Chapter 4 - The Lie That Kept Them Alive
Vittorio Moretti's official will left everything to Adrian.
Everyone knew that.
What almost nobody knew was that there had been another document.
Marcus knew.
Cross had known.
And Claire, Adrian discovered, had known part of it too.
“You knew Sophie could inherit?”
They stood in Adrian's library as morning broke over Calder City.
“No.”
Claire shook her head.
“I knew your father had changed something before he died. That's all.”
Marcus opened an old wall safe.
Inside were files Adrian had never seen.
“You've had these?”
“I've had many things you weren't ready to see.”
“Try me.”
Marcus handed him a copy of Vittorio's private trust.
The language was dense.
The meaning wasn't.
Control of several legitimate Moretti holdings would transfer to the first biological grandchild upon her twenty-first birthday.
The assets were worth almost nine hundred million dollars.
But money wasn't the real problem.
Those companies controlled docks, warehouses and transportation corridors that the criminal side of the Moretti organization depended upon.
Sophie wasn't merely an heir.
She was a future switch capable of turning half the empire off.
Claire sat down.
“My daughter is being hunted because of a will?”
Marcus shook his head.
“Not only that.”
He looked at Adrian.
“If Sophie exists legally as your daughter, certain people lose everything.”
“Who?”
Marcus opened another file.
Before he could answer, the lights died.
Adrian heard the click first.
A suppressed gunshot.
Marcus jerked backward.
Claire screamed.
Adrian pulled her down.
Another round struck the bookshelf.
“Stay!”
He fired toward the doorway.
Footsteps retreated.
Dominic's men flooded the hall.
Adrian reached Marcus.
Blood soaked his shirt.
“Who?”
Marcus tried to speak.
Adrian bent close.
“Who loses everything?”
Marcus's hand gripped his sleeve.
“The man…”
“What man?”
“…you call brother.”
His grip loosened.
Adrian froze.
He had no brother.
Not officially.
But there was one man Vittorio had raised beside him from childhood.
One man who had eaten at their table.
Trained with Adrian.
Bled beside him.
Been closer than blood.
Adrian slowly looked toward the doorway.
Dominic Rusk stood there.
Gun in hand.
And for the first time since Sophie had entered Belladonna House, Adrian wondered whether the man guarding his back had been the one holding the knife all along.
---
Marcus survived.
Barely.
The bullet had missed his heart.
Dominic surrendered his weapon without being asked.
“You think I shot him.”
Adrian searched his face.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then explain why Cross's photograph made you nervous.”
Dominic laughed once.
No humor.
“Because Cross was my father.”
Claire stared.
Adrian said nothing.
Dominic continued.
“Vittorio took me in after Cross supposedly died. I was fourteen.”
“You knew he was alive?”
“Not until three years ago.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“He made me promise.”
“Everyone seems very comfortable deciding what I deserve to know.”
Dominic accepted that.
“Cross said someone was hunting Sophie. He wouldn't tell me who.”
“Why?”
“He didn't trust anyone.”
“Smart man.”
Dominic looked toward Marcus's room.
“I didn't shoot your uncle.”
Adrian wanted to believe him.
That was exactly why he couldn't.
Then Sophie entered.
She carried the silver bracelet.
“Mr. Adrian?”
He turned.
“What is it?”
“The man who gave me this wasn't the man from my picture.”
“I know.”
“He said something else.”
Every adult looked at her.
Sophie frowned, trying to remember.
“He said, ‘Tell Adrian his sister didn't die in the car.’”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Claire moved toward him.
“Adrian?”
His sister Elena had died twenty-two years earlier.
Her car went through a guardrail.
The body was burned beyond recognition.
Identification had been made through dental records.
Adrian remembered the funeral.
His mother's screams.
His father's silence.
He remembered standing beside the coffin at seventeen and promising his sister he'd find whoever had tampered with the brakes.
Nobody ever had.
Adrian looked at Marcus through the glass of the medical room.
Marcus was unconscious.
Unable to answer.
Dominic's phone rang.
He checked the screen.
“Unknown number.”
Adrian answered.
A woman's voice spoke.
Older.
Calm.
“Hello, Adrian.”
His knees nearly gave way.
He knew the voice.
Memory did not ask permission.
“Elena?”
A soft laugh came through the phone.
May you like
“It's been a long time, little brother.”
---
