport contracts to move unregistered cash between cities. He believed Graham Vale, Salvatore DeLuca and at least one Moretti associate were involved.”
Luca’s fingers curled.
“My father trusted Salvatore.”
Norah touched pause.
“You don’t have to keep listening.”
“Yes, I do.”
She pressed play.
“Antonio believed Salvatore could help him expose the network. I warned him not to trust anyone whose fortune depended on silence.”
Luca shut his eyes.
The tape continued.
“Three days later, Antonio Moretti died.”
Norah looked at Luca.
Publicly, Antonio Moretti’s death had been described as a single-car accident on an icy road outside Milwaukee.
According to Samuel’s recording, it happened in September.
There had been no ice.
“My father started asking questions,” Samuel said. “Graham warned me to stop. Yesterday, somebody followed Norah home from school.”
Norah stopped breathing.
She had been fifteen.
She remembered that autumn.
Her father suddenly insisting on driving her everywhere.
Checking windows at night.
Replacing the deadbolt.
Her mother had told her he was stressed because of business.
Norah had believed her.
“Today Graham asked me to modify the Belladonna case again. He wants a compartment designed to transport ledger documents during museum transfers. I refused.”
Static.
“If I’m wrong, destroy this tape. If I’m right, protect our children.”
The recording ended.
For several seconds, there was only the soft mechanical click of the tape turning.
Norah stared at the machine.
Two fathers.
Two car crashes.
One diamond.
She felt fifteen again.
Too young to understand the adults whispering in the kitchen.
Except now she understood too much.
Luca stood abruptly.
“I need to find Salvatore.”
Norah blocked the door.
“No.”
His eyes met hers.
“You heard the tape.”
“Yes.”
“He betrayed my father.”
“Maybe.”
“Norah.”
“Maybe.”
She stepped closer.
“We just spent five hours proving someone is manufacturing evidence. Your uncle’s blood appears in a car with a fake diamond. Ten million gets moved into a fake company in his name. That is exactly what someone wants you to believe.”
“He was involved.”
“Samuel said Antonio trusted him.”
“And warned him too.”
“No. My father said he warned Antonio not to trust anybody.”
Luca’s jaw flexed.
“He called Salvatore part of the network.”
“He said Antonio believed Salvatore was involved before asking him for help.”
That stopped him.
Norah pointed toward the recorder.
“Listen to the words, not the anger.”
His expression hardened.
“You think I’m not thinking clearly.”
“I think somebody just gave you a reason to stop thinking.”
Silence.
Then Luca moved away from the door.
Norah exhaled.
“You’re infuriating.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Frequently?”
“Tonight especially.”
He looked at her.
Something shifted.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more dangerous.
Trust.
His phone rang.
Marco.
Luca answered.
This time, he put the call on speaker.
“We found Salvatore.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Norah closed her eyes.
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s Hospital.”
Luca frowned.
“How did he get there?”
“Dropped outside the emergency entrance forty minutes ago. Two broken ribs, stab wound, concussion.”
“Can he talk?”
“He keeps asking for you.”
They drove through nearly empty Chicago streets before sunrise.
Norah expected Luca to leave her behind.
He didn’t even suggest it.
Salvatore looked smaller in the hospital bed.
Without his tailored suit, expensive watch and reputation, he was a bruised sixty-four-year-old man with an oxygen line beneath his nose.
When Luca entered, Salvatore began crying.
That shocked Norah more than the blood.
“Antonio,” he whispered.
Luca froze.
“It’s Luca.”
Salvatore blinked several times.
Recognition returned.
“Luca.”
“Who did this?”
His uncle looked toward Norah.
“Samuel’s girl.”
Norah stepped closer.
“You knew my father?”
“I owed him my life.”
Luca stared.
“Then tell us the truth.”
Salvatore shut his eyes.
“Antonio discovered Graham’s laundering network. I was supposed to help him gather evidence.”
“Did you?”
“I tried.”
“Did you betray him?”
Salvatore began trembling.
“I was weak.”
Luca’s face changed.
“Answer me.”
“They took Elena.”
Graham’s daughter.
Norah leaned forward.
“When?”
“Seventeen years ago. She was nine.”
That didn’t fit the story they’d been told.
Elena would be thirty-three now.
“Yes,” Salvatore whispered, reading their confusion. “Graham used his own daughter as leverage.”
“Against who?” Luca asked.
“Her mother.”
A monitor beeped steadily.
“Who was her mother?”
Salvatore looked directly at Luca.
“Your aunt.”
Luca stepped back.
“What?”
“Graham and your aunt Sofia had an affair. Elena was their child. When Antonio discovered the financial network, Graham threatened Sofia. Threatened Elena. I panicked.”
“You betrayed my father.”
“I gave Graham the route Antonio planned to drive.”
Luca went absolutely still.
Norah’s breath caught.
Salvatore began crying again.
“I thought they would scare him. I didn’t know they would kill him.”
Luca’s hand curled into a fist.
Norah touched his wrist.
He looked down.
Her hand seemed absurdly small against him.
But he didn’t pull away.
Salvatore whispered, “Samuel found out what I had done.”
Norah’s eyes filled.
“My father.”
“He was going to the FBI.”
Her heart stopped.
“Was his accident really an accident?”
Salvatore looked at her.
“No.”
The word broke something inside her.
Norah stepped backward.
Luca caught her elbow.
For years she had accepted a lie because grief had not given her another option.
Now the room blurred.
“Who killed him?”
Salvatore swallowed.
“I never knew the driver.”
“Who ordered it?”
“I believed Graham did.”
“Believed?”
“Until tonight.”
Luca leaned closer.
“What changed?”
Salvatore’s face tightened with pain.
“Someone came to my house.”
“Who?”
“He showed me the original ledger.”
Luca and Norah exchanged a glance.
“What ledger?”
“The one Antonio died trying to find.”
Salvatore’s breathing became shallow.
“He said Graham was never the head of the network.”
Norah felt cold.
“Then who was?”
May you like
Before Salvatore could answer, every light in the hospital room went black.
And somewhere in the darkness, a gun fired.
