Chapter 3 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER CAME HOME
Dante had not spoken his brother's name in eleven years.
Marco Moretti.
Younger by four years.
Charming.
Reckless.
The kind of man who could walk into a room full of enemies and leave with three new friends.
Marco had disappeared after a meeting in Brooklyn.
His car was found near the waterfront.
His phone was recovered from the East River.
No body was ever found.
The family believed he had been killed by a rival organization.
Dante had spent years punishing people he thought responsible.
Now Elena was telling him his mother had kept a secret.
"What did she know?" Dante asked.
Elena shook her head.
"I don't know everything."
"Then tell me what you do know."
She took a breath.
"Mrs. Moretti asked me to help organize some papers shortly before she died. She said there were things she couldn't trust to the family office."
Dante frowned.
"Why not?"
"Because she believed someone had been changing the records."
"What records?"
"Payments. Property transfers. Old shipping accounts."
Dante stared.
Elena continued.
"She gave me a small blue notebook and told me to keep it somewhere safe."
"Where is it?"
Elena looked toward the hallway.
"I hid it."
Dante waited.
Then she whispered:
"Inside Sophie's pillow."
Dante stared at her.
"The star?"
Elena nodded.
"There's a small pocket beneath the seam."
He closed his eyes.
The child had been carrying evidence without knowing it.
The person knocking at her door had probably realized where the notebook was hidden.
Dante went upstairs.
Sophie was asleep with Bruno curled beside her bed.
Her star pillow rested beneath one arm.
He looked at the worn fabric.
Then at the child.
For years, he had believed danger came from outside the gates.
Now it had been walking through his walls.
Elena carefully retrieved the notebook while Sophie slept, replacing the pillow without waking her.
Dante opened it in his study.
The pages contained dates, initials, and financial entries.
Some names were familiar.
Others were not.
Then he found one that made his hands go cold.
M. MORETTI — TRANSFER APPROVED — $4,800,000
The date was six weeks after Marco disappeared.
Dante stared at the page.
His brother had supposedly been dead.
Yet someone had authorized a multimillion-dollar transfer using his name.
Luca examined the entry.
"Could be forged."
Dante nodded.
"Or Marco was alive."
The room went silent.
Then Dante noticed a handwritten note in the margin.
His mother's handwriting.
Ask Rafael why the waterfront camera was turned off.
Dante looked up.
Rafael Moretti.
His cousin.
May you like
His chief financial officer.
And the man who had helped him search for Marco for eleven years.
