Chapter 10 - The Son Who Never Left
Dante blamed Luca.
Sofia blamed Bianca.
Marco blamed both.
I blamed Nolan.
But none of it explained why my grandmother’s trust had become the center of their war.
Isabella found the missing piece.
West Fulton contained an underground records vault constructed decades earlier by a private bank.
When the bank collapsed, ownership passed with the property.
My grandmother bought the warehouse without realizing what lay beneath it.
Years later, Dante learned.
“So what’s in the vault?”
I asked.
He didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
“Dante.”
He looked tired.
“Records.”
“What records?”
“Financial ledgers.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
My heart sank.
“Criminal?”
“Some.”
Sofia stared at him.
“You told us they were destroyed.”
“I thought they were.”
Dante continued.
“Thirty years ago, I was not the man standing in front of you.”
“I did things I regret.”
“I worked with men I later spent decades separating myself from.”
“The vault contains transactions.”
“Names.”
“Payments.”
“Enough to destroy people who are still powerful.”
Now I understood.
The consortium didn’t care only about my land.
It wanted the vault.
Nolan had been trying to gain legal control of West Fulton through me.
“And Luca knew?”
“Yes.”
“And Bianca?”
“Probably.”
A phone rang.
Not mine.
Dante’s private line.
He answered.
Bianca’s voice came through the speaker.
“Luca has me.”
Sofia stepped forward.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice shook.
“He thinks I betrayed him.”
“Did you?”
Silence.
Then Bianca whispered.
“I sold the Carter file.”
My chest tightened.
“But I didn’t sell it to Nolan.”
Dante’s expression sharpened.
“Who?”
Before she could answer, another voice entered the call.
Luca.
“Father.”
Dante became stone.
“Let her go.”
“I will.”
“After Evelyn opens the West Fulton vault.”
Everyone looked at me.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know how.”
Luca heard.
“Yes, you do.”
“Your grandmother left you the key.”
I thought of the letters missing from my apartment.
The jewelry box my mother gave me after Grandma died.
Inside had been an old brass key I had worn on a necklace for years.
Nolan once asked what it opened.
I said I didn’t know.
Then the necklace disappeared six months ago.
I assumed I had lost it.
I hadn’t.
Nolan had taken it.
Luca continued.
“Nolan has the key.”
“I have the access code.”
“Evelyn has legal ownership.”
“All three pieces meet tonight.”
“Or Bianca dies with a secret she should have told us eighteen months ago.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“What secret?”
Bianca started crying.
Then she said the sentence that split the Moretti family apart.
“Nolan Pierce isn’t working for the consortium.”
May you like
“He’s working for your son.”
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