Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER BEHIND THE GLASSAdrian forgot every plan the moment he saw Matteo.
Nine years.
Nine years of funerals without a body.
Rumors.
False sightings.
Guilt.
Anger.
And now his brother stood twenty yards away behind reinforced glass.
Alive.
Matteo saw him.
His face changed.
He stepped toward the window.
Lorenzo tapped his cane against the frozen ground.
“Emotional reunions later.”
Adrian forced himself to look at his father.
Time had reduced Lorenzo but not softened him.
He was seventy-four.
Thinner.
White hair combed straight back.
His expensive wool coat looked almost absurd against the decaying resort.
“You’ve aged,” Lorenzo said.
“So have you.”
“I had an excuse. I was dead.”
Daniel got out of the car.
Lorenzo smiled.
“My boys.”
Daniel’s face remained hard.
“Don’t call me that.”
Lorenzo shrugged.
“Still sensitive.”
Adrian held up a leather case.
“You want the ledger?”
Lorenzo’s eyes settled on it.
“Yes.”
“Benedict first.”
A side door opened.
Two men brought Father Benedict outside.
His lip was split, but he walked on his own.
Lorenzo said, “There.”
“Release him.”
“Ledger.”
Adrian tossed the case halfway between them.
Lorenzo nodded to one guard.
The guard retrieved it.
He opened the case.
Inside was the original harbor ledger.
Lorenzo smiled.
“You actually brought it.”
“Yes.”
“You disappoint me.”
“Check page seventy-two.”
Lorenzo frowned.
He turned the pages.
Page seventy-two contained a small electronic device.
A federal tracking beacon.
Lorenzo’s face changed.
Adrian smiled without humor.
“Now we’re both disappointed.”
Gunshots erupted.
Not from Adrian’s side.
Lorenzo’s men began firing at the trees where Marco’s team had been approaching.
Everyone moved.
Daniel pulled Benedict behind the car.
Adrian ran toward the lodge.
Lorenzo shouted.
“Stop him!”
Adrian crashed through a side door.
Matteo disappeared from the window.
Inside, two guards intercepted Adrian.
The fight was fast and brutal, but not elegant.
Adrian was no invincible hero.
One blow split his eyebrow.
Another drove him into a wall.
He managed to disarm one man and lock the other inside a storage room.
“Matteo!”
A crash came from upstairs.
Adrian ran.
Second floor.
Third.
At the end of a corridor, Matteo stood chained to a steel ring mounted into the wall.
He stared at Adrian.
Neither spoke.
Then Matteo laughed once.
“You got old.”
Adrian’s throat closed.
“You look terrible.”
“Prison diet.”
Adrian crossed the room.
They embraced.
Not carefully.
Not politely.
Like men trying to recover nine stolen years in a few seconds.
Matteo’s shoulders shook.
Adrian gripped the back of his coat.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I almost was.”
“I looked for you.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
Matteo pulled back.
“Because Dad convinced me you were working with him.”
Adrian looked sick.
“What?”
“He showed me transfers with your authorization.”
“Forged.”
“I know that now.”
“Why now?”
“Daniel found evidence.”
Adrian examined the collar.
Electronic lock.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’re getting you out.”
Matteo caught his arm.
“Adrian, wait.”
“What?”
“Dad has another plan.”
“Obviously.”
“No. Bigger.”
Matteo lowered his voice.
“He knows the federal investigation will expose him.”
“Good.”
“He doesn’t care.”
“What does he care about?”
“Destroying the evidence and making you look responsible.”
Adrian frowned.
“How?”
“The financial systems.”
Moretti International.
Matteo explained.
For years, Lorenzo had hidden a dormant network inside the company’s accounting infrastructure through Daniel’s predecessor.
If triggered, it would transfer millions through criminal accounts under Adrian’s authenticated credentials.
It would appear Adrian had run the operation personally.
“Can he trigger it remotely?”
“Daniel can stop it.”
Adrian called Daniel.
No signal.
Jammer.
“Of course.”
Matteo pointed to a service staircase.
“Basement communications room.”
They moved.
Outside, police and federal tactical teams were approaching after tracking the ledger.
Lorenzo retreated into the lodge.
He knew time was running out.
Adrian and Matteo reached the basement.
Inside was Father Benedict.
Alone.
Adrian stopped.
“Uncle?”
Benedict looked confused.
“I thought you were upstairs.”
Adrian turned.
The man they had seen released outside was not Benedict.
Decoy.
Meaning Daniel had taken the wrong man to safety.
Benedict explained that Lorenzo had anticipated Adrian’s tracking device.
“He wanted the authorities here.”
“Why?”
“To force the timeline.”
Matteo reached the network terminal.
A countdown showed seventeen minutes.
Daniel appeared over an internal security feed.
He had returned to the building.
“Adrian!”
“Where are you?”
“Server room.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe.”
“What happens in seventeen minutes?”
Daniel answered.
“Every dormant transfer executes.”
Matteo cursed.
