Chapter 2 - The Name at the Bottom
The Moretti family did not knock.
They entered like people returning to property they believed already belonged to them.
Anna stood beside Dante at the top of the grand staircase while voices rose from the foyer below.
Marco had advised her to remain upstairs.
Dante overruled him.
“If they came because of her,” Dante said, “they can speak in front of her.”
Marco clearly disliked that decision.
He disliked the next one more.
Dante insisted on descending without anyone touching his wheelchair.
The estate had a discreet platform lift beside the staircase, installed after his injury. Two guards automatically moved toward him.
“Don’t.”
One word stopped them.
Dante maneuvered himself onto the lift.
Anna remained beside him.
Below, approximately twelve members of the Moretti family waited.
At the center stood Vittorio Moretti, Dante’s uncle.
Sixty-two.
Silver-haired.
Impeccably dressed.
He had the polished manners of a diplomat and the eyes of a man who calculated the value of everyone he met.
Beside him stood Vincent Moretti, Vittorio’s thirty-four-year-old son.
Anna had met Vincent twice.
She had disliked him both times.
He smiled too quickly and watched Dante’s wheelchair too often.
As the lift descended, Vittorio looked up.
His gaze moved from Dante to Anna.
Then back.
“Dante.”
“Uncle.”
“We need to talk privately.”
“No.”
Vittorio glanced toward Anna.
“This concerns the family.”
“It concerns my medical records and the woman being accused of stealing them. She stays.”
Anna felt every eye turn toward her.
Vincent held a printed copy of the leaked document.
“Accused?” he said. “Her name is on it.”
Dante rolled forward.
“Then somebody put it there.”
“You know that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dante stopped several feet from him.
“Because I know her.”
Vincent smiled.
“That sounds less like evidence and more like emotion.”
The words landed exactly where Vincent intended.
Several relatives exchanged glances.
Anna felt heat rise in her face.
Dante did not react.
“Be careful, cousin.”
“About what?”
“Confusing my patience with permission.”
Vittorio stepped between them.
“This isn’t helping.”
“No,” Dante said. “Leaking confidential medical information isn’t helping.”
“We’re trying to protect the family.”
“There it is again.”
Vittorio frowned.
“What?”
“Protection.”
Dante looked around the room.
“For six years, everyone in this family has used that word whenever they wanted to make a decision for me.”
“That is unfair.”
“Is it?”
“You nearly died.”
“And survived.”
“You suffered a spinal injury.”
“And survived.”
“You spent months in hospitals.”
“And survived.”
Vittorio lowered his voice.
“Dante, nobody is questioning your strength.”
Dante laughed without humor.
“The entire city is currently reading documents designed to make them question exactly that.”
Silence followed.
Anna looked toward Marco.
He stood near the doors, speaking quietly into an earpiece.
Something about his expression bothered her.
Not suspicion.
Concentration.
He was looking for something.
Or someone.
Vittorio placed both hands on his cane.
“The foundation gala must be canceled.”
“No.”
“Dante—”
“No.”
“The press will surround the building.”
“Let them.”
“Your condition—”
“My condition?”
Dante’s voice sharpened.
“What condition would that be, Uncle? The condition where I use wheels instead of legs?”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.”
Anna saw the pain behind his anger.
The leak was not simply embarrassing.
It had weaponized the thing Dante fought every day: other people’s assumption that physical disability had diminished the rest of him.
Vittorio sighed.
“You are not thinking clearly.”
Dante’s expression changed.
Anna knew instantly that Vittorio had made a mistake.
“Get out.”
“Dante.”
“Everyone who came into my home to tell me whether I’m thinking clearly can leave.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“What about her?”
He pointed at Anna.
“She has access to your medical files. Her credentials downloaded them. And you’re throwing out your own family instead of questioning her?”
Dante’s hands tightened around the wheel rims.
Anna spoke before he could.
“He should question me.”
Dante looked at her.
“Anna.”
“No. Vincent is right about one thing.”
Vincent’s smile returned.
Anna faced him.
“My credentials are attached to those files. That means either I downloaded them, or somebody used my credentials. I know which one happened. But Dante shouldn’t have to accept that simply because he trusts me.”
Vincent folded his arms.
“Finally, some sense.”
“So investigate me.”
The room quieted.
Anna continued.
“Check my phone. My laptop. My access logs. Security cameras. Every device I’ve used since I arrived. Check everything.”
Dante stared at her.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
She turned toward him.
“You trusted me without hesitation. Let me prove you were right.”
Something passed between them.
Dante finally nodded.
“Marco.”
Marco approached.
“Full forensic audit,” Dante ordered. “Anna’s devices, estate network, medical portal. Everything.”
Anna handed Marco her phone.
Then her laptop password.
