Chapter 6 - THE MAN AT TABLE FOUR
Carlo Moretti resurfaced exactly where nobody expected.
Derek's engagement party.
Sadi refused to attend at first.
Then Madison called.
“I need you there.”
“Why?”
“My father is cooperating.”
“Yes.”
“And Derek found out.”
“So?”
“He thinks my family is trying to protect itself by blaming Roman.”
Sadi sighed.
“That sounds like Derek.”
Madison hesitated.
“There's something else.”
Carlo had contacted Derek.
Not because Derek mattered.
Because Derek worked in commercial insurance.
One of the Rossi freight companies carried a policy his firm administered.
Carlo needed access to historical claim files.
Derek thought it was ordinary work.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Sadi told investigators.
They asked her not to interfere.
So naturally, she attended the party and did absolutely nothing investigative.
Mostly.
Roman came as her real date.
That distinction had become uncomfortable.
They had not defined what they were.
Fake-boyfriend contract had ended months earlier.
Yet Roman still called.
Still appeared.
Still remembered when she worked doubles.
Still asked before sending a car.
Still tipped normally at Ilvento because she threatened to ban him.
At the engagement party, Derek cornered her near the bar.
“You're still with him?”
Sadi smiled.
“Hello to you too.”
“You know what he is.”
“Do you?”
“He's using you.”
Sadi almost felt sorry for him.
Once, that sentence would have wounded her.
Now it simply annoyed her.
“Derek.”
“What?”
“You're about to marry another woman.”
His face changed.
“This isn't jealousy.”
“Then stop discussing my dating life.”
He lowered his voice.
“Madison's father could go to prison because of Rossi.”
“No.”
Sadi shook her head.
“Madison's father could go to prison because of what Madison's father did.”
Derek stared.
Then Roman appeared.
No threat.
No hand around Sadi.
He simply asked:
“Ready?”
Sadi looked at Derek.
“Yes.”
They walked away.
Outside, Roman said:
“I dislike him.”
“I hadn't noticed.”
“He speaks as though he still owns opinion rights.”
“That is not a thing.”
“It should be.”
They reached the car.
Then Derek came running outside.
“Sadi!”
They turned.
He held a flash drive.
Another one.
Of course.
“What is that?”
“Carlo gave it to me.”
Roman's face changed.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“What did he say?”
“That if anything happened, I should give it to someone outside the Rossi family.”
Sadi almost laughed.
Everyone was learning Matteo-Cosenza-style strategies lately.
Wrong story.
But same instinct.
Roman didn't touch the drive.
He called investigators.
Good.
Derek looked confused.
“You're just handing it over?”
Roman nodded.
“What did you think I'd do?”
“I don't know.”
“Throw you in the river?”
Derek said nothing.
Roman sighed.
“Television has damaged everyone.”
The drive contained Carlo's insurance records.
And something else.
Audio.
Carlo had secretly recorded Roman's father years earlier.
The elder Rossi admitted he knew Rosa's art was being used to move illegal money.
Then:
“If Roman ever finds out, tell him his mother knew too much.”
Roman stopped the recording.
Sadi's stomach dropped.
Not murder.
Not directly.
But threat.
Fear.
A secret Rosa had carried alone.
Then another voice.
Carlo:
“And the girl?”
Roman's father:
“What girl?”
“Sadi Miller.”
Sadi went cold.
Impossible.
The recording was eight years old.
Long before she worked for Roman.
Carlo answered:
“The student.”
Roman looked at her.
Sadi stopped breathing.
The audio continued.
“The one researching the Sicilian church collection.”
Her graduate thesis.
Her stolen painting research.
Eight years earlier.
Roman's father said:
“Forget her. She's nobody.”
The recording ended.
Sadi stared at the laptop.
May you like
Roman's voice became quiet.
“They knew who you were before I did.”
