Chapter 8 - ISABELLA'S SECRET
Isabella returned to New York before Lorenzo could stop her.
She entered the mansion through the underground passage at six in the morning.
Lorenzo stared at her.
“I told you to stay in Vermont.”
“And I told you Marco knows too much.”
She set Lucia's carrier on the table.
Father Gabriel stood behind her.
Lorenzo looked at the baby.
“You brought her here?”
“I brought her where I could see every person trying to reach her.”
Lorenzo wanted to argue.
Instead, he locked the office doors.
“Tell me about the ledger.”
Isabella opened her father's envelope.
Inside was an old photograph of four men standing beside a shipping terminal in 1998.
Lorenzo recognized his father.
Vittorio DeLuca.
He recognized Isabella's father, Matteo Conti.
The third man had been a New York judge.
The fourth was Marco's father, Salvatore Bellini.
“My father discovered they were laundering billions through international shipping contracts,” Isabella said.
“Salvatore kept copies of everything.”
“Then he started blackmailing them.”
“What happened?”
“Your father and mine tried to stop him.”
“Salvatore died.”
“Supposedly.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“You think he's alive?”
“I don't know.”
“But Marco grew up believing your father ordered his father's death.”
Lorenzo remembered Marco at fifteen.
Angry.
Orphaned.
Sleeping in Lorenzo's family home.
Vittorio had treated him like another son.
Marco had called Vittorio Papa for years.
Isabella continued.
“My father preserved the evidence as insurance.”
“The final ledger is encrypted.”
“The physical key belongs to the Conti trust.”
“And Lucia inherits the trust.”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo looked toward the sleeping baby.
“Marco needs her alive long enough to access it.”
“After that?”
Isabella didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
Lorenzo walked to the window.
All those years.
Marco beside him at funerals.
Weddings.
Business meetings.
War councils.
Marco had never wanted Lorenzo's empire.
He wanted revenge against Lorenzo's bloodline.
Antonio entered.
“We found something.”
He placed a map on the desk.
Paolo's phone had communicated with six repeat locations.
Five were meaningless.
The sixth was an abandoned private school in Queens.
Sophia's old employer had once cleaned there.
Emma had attended daycare three blocks away.
Lorenzo looked at Antonio.
“Surveillance?”
“One vehicle outside.”
“Owned by?”
Antonio paused.
“Bellini Imports.”
Lorenzo reached for his coat.
Isabella caught his wrist.
“It could be bait.”
“It is.”
“And you're going anyway?”
“Yes.”
She stepped closer.
“Lorenzo.”
“If Emma had stayed quiet, I would still be standing in front of two graves.”
He looked at her.
“That little girl gave me my family back.”
“I will not leave her with Marco.”
Isabella saw there was no changing his mind.
She handed him a small flash drive.
“What is this?”
“A copy of one page from my father's archive.”
“Why?”
“Because Marco doesn't know we have it.”
Lorenzo looked down.
The page showed wire transfers.
Judges.
Police officials.
Shipping accounts.
Then one name stopped him.
ANTONIO RUSSO.
Lorenzo slowly raised his eyes.
Antonio stood six feet away.
The security chief looked at the page.
His face changed.
Lorenzo's hand moved toward his weapon.
Antonio whispered.
“That's not me.”
May you like
No one moved.
And suddenly Lorenzo no longer knew whether there was a single person left in the room he could trust.
