Chapter 7 - A Warning Written in Wine
They returned to Adrian’s home before sunrise.
The nursery remained exactly as Lucia had designed it.
Soft walls.
A wooden crib.
Stars painted across one corner.
Bookshelves filled with children’s stories.
Elina stood in the doorway.
The room carried a presence even though Lucia had been gone for six months.
Adrian walked toward the bookshelf.
“She read to Leo every night.”
“He was three months old.”
“She said that wasn’t the point.”
Elina smiled.
“What was?”
“That he knew her voice.”
Her smile disappeared.
That explained Leo.
Maybe he remembered Lucia’s voice, rhythm, face.
And Elina was close enough to awaken a memory his infant mind could not understand.
“Red book,” Adrian said.
They searched.
Children’s books.
Medical journals.
Photo albums.
Nothing.
Then Elina noticed a red leather spine pushed behind a row of board books.
She removed it.
Blank cover.
No title.
Adrian opened it.
Inside was not writing.
Wine labels.
Dozens of them.
Each carefully pasted onto a page.
“Lucia collected labels?” Elina asked.
“No.”
“Then what is this?”
Adrian examined one.
Amarone.
Barolo.
Chianti.
Brunello.
All from specific years.
Elina remembered Orelio’s cellar.
“Those are wines.”
“I can see that.”
“No. I mean those exact vintages.”
Adrian looked at her.
“We have them at Orelio.”
“Every one?”
“Most.”
She flipped pages.
Tiny numbers had been written beneath the labels.
14.
15.
16.
17.
“They’re locations.”
“Bottle positions?”
“Maybe.”
They drove back to Orelio.
D’Angelo met them.
When he saw the red book, his eyes widened.
“I wondered where she put that.”
“You knew?” Elina asked.
“Not where.”
They descended into the cellar.
Elina matched the first label.
Amarone, 2014.
Shelf fourteen.
Position three.
Behind the bottle was a small chalk mark.
They repeated the sequence.
Each bottle contained one letter written on the back label.
Together the letters formed a message:
BELOW TABLE SEVEN.
Elina stared.
“The table where Adrian sat.”
D’Angelo nodded slowly.
“Lucia’s favorite table.”
They returned upstairs.
Table seven was bolted to a decorative platform.
Underneath, hidden beneath a removable floor panel, they found a waterproof metal case.
Inside:
A flash drive.
A ledger.
And another letter.
Adrian opened the ledger.
Financial records.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Elina recognized one.
Carlo Moretti.
Another appeared repeatedly.
Rafael Valdez.
Then Enzo.
Then officials.
Police.
Judges.
Businessmen.
Adrian’s face hardened.
“This could destroy half the organization.”
Elina looked at him.
“Does that bother you?”
He met her eyes.
“It should.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised her.
“You are the head of this organization.”
“I inherited it.”
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
“You benefited.”
“Yes.”
He did not excuse himself.
Elina respected that more than she wanted to.
“What will you do?”
“End it.”
D’Angelo laughed bitterly.
“Families like yours don’t end.”
“Then mine will.”
Adrian picked up the flash drive.
Before he could plug it into a computer, Elina stopped him.
“No internet.”
“What?”
“If Lucia hid this for years, assume someone expects us to open it.”
Adrian looked impressed.
“Courtroom prosecutor.”
“Waitress.”
“Not forever.”
She ignored that.
D’Angelo brought an old offline laptop.
The flash drive contained videos.
The first showed Lucia.
Pregnant.
“Adrian, if you found this, I’m sorry.”
He went still.
“I wanted to tell you everything.”
“But I needed to know which parts of your world would survive the truth.”
She explained that Carlo had spent years diverting money from Moretti companies.
Rafael helped conceal it in exchange for protection.
But Lucia discovered something bigger.
Carlo was planning to eliminate Adrian.
“Your cousin believes the family needs someone ruthless.”
Adrian gave a humorless smile.
“Of course.”
Lucia continued.
“He thinks becoming a father made you weak.”
Elina glanced at him.
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
“He intends to use my death to break you.”
Adrian flinched.
Lucia knew.
“Do not let him.”
Then Lucia looked directly into the camera.
“And if my sister ever sees this…”
Elina stopped breathing.
“I hope she knows I searched for her because I wanted a family, not because I needed help.”
Tears filled Elina’s eyes.
“I wanted to know whether she laughs loudly.”
“Whether she likes thunderstorms.”
“Whether she snores.”
Elina laughed through tears.
“I do not.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You do.”
She stared at him.
“You heard me sleep?”
“Safe house walls are thin.”
Even D’Angelo smiled.
Lucia continued.
“I wanted ordinary things.”
Her face became sad.
“But if Elina is watching this, then ordinary may no longer be possible.”
The video ended.
Another file was labeled:
THE NIGHT BEFORE.
Lucia sat in her car.
“I’m going to meet Carlo tomorrow.”
Adrian swore.
“He doesn’t know I copied the ledger.”
“He thinks I only have photographs.”
“I’m going to offer a trade.”
Elina leaned closer.
Lucia continued.
“But if something happens to me, the ledger belongs to Elina.”
“Why me?” Elina whispered.
Lucia answered from six months earlier.
“Because Adrian will want revenge.”
He closed his eyes.
“And Rosa will want to run.”
“But I think my sister will do neither.”
Elina stared at the screen.
“She doesn’t know me.”
D’Angelo smiled sadly.
“Maybe she did.”
The video continued.
“There is one final piece.”
“Rafael has it.”
“He kept the original document proving who ordered Maribel’s death.”
“If he gives it to Elina, Carlo cannot deny what his family did.”
The file ended.
Adrian looked at the address Rosa had received.
“Tomorrow morning.”
Elina nodded.
“We meet my father.”
Before they could leave, D’Angelo noticed something.
The front window.
Across the street, a black sedan.
Its engine running.
Adrian moved toward the door.
The sedan pulled away.
On table seven, where none of them had noticed it before, sat a single wine glass.
Beneath the glass was a folded note.
Elina opened it.
You found Lucia’s secret.
Now choose: the ledger or Rosa.
At the bottom:
Midnight. Pier 19.
Elina looked at the clock.
11:12 p.m.
Adrian took the note.
“They changed the plan.”
“No.”
Elina looked toward the red book.
“They’re scared.”
“Of what?”
“Us finding my father first.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
And Elina suddenly understood the game.
“Carlo doesn’t know where Rafael is either.”
Which meant Rafael Valdez was no longer simply part of the conspiracy.
May you like
He had become the one man everyone needed to find.
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