Chapter 4 - The Man Adrian Trusted Most
Adrian had trusted Victor Salerno since he was twelve years old.
That was why betrayal hurt differently when it came from him.
Victor had helped raise Adrian after Carlo died.
He had taught him business.
He had stood beside him at his mother’s funeral.
And now security footage showed him secretly meeting Richard Vale.
“Bring Victor here,” Adrian said.
Daniel hesitated.
“Boss—”
“Now.”
Victor arrived forty minutes later.
He walked into the office calmly.
Then he saw the frozen security image.
He closed his eyes.
“How long?” Adrian asked.
Victor said nothing.
“How long have you been working with Vale?”
“I haven’t.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I met him.”
“You handed him Mara’s name.”
“Yes.”
I stepped forward.
“Why?”
Victor looked at me.
“To protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps doing terrible things and calling it protection.”
Victor’s shoulders dropped.
“That envelope didn’t contain your address.”
“What did it contain?”
“A warning.”
Adrian’s voice was ice.
“Explain.”
Victor looked toward the storm outside.
“Richard Vale contacted me three months ago. He knew Noah was investigating old financial records.”
“So you met him.”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Because Richard threatened someone.”
“Who?”
Victor looked at me.
“You.”
I froze.
“He knew Thomas Ellis had raised a girl. He didn’t know whether you were the baby from Saint Vincent’s.”
“So you gave him my name?”
“I gave him a false employment record suggesting Mara Ellis was born in Milwaukee two years before the Moretti attack.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You were trying to convince him she wasn’t my sister.”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Because you would have confronted him.”
“I still will.”
“And that is exactly what Isabella begged us never to do without proof.”
Victor’s voice cracked.
For the first time, he looked old.
“Your mother knew Richard was dangerous. But knowing and proving are different things.”
I stepped closer.
“Tell me about my mother.”
Victor looked at the ring.
“Isabella Moretti was stronger than any of us.”
He told us what happened twenty-two years earlier.
Carlo Moretti and Richard Vale had built businesses together.
Vale wanted control of several properties Carlo refused to sell.
Then money disappeared.
Records were altered.
Carlo began suspecting his partner.
Before he could expose him, attacks began.
Isabella had recently given birth to me.
She realized her children were targets.
The night Adrian’s car was attacked, Thomas Ellis happened to witness it.
He rescued Adrian.
Then Isabella made an impossible decision.
She asked Thomas to take her newborn daughter.
Me.
“She believed one child hidden was one child Richard couldn’t use against Carlo,” Victor said.
“Why Thomas?”
“Because he was ordinary.”
The word hurt and comforted me simultaneously.
“He had no connection to the Morettis. Nobody would look for a Moretti child in the home of a heating technician.”
“What about Jennifer?”
“She agreed.”
My eyes filled.
The woman I had called Mom had known.
She had loved me anyway.
Not because biology demanded it.
Because she chose me.
“Why didn’t they ever tell me?”
“Fear.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“Then Isabella died.”
“How?” I asked.
“Officially, heart failure.”
Adrian’s expression told me he no longer believed that explanation.
“And Carlo?”
“Boat accident two years later.”
Another convenient death.
I suddenly understood why Dad had remained silent.
He had two children to protect.
One biological.
One entrusted to him by a terrified mother.
“What happened to Richard?”
Victor gave a sad smile.
“He became respectable.”
That was perhaps the darkest part.
Richard Vale hadn’t become a fugitive.
He became richer.
He donated to hospitals.
He appeared beside mayors.
He built towers.
Adrian walked toward the windows.
“Where is Noah?”
Victor shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Vale does.”
“Possibly.”
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
“Mara?”
I almost dropped the phone.
“Noah?”
Adrian turned instantly.
“Mara, listen.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t explain.”
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
My knees weakened.
“Tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No. They’re watching.”
“Who?”
“I made a mistake.”
“You’ve made several.”
He almost laughed.
It sounded like my brother.
Then his voice changed.
“I trusted someone inside Moretti Logistics.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Rusk.”
Every person in the room turned toward Daniel.
Daniel’s face went blank.
Adrian slowly looked at him.
Noah continued through the phone.
“He was the one who recruited me into moving Vale’s money.”
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
Adrian moved instantly.
But Daniel wasn’t reaching for a weapon.
He pulled out a second phone.
Then ran.
Victor blocked the doorway.
Daniel shoved him aside.
Adrian caught Daniel by the shoulder.
They crashed against the wall.
I backed away.
Noah shouted through my phone.
“Mara!”
Daniel broke free and disappeared into the hallway.
Adrian’s security men pursued him.
Seconds later, an elevator alarm sounded.
Daniel was gone.
Adrian returned, breathing hard.
“Where is Noah?”
I put the phone on speaker.
“Noah?”
Silence.
Then his voice.
“Adrian.”
“I’m listening.”
“Daniel knows where I am.”
“Tell me.”
“I’m at one of Vale’s old properties.”
“Which one?”
Before Noah could answer, another voice entered the call.
A calm older man.
“Enough, Noah.”
Noah went silent.
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Richard.”
The man chuckled.
“Hello, Adrian.”
My blood went cold.
Richard Vale had Noah.
“You have my brother,” I said.
A pause.
Then:
“Mara Ellis.”
He said my name almost affectionately.
“Or should I say Mara Moretti?”
Adrian stepped toward the phone.
“If you hurt him—”
“Twenty-two years, Adrian. Your mother’s little secret survived twenty-two years.”
“What do you want?”
Richard ignored him.
“Mara, do you know why your father really died?”
I gripped the phone.
“Cancer.”
Richard laughed softly.
“That is what Thomas wanted you to believe.”
My heart stopped.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Thomas Ellis became sick shortly after he decided to expose what happened to Carlo and Isabella.”
Adrian’s eyes met mine.
Richard continued.
“And Noah made exactly the same mistake.”
“Noah!”
My brother’s voice returned.
“I’m here.”
I began crying.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Little late for that.”
That was Noah.
Even terrified, he joked.
Richard interrupted.
“If you want your brother alive, bring me Isabella’s ring.”
I looked down.
“Why?”
“Because the ring contains something Thomas hid twenty-two years ago.”
I stared at the emerald.
It was only jewelry.
Wasn’t it?
“What?”
Richard answered.
“The evidence that can destroy everything I built.”
The call ended.
Victor whispered something behind us.
“Oh, Thomas.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He pointed at the ring.
“Isabella didn’t give Thomas that ring as payment.”
“Then why?”
Victor’s eyes widened.
May you like
“She gave it to him because she needed him to hide something.”
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