Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF A FAMILY SECRET|
Vincent Caruso did not reach for his weapon. He didn't need to. Two hospital security officers stood behind him, and the document in his hand carried the hospital's official seal. He had arrived prepared to make his actions look legitimate.
Ettore positioned himself between Vincent and Donatella.
"Put the transfer papers down."
Vincent's smile barely moved.
"You always did confuse an order with an argument."
"And you always did confuse loyalty with obedience."
For the first time, the two men looked less like colleagues and more like enemies who had spent years waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves.
Vincent glanced at Teresa.
"The patient is being relocated for her own protection. She has a history of confusion and has been making accusations against people she hasn't seen in decades."
"She's perfectly lucid," Donatella said.
"You're not a physician."
"And you're not her family."
Vincent's gaze hardened.
"You should be careful, young woman. You don't understand the forces you're interfering with."
"I understand invoices. I understand stolen money. And I understand that your signature appears on transactions connected to a woman who was supposedly dead."
Vincent's expression changed for only a fraction of a second, but Donatella saw it.
Ettore saw it too.
"Marco," he said, "get the hospital administrator. Nobody transfers this patient without independent medical authorization."
Marco left the room.
Vincent remained where he was, his eyes fixed on Ettore.
"You've grown sentimental."
"No. I've grown tired of discovering that people I trusted have been lying to me."
"Then perhaps you should investigate your own father."
The words fell into the room like a stone dropped into deep water.
Ettore went still.
Vincent leaned closer.
"Salvatore wasn't the saint you remember. He built the empire on secrets, and Isabella discovered the worst of them. Your father didn't die in that car accident, Ettore. He was removed from the board before he could expose what he had created."
"You're lying."
"Then explain why his signature authorized payments last week."
Ettore's jaw tightened.
"Who is alive?"
Vincent smiled.
"Ask Teresa. She knows where the old man went."
Teresa began to cry.
"Don't listen to him," she whispered. "Vincent is trying to make you destroy each other."
Vincent turned toward her.
"You should have stayed dead, Teresa."
He moved suddenly, grabbing Donatella's wrist and pulling her toward him. Ettore struck his arm away before Vincent could draw the small pistol hidden beneath his coat. Marco returned with two security officers, who forced Vincent against the wall.
The struggle lasted seconds.
When it ended, Vincent's expensive coat was twisted, and his smile had disappeared.
"You can't hold me here," he snapped. "I have lawyers, contracts, and friends in every office that matters."
"Then you'll have plenty of people to call," Ettore replied. "After the police arrive."
Vincent laughed.
"You think the police are clean? You think your own lawyers haven't been paid? You're standing in a house of cards, Ettore. The only reason you're still alive is that someone wants the ledger."
He was escorted from the room.
Donatella turned to Teresa, who looked suddenly exhausted.
"What ledger?"
Teresa asked Ettore to close the door. Then she reached beneath her pillow and withdrew a small brass key attached to a faded blue ribbon.
"Your mother entrusted this to me before she disappeared," she said. "She told me to give it to you only when you were old enough to understand what it meant."
Donatella took the key.
"What does it open?"
"Your father's safety deposit box. He left a message there, along with the original financial records that prove the Moretti family was robbed from the inside."
Ettore's eyes narrowed.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because I was afraid of you."
He accepted the answer without argument.
Teresa continued.
"Isabella believed that the ledger could expose the people who arranged Salvatore's disappearance. But the ledger contains something even more dangerous. It proves that the man who signed your father's death warrant is not Vincent Caruso."
Donatella's fingers tightened around the key.
"Then who is it?"
Teresa looked directly at her.
"The man who raised Ettore."
Ettore's face drained of color.
May you like
His uncle, Raffaele Moretti, had been the family's respected patriarch since Salvatore's death.
And according to Teresa, he had been hiding in plain sight for twenty-eight years.