Adrian said, “Shut the system down.”
“I’m trying.”
Then Lorenzo’s voice came over the building intercom.
“Boys.”
All three men froze.
Lorenzo sounded almost cheerful.
“I spent my life teaching you that family is the only institution that matters.”
Adrian looked toward the speakers.
Lorenzo continued.
“You disappointed me.”
Matteo muttered, “Good.”
“Adrian became weak. Matteo became righteous. Daniel became confused.”
Daniel’s voice came through another channel.
“You mean human.”
Lorenzo ignored him.
“I made each of you rich.”
Adrian shouted toward the speaker.
“You made strangers poor.”
Silence.
Then Lorenzo answered.
“They were already poor.”
That sentence finally killed something inside Adrian.
The last memory of his father as a complicated man worth grieving.
People were simply numbers to Lorenzo.
Useful.
Disposable.
Adrian looked at Matteo.
“We end it.”
Matteo nodded.
Fourteen minutes.
Daniel worked at the server.
Police breached the outer building.
Lorenzo’s remaining guards began surrendering.
But Lorenzo himself vanished.
At nine minutes, Daniel discovered the trigger path.
“It requires three authorization certificates.”
“One is mine,” Adrian said.
“One is Father’s.”
“The third?”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Matteo’s.”
Matteo froze.
“My signature?”
“Digital certificate created before you disappeared.”
Adrian understood.
“That’s why he kept you alive.”
Matteo nodded slowly.
Lorenzo needed all three Moretti brothers tied to the transactions.
Not merely Adrian.
He wanted the criminal empire to look shared.
A family conspiracy.
At five minutes, Daniel killed one authorization node.
Countdown stopped.
For two seconds.
Then restarted.
“Backup!”
Matteo leaned over the terminal.
“Physical breaker.”
“Where?”
“Generator room.”
Adrian ran.
The generator room was across an underground maintenance tunnel.
He reached it with two minutes left.
And found Lorenzo waiting.
His father held a pistol.
Adrian stopped.
Lorenzo smiled.
“I knew you’d come.”
“Put it down.”
“You still give orders like me.”
“No.”
“You do.”
Lorenzo raised the gun.
“Your mistake was believing you could cleanse the family name.”
Adrian said nothing.
“A Moretti is a Moretti.”
“That used to frighten me.”
“And now?”
“Now I think names are just things children inherit until they become old enough to decide what they mean.”
Lorenzo’s expression hardened.
“Sentimental garbage.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian looked at the electrical panel behind him.
One minute.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You shut that system down and you lose millions.”
“Fine.”
“Properties.”
“Fine.”
“Your company may collapse.”
“Then I’ll build another.”
Lorenzo laughed.
“From what?”
Adrian thought of Emma.
Half a loaf.
A glass containing the last inch of milk.
“Something cleaner.”
Thirty seconds.
Lorenzo fired.
The bullet missed Adrian and struck the wall.
Adrian dove.
They collided.
The gun slid across the floor.
Lorenzo was old but vicious.
Adrian could have killed him.
For one terrible second, he wanted to.
His hands tightened around his father’s throat.
Lorenzo smiled.
“There you are.”
Adrian stopped.
That smile saved Lorenzo’s life.
Because Adrian understood what his father wanted.
Proof.
Proof Adrian was ultimately the same.
Adrian released him.
Lorenzo looked confused.
Adrian stood.
“No.”
He smashed the emergency breaker.
The facility went dark.
The countdown disappeared.
Silence.
Backup lights flickered on.
Lorenzo stared at the dead panel.
Then at Adrian.
“You destroyed everything.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Federal officers entered the room behind him.
“I saved what mattered.”
Lorenzo Moretti was arrested at 7:16 p.m.
For the first time in decades, handcuffs closed around his wrists.
He looked at Adrian as officers led him away.
“You think that little maid will make you decent?”
Adrian’s expression became cold.
“No.”
He glanced toward Matteo, Daniel and Benedict arriving behind the officers.
“That’s my job.”
Lorenzo was taken outside.
Matteo stood beside Adrian.
After a moment, he nudged him.
“So.”
Adrian glanced over.
“What?”
“You’re dating the maid?”
Adrian stared.
“I rescue you after nine years and that’s your first question?”
“You hugged me already.”
Daniel joined them.
“I also want the answer.”
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
“I hate both of you.”
Matteo smiled.
For the first time in nine years, Adrian saw his little brother’s old grin.
And something in him finally returned home.
His phone found signal.
Fourteen messages appeared.
The newest was from Sofia.
A photograph.
Emma sitting at the convent table.
Two pieces of bread on a plate.
This time, both covered generously in strawberry jelly.
Underneath, Sofia had written:
She says one is waiting for you.
Adrian stared at it.
Matteo looked over his shoulder.
“You’re smiling.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Daniel nodded.
“He definitely is.”
Adrian put the phone away.
“Get in the car.”
“Bossy,” Matteo muttered.
May you like
Adrian paused.
Emma had apparently started a movement.
