Chapter 13 - THE LOCKED ROOM
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Rocco's father had left behind a mansion, a business empire, and a private archive that nobody had been allowed to enter since his death.
The room stood behind a steel door in the oldest section of the estate. Only Rocco possessed the key.
He had never opened it.
His father had once told him that the room contained documents capable of destroying everything the Morettis had built.
Rocco had assumed it held records of old criminal operations.
Now he wondered whether it contained something far more personal.
Dominic accompanied him downstairs.
The door opened with a heavy metallic groan.
Inside were filing cabinets, locked boxes, and shelves of carefully labeled folders. Dust covered the desk, but the room had been maintained. Someone had been cleaning it regularly.
Rocco noticed the fresh footprints first.
“Someone's been here.”
Dominic drew his weapon.
They searched the room and found no one. However, one cabinet had been left unlocked.
Inside was a folder labeled FAMILY — CONFIDENTIAL.
The first document was a letter from Rocco's father, dated twelve years earlier.
If my son ever discovers the truth, tell him that the child was never the danger. The danger was the person who believed blood could be owned.
Rocco read the sentence twice.
The folder contained photographs of Isabella Hart, Victor Sterling, and several hospital administrators. There were also copies of adoption records and bank transfers.
One file referred to a girl named Grace.
A second referred to a boy named Gabriel.
A third contained only a question mark.
Dominic studied the dates.
“These records predate Matteo's birth.”
Rocco opened another envelope.
Inside was a photograph of his father holding a little girl. The child's face was partially hidden, but the silver bracelet on her wrist bore the same bird symbol found on Sophia's recovered button.
On the reverse, his father had written:
Grace, age four. Never let Victor find her.
Rocco's phone rang.
The caller was Eleanor Voss.
“I need to tell you something,” she said. “Your father was involved in the original case.”
“What case?”
“The first child transfer. Before you were married.”
Rocco gripped the phone.
“Explain.”
“Your father discovered that Victor was buying access to confidential medical records. He tried to stop him, but he couldn't expose the entire operation without revealing something about your own family.”
“What?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Your father had another child before you.”
Rocco stared at the photograph.
“Who was the mother?”
“Isabella Hart's mother.”
Silence filled the room.
Eleanor continued.
“Your father and Isabella's mother had a daughter. The child was taken from the hospital during a custody dispute and placed with another family. Your father believed she had died.”
Rocco looked at the file marked Grace.
“Was her name Grace?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don't know.”
Rocco ended the call and stood motionless.
The Moretti family had not merely lost a son.
It had lost a daughter, hidden a twin, and become entangled in a network of stolen identities.
He looked at Dominic.
“Find every record connected to Grace.”
Dominic nodded.
“And Sophia?” he asked.
“What about her?”
“The silver-bird symbol appears on the old documents. Her mother might know something.”
Rocco looked toward the stairs.
May you like
Elena Bellini had worked in his mansion for less than a year.
But perhaps she had not arrived there by accident.
