Chapter 17 - THE BROTHER NOBODY REMEMBERED|
Daniel Moretti had been born when Aleandro was six.
His mother had died shortly after delivery, and Richard had told the family that the baby had not survived. No funeral had been held. No grave had been recorded. The family simply stopped mentioning him.
Aleandro remembered a small nursery that was closed off for months. He remembered hearing his father arguing with a nurse and his mother crying before she died.
He had never connected those memories.
Now he stood beside Nico, staring at a hospital record that identified a third child connected to the Lantern Fund.
"Was Daniel real?" Aleandro asked.
Nico closed his eyes.
"I remember a baby."
Sophia turned toward him.
"What?"
"When I was little, I heard my mother singing the lullaby in the nursery. She was holding a baby. Father told me the child had died, but I saw him again years later in a photograph."
"Where is the photograph?"
"Father kept it in his study. He said the boy had been sent away to be protected."
Aleandro looked at the record.
The child had been registered under a different surname and transferred to a private family in Connecticut.
The original guardianship file had been sealed.
Nico explained that his mother had believed Daniel was stillborn, but Richard had secretly arranged for the infant to be moved. He feared that if his enemies knew the Moretti family had another heir, they could challenge his control over the business.
"But why hide him for decades?" Sophia asked.
"Because Daniel inherited something my father could never control," Nico replied. "A legal claim tied to the Lantern Fund."
Aleandro read the document again.
The trust had been established by their grandfather to protect children harmed by the family's operations. Its beneficiaries included several families who had lost property through corrupt acquisitions.
Daniel had been named as the final trustee, not merely an heir.
If he was alive, he could release the entire fund to the families it was intended to help.
Richard had hidden him to preserve control over the money.
Nico looked at his brother.
"Father didn't just fake my death. He built an entire system around making people disappear."
Aleandro nodded slowly.
"And we inherited it."
They contacted the Connecticut family listed in the records. The couple had died years earlier, but their daughter remembered a boy who had arrived at their home under unusual circumstances.
His name was Daniel.
He had left when he turned eighteen and never returned.
The last record showed him working as an electrician in Chicago.
Marcus began tracing the employment history.
Meanwhile, Sophia received a phone call from an unknown number.
A man's voice spoke softly.
"Tell Aleandro to stop looking for Daniel."
"Who are you?"
"Someone who has already lost too much."
"Is Daniel in danger?"
A pause followed.
"Everyone in that family is in danger."
The caller hung up.
Sophia showed the number to Marcus.
He traced it to a prepaid phone purchased near the New Jersey residence.
A second message arrived minutes later.
It contained an address in Chicago and one sentence.
If you want your family to survive, ask Emma what she saw at the ballroom window.
Sophia turned toward her daughter.
Emma was drawing a picture of the ballroom, using gold crayons for the chandeliers.
"What did you see, sweetheart?"
Emma pointed toward the tall windows in her drawing.
"A man outside."
Aleandro knelt beside her.
"What man?"
Emma considered the question.
"He was waving at Daddy."
Sophia looked at Aleandro.
"Your father?"
Emma nodded.
"He had the same ring."
Aleandro stared at the picture.
Then he noticed something beneath the window.
May you like
Emma had drawn a small black car.
And beside it, a man holding the hand of a little boy.