Marco took both.
Vincent watched with visible disappointment.
Vittorio exhaled.
“Until this is resolved, she should leave the estate.”
“No,” Dante said.
Anna looked at him.
Vittorio’s voice hardened.
“You’re emotionally compromised.”
“And you’re in my house.”
“Dante—”
“The answer is no.”
Vincent laughed softly.
“Interesting.”
Dante turned.
“What is?”
“You haven’t been seen with a woman publicly since the accident.”
Anna felt the room tighten.
“And now your nurse appears, six weeks later confidential records leak, and suddenly you’re defending her against your entire family.”
Dante’s gaze became lethal.
“Finish that sentence carefully.”
Vincent did.
“Maybe she isn’t here for your recovery.”
Anna’s stomach twisted.
Dante rolled forward until only a few feet separated them.
“You will apologize.”
Vincent looked down at him.
The gesture itself was deliberate.
Dante noticed.
So did everyone else.
“For what?”
Dante’s voice became almost gentle.
“For believing the chair means you can disrespect the man sitting in it.”
Vincent’s smile disappeared.
Vittorio touched his son’s arm.
“Enough.”
But Vincent stepped away.
“I apologize.”
Anna knew he did not mean it.
Dante knew too.
Yet he accepted the words.
The family gradually departed.
Vittorio remained until last.
At the door, he turned toward Dante.
“The board meets tomorrow morning.”
“I know.”
“They’ll discuss whether you should continue as chairman.”
Anna looked sharply at Dante.
He showed no surprise.
Vittorio continued.
“This leak changes things.”
“No. It exposes things.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means somebody wanted this meeting.”
Vittorio studied him.
Then left.
The doors closed.
The mansion fell silent.
Anna turned toward Dante.
“You knew?”
“That the board wanted to remove me? Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’re my nurse.”
The words hurt more than they should have.
Dante noticed.
“And,” he added, “I didn’t want you involved.”
“A little late.”
“Yes.”
Marco approached from the security room twenty minutes later.
He carried Anna’s laptop.
“Good news first.”
Anna waited.
“You didn’t download those files.”
Dante showed no surprise.
Anna released the breath she had been holding.
“The access originated from this estate,” Marco continued.
Dante frowned.
“Where?”
“Someone used Anna’s credentials on the medical portal at 2:13 yesterday morning.”
Anna shook her head.
“I was asleep.”
“We confirmed that. Hall cameras show you entering your room at 11:47. You didn’t leave until 6:20.”
“So who used my login?”
Marco looked toward Dante.
“That’s the problem.”
He placed the laptop on the table and opened a network diagram.
“The download came from inside the house.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“Which device?”
“We traced the connection through a private network relay.”
“And?”
“The relay was installed deliberately to hide the originating room.”
Anna’s skin prickled.
“Someone living here?”
“Or someone with unrestricted access.”
Dante looked toward the closed doors.
“How many?”
Marco hesitated.
“Staff and security combined? Forty-three.”
“Family?”
“Several have permanent access.”
Dante leaned back.
Anna suddenly understood the real purpose of the leak.
It was not merely to embarrass him.
It was designed to isolate him.
To make him distrust the woman closest to him.
To make his board question his judgment.
To make the public question his health.
Someone had constructed a trap with several outcomes, and every outcome weakened Dante.
Marco’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something else.”
Marco turned the laptop.
Security footage appeared.
Timestamp: 2:09 a.m.
Four minutes before Anna’s credentials accessed the medical portal.
A shadowed figure moved down the second-floor corridor.
The person wore dark clothing and a baseball cap.
The face remained hidden.
Anna leaned closer.
The figure stopped outside her office.
Unlocked the door.
Entered.
Dante’s voice went cold.
“Zoom.”
Marco enlarged the image.
Pixels blurred.
The figure’s face remained invisible.
But one detail became clear.
On the person’s right hand was a distinctive gold ring.
Dante stopped breathing.
Anna looked at him.
“You recognize it.”
He did not answer.
“Dante?”
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
Finally he whispered one name.
“Moretti.”
Anna’s stomach tightened.
“Which Moretti?”
Dante looked at Marco.
Marco looked back.
Neither spoke.
Then the estate alarm suddenly screamed.
Every guard in the mansion moved at once.
Marco drew his weapon and stepped in front of Dante.
“What happened?” Anna asked.
A voice exploded through Marco’s radio.
“East wing! We have smoke!”
Another guard shouted through the channel.
“Fire in the security archive!”
Marco’s face changed.
Dante understood immediately.
“The footage.”
Marco ran.
Anna turned toward Dante.
Smoke began curling beneath the corridor doors.
May you like
Whoever had framed her had realized they had been discovered.
And now they were destroying the evidence.
