Chapter 16 - THE FATHER BEHIND THE GLASS| The warehouse recording was authenticated by a forensic specialist, but investigators could not determine when it had been made.
Richard Moretti might be alive.
He might be dead, with someone using old recordings.
Either possibility was dangerous.
Aleandro turned over every record connected to the warehouse. He found payments to a private security firm, rental agreements for medical equipment, and a string of utility bills paid under an alias.
The payments continued until the previous month.
One address appeared repeatedly: a secluded property in northern New Jersey that had once served as a private recovery residence.
Nico recognized it from his fragmented memories.
"They took me there after the hospital," he said. "I remember a room with a glass wall. I could see people walking, but I couldn't hear them."
Sophia held his hand.
"Do you remember your father?"
"Sometimes. I remember his voice. I remember him saying that the family needed a sacrifice."
Aleandro looked toward the documents.
"Then the property may be where he was hiding."
Marcus coordinated with investigators to obtain a warrant. The residence was surrounded before dawn, but the interior was empty.
They found medical equipment, old photographs, and a stack of patient records. Several rooms had been cleaned recently.
One contained a child's drawing of a little girl dancing beneath a chandelier.
Emma.
Sophia's hands began to tremble.
"Someone brought her here in their mind long before she entered the ballroom."
Aleandro studied the drawing.
"Or someone has been following her for years."
A file beneath the drawing listed Emma's birth date and the name of her pediatrician. It also contained details about Sophia's work schedule, the route she took to the estate, and the hours Emma spent in the staff pantry.
The information had been collected months before the engagement party.
Valentina was brought in for questioning after investigators traced the security company to an account associated with her father's estate. She admitted that she had paid Adrian Cross to investigate the Lantern Fund, but insisted she had never authorized an abduction.
"He told me the child was a threat to the trust," she said. "I wanted to know whether that was true."
"Why didn't you go to the police?" Detective Mitchell asked.
"Because my father taught me that the police were often the last people to learn the truth."
The statement was bitter, but honest.
Valentina provided access to her late father's private files. Among them was a medical invoice for a patient identified only as R.M.
The invoice was dated six months earlier.
The physician was still practicing.
Investigators contacted him, and he agreed to meet them at a secure location.
He confirmed that Richard Moretti had been treated at the New Jersey residence after suffering a serious illness. The patient had insisted on using a false name and had paid for private medical care.
But the physician had not seen him in six months.
"He told me he was preparing to return to his family," the doctor said. "He said his youngest son would understand why he had been forced to disappear."
Aleandro stared at him.
"My father had two sons. Nico was never the youngest."
The doctor looked confused.
"Then who was the boy he kept asking about?"
He opened his records.
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The patient had requested information about a child named Daniel.
A child whose identity had been removed from the Moretti family records decades earlier.
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