Chapter 12 - The Locked Room at Harbor Point
Thomas refused a hospital.
Harper laughed when he said it.
“What?”
She looked toward Luca.
“He said the same thing.”
Thomas gave Luca a suspicious glance.
Luca replied, “Apparently your daughter has a type.”
Harper stared at him.
Vincent turned away to hide a smile.
Thomas didn't.
“Is something happening between you two?”
“No,” Harper answered.
“Yes,” Luca said simultaneously.
Harper's head snapped around.
Luca looked almost innocent.
Thomas frowned.
“I'm too injured for this conversation.”
“Finally,” Harper said, “something we agree on.”
They took Thomas to one of Luca's secure houses outside the city.
Dr. Salvatore treated him.
No critical injuries.
Exhaustion.
Dehydration.
Bruising.
Harper waited until Thomas had eaten before beginning.
“Everything.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You want twenty-seven years in one conversation?”
“Start with why Robert Moretti wants the ledger.”
Thomas glanced toward Luca.
“Because the ledger doesn't only implicate Anthony.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Who else?”
“Robert's father.”
“My uncle Carlo?”
“Yes.”
Luca became still.
Thomas explained.
Carlo Moretti and Anthony DeLuca had been business partners behind Antonio's back.
They stole from port operations.
Created conflicts.
Profited from retaliation.
When Antonio discovered it, Carlo panicked.
“Your father intended to expose them,” Thomas said.
“Why didn't he?”
“Because Katherine became leverage.”
Harper's stomach tightened.
“My mother?”
“Anthony threatened her. Carlo threatened you.”
Thomas looked at Luca.
“You were twenty-four. Hotheaded. Already involved with men Antonio hated.”
Luca said nothing.
“He knew you'd seek revenge.”
“So he stayed silent.”
“For a while.”
“And the fire?”
“Carlo ordered it.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Everything he'd believed about his uncle collapsed at once.
“Did my father know?”
“Eventually.”
“What happened?”
“Antonio confronted Carlo.”
“And?”
“Carlo begged forgiveness.”
Luca laughed bitterly.
“My father forgave him?”
“Antonio believed family could change.”
Thomas looked at Harper.
“Your mother believed the same thing about me once.”
Harper looked away.
“What happened after the fire?”
“Antonio made copies of the records. Katherine kept one.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“And Carlo?”
“Antonio forced him out of Boston for two years.”
“But he came back.”
“Yes.”
“I remember.”
Thomas nodded.
“Antonio died before he could expose everything.”
Luca's face remained blank.
Harper could see the grief underneath.
“What about Robert?”
Thomas continued.
“Robert found part of Carlo's papers after his father died.”
“He learned the truth.”
“Enough of it.”
“And now?”
“Robert has spent years removing evidence linking Carlo to the thefts.”
Vincent frowned.
“Why? Carlo's dead.”
“Because some companies built with that money now belong to Robert.”
Luca understood.
“If investigators reopen the old financial network…”
“They can seize everything.”
Harper looked at Luca.
“How much?”
Vincent answered.
“Hundreds of millions.”
Harper stared.
“And Robert was willing to kill Luca over money?”
Thomas shook his head.
“Not only money.”
“What else?”
“The organization.”
Robert believed he deserved Luca's position.
His father had filled his head with resentment.
Luca had inherited the name, respect, and network Robert wanted.
Anthony believed he could use Robert.
Robert believed he could use Anthony.
Neither trusted the other.
Harper thought about the ambush.
“Robert arranged Pier Twelve?”
“Yes.”
“Why was Anthony there too?”
“Anthony funded it.”
“Then why did Anthony say Thomas caused the shooting?”
Thomas's eyes darkened.
“I did.”
Everyone stared.
Harper said, “What?”
“I had a man watching the pier.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew they were planning something.”
“You could have warned Luca.”
“I tried.”
Luca remembered.
An anonymous call hours before the meeting.
He had ignored it.
Thomas continued.
“When the ambush began, my man fired at one of Anthony's shooters.”
“That created the chaos.”
“Yes.”
“And Luca escaped.”
“Yes.”
Harper looked at her father.
“You saved him.”
“I tried to correct an old debt.”
Luca looked toward Thomas.
“My father saved Harper.”
Thomas nodded.
“And Katherine saved Antonio.”
A strange circle.
Generational debt.
People rescuing one another across decades.
Harper hated how poetic it felt considering how many lives had been ruined.
“Robert knows we have the ledger,” Luca said.
“Yes.”
“What does he do next?”
Thomas looked grim.
“Destroy every company record that can authenticate it.”
Vincent stood.
“Moretti Financial.”
Luca was already moving.
The company's central servers occupied three floors of a downtown office.
If Robert had access—
“He does,” Luca said.
“He's CFO.”
Vincent called security.
No answer.
Then another number.
Nothing.
Luca's expression hardened.
“Robert took control.”
They drove toward Boston.
Thomas remained behind with guards.
Harper insisted on going.
Nobody argued.
When they reached the business district, smoke was visible.
Not fire.
Emergency generators.
The Moretti Financial building was dark.
Police vehicles surrounded the block.
Luca stopped.
“What happened?”
Vincent received a message.
“Cyberattack. Power failure. Someone wiped internal servers.”
Luca swore.
Harper looked upward.
“Is everything gone?”
“Off-site backups.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Robert controlled those too.”
Luca's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Robert.
“Hello, cousin.”
Luca put the call on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Far enough.”
“What do you want?”
“You already know.”
“The ledger.”
“And the tape.”
Harper looked at Luca.
Robert continued.
“Tomorrow. Nine p.m. I'll send a location.”
Luca said, “Why would I give you anything?”
“Because you don't understand what I took.”
A file appeared on Luca's phone.
He opened it.
His face changed.
Harper looked.
Bank records.
Photographs.
Documents.
Then one legal form.
Luca's mother's signature.
“What is this?”
Robert laughed softly.
“The thing Uncle Antonio protected most.”
Luca stared.
Robert continued.
“Your father's clean little grocery-store story was never completely clean.”
“What did he do?”
“Tomorrow.”
The call ended.
Luca stared at the documents.
Harper touched his arm.
“We don't know if they're real.”
“No.”
“But?”
Luca zoomed in on one page.
A company registration.
Thirty years old.
Antonio Moretti's name.
Thomas Rourke's name.
And Katherine Hayes listed as bookkeeper.
The company owned a warehouse.
A warehouse that still existed.
Harper recognized the address.
Her face drained.
“What?”
She showed Luca.
“That building.”
“What about it?”
“My mother took me there once when I was a kid.”
“How old?”
“Six, maybe.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
She closed her eyes.
A memory returned.
A cold hallway.
A blue door.
Her mother kneeling.
Harper, promise me you will never forget this number.
“What number?” Luca asked.
Harper opened her eyes.
“317.”
Vincent searched the property records.
The warehouse contained old private storage rooms.
Room 317 still existed.
And according to the records, nobody had legally accessed it in twenty-one years.
Whatever Katherine had hidden there had survived every search.
Every betrayal.
Every death.
Harper looked at Luca.
“Robert doesn't know about it.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because if he did, he wouldn't need our ledger.”
Luca stared toward the darkened Moretti building.
For the first time that night, they had something Robert didn't.
A secret Katherine Hayes had carried to her grave.
May you like
And behind the locked door of room 317 might be the only evidence capable of ending the war for good.
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