Chapter 15 - The Ghost in the Family Portrait|
Adrian had buried his father eleven years earlier.
He remembered the black coffin, the private funeral, the men who stood in silence, and the priest who spoke about loyalty as though it were a virtue that could excuse anything.
Now he was being told that the man he had mourned might still be alive.
He took the photograph to Daniel.
“Can this be verified?”
“We'll examine the image and trace its origin. But you shouldn't assume the message is true.”
Adrian nodded, although his hands were shaking.
Claire sat beside him.
“Did you ever see the body?”
“Yes.”
“Did you identify him?”
“My uncle did. He said the injuries were consistent with the accident.”
“Your uncle?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Victor Moretti. He handled the funeral arrangements.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
“Can we get the death certificate and original medical records?”
Daniel made the requests immediately.
The records arrived the next afternoon.
There were inconsistencies. The hospital had documented severe facial injuries, but the identification had been made through personal effects and a ring. No independent DNA confirmation had been recorded.
Adrian stared at the certificate.
“My father always wore that ring.”
“Someone could have taken it,” Claire said.
He looked at her.
“Or someone could have wanted me to believe he was dead.”
The investigation expanded. Former employees remembered seeing a man resembling Adrian's father at a private property in Wisconsin several years after the supposed funeral. A retired driver recalled delivering sealed packages to a remote estate under orders from Victor.
None of it was conclusive.
Then a former housekeeper contacted Daniel.
She had worked for the Moretti family for thirty years and had left shortly after Adrian's father supposedly died.
“I didn't want to get involved,” she told them over a secure video call. “But if he's alive, people are still in danger.”
“Did you see him?” Adrian asked.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three months after the funeral.”
Adrian gripped the edge of the table.
“Where?”
“At the family estate. Your uncle told everyone it was a business visitor. But I recognized him.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
The housekeeper's eyes filled with tears.
“Because he told me you would be killed if I did.”
Adrian sat back.
The woman continued.
“He asked about Claire Bennett. He wanted to know whether you were still seeing her. He said she would become important to the family one day.”
Claire went pale.
“He knew me before I married Adrian?”
“I believe so.”
Adrian's voice dropped.
“Did he know about the pregnancy?”
The housekeeper hesitated.
“He said that if you ever had a child, the family would finally have something worth protecting.”
Claire felt anger rise.
“Protecting? He was never there for us.”
The housekeeper looked down.
“I don't think he meant protecting you from the world, Mrs. Moretti. I think he meant protecting the family from what the child might inherit.”
After the call, Adrian paced the room.
“My father never cared about me as a person. I was an heir, a name, a future leader.”
Claire watched him.
“And now you have a daughter. You can decide whether the same thing happens to her.”
He stopped.
The words cut through him because they were true.
That evening, an anonymous package arrived at Daniel's office. It contained an old photograph of Adrian's father standing beside Richard Reynolds, along with a handwritten note.
The accident was staged. The funeral was a performance. And the man who ordered Claire Bennett's father's death was the only man Adrian ever trusted.
Adrian read the note twice.
Then his phone rang.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Your father wants to see his granddaughter.”
Adrian went still.
The caller continued.
“If you want Grace to grow up knowing the truth, bring Claire to the old Moretti estate at midnight.”
The call ended.
Claire reached for the phone.
“We're not going anywhere without the police.”
Adrian looked at her, then nodded.
For once, he did not confuse danger with a reason to act alone.
But as they prepared to turn the evidence over to investigators, a second message arrived.
It contained a photograph of Grace asleep in her crib.
Someone had taken it from inside Claire's home.
May you like
And beneath it were six words:
MIDNIGHT IS YOUR LAST CHANCE, SON.
