Chapter 3 - THE NIGHT LUCA LEARNED HIS FATHER HAD BEEN MURDERED|
For eleven years, Luca Moretti had believed his father died of a sudden heart attack.
Antonio Moretti had collapsed inside his private office on a rainy November evening.
The family physician had signed the death certificate.
Richard Bellini had arranged the funeral.
And Luca, then twenty-nine, had inherited an empire built on shipping companies, real estate, restaurants, and a criminal reputation that followed the Moretti name through Chicago.
He had spent the next decade trying to turn his father's legitimate businesses into something his own children, if he ever had them, could inherit without fear.
Now his mother was telling him that the foundation of his life had been a lie.
“Who killed him?” Luca asked.
Evelyn looked toward the hospital window.
“I don't know who gave the order.”
“Then how do you know he was murdered?”
“Because your father knew someone was poisoning him.”
Sarah felt her breath catch.
Luca stepped away from the bed.
“That doesn't make sense.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Antonio became ill six weeks before he died. He was tired, dizzy, and sometimes confused. The doctors blamed stress and his heart condition.”
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“He was trying to protect you.”
Luca gave a bitter laugh.
“Everyone keeps protecting me by lying.”
His mother flinched.
Sarah quietly moved toward the door.
“This is a family conversation. I should wait outside.”
“No,” Evelyn said.
Her voice was weak but firm.
“You stay, Sarah.”
Luca turned.
“Mom, she has a daughter waiting at home.”
“And that's exactly why she must hear this.”
Evelyn looked at Sarah with an expression of deep regret.
“Your husband, Michael Collins, worked at our transportation warehouse.”
Sarah froze.
Michael had died five years earlier in what investigators described as an industrial accident.
A loading platform had collapsed beneath him.
He was twenty-seven.
Lily had been only two.
Sarah gripped the back of a chair.
“How do you know my husband's name?”
Evelyn began crying.
“Because I read his file.”
“What file?”
“The file Richard told me had been destroyed.”
Luca stared at his mother.
“Michael Collins worked for us?”
“Through a subcontractor,” Evelyn replied. “He was one of the employees who discovered irregular payments connected to our shipping accounts.”
Sarah felt the room tilt.
For five years, she had believed her husband's death was a tragic accident.
She had accepted the official report because she couldn't afford a lawyer.
She had raised Lily alone, working two jobs before finding employment at the Moretti mansion.
Now the woman she loved like a grandmother was telling her that Michael had been connected to the same financial secrets that had hurt twelve children.
“Did someone kill my husband?” Sarah whispered.
Evelyn reached toward her.
“I don't know, sweetheart.”
Sarah stepped backward.
“Please don't tell me something like this unless you're certain.”
“You're right,” Evelyn said. “You deserve proof.”
Luca's phone vibrated.
It was Daniel.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Vanessa's car was stopped near Lake Shore Drive after an officer noticed she matched the description from the incident report.”
“And?”
“She didn't have the pearl.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Where is it?”
“We don't know. She claims she never took anything.”
“Check the ballroom security footage.”
A pause followed.
“That's the problem. The upstairs cameras were disabled forty-three minutes before your mother fell.”
Luca stared at the wall.
“Who had access?”
“Three people. You, me, and Richard Bellini.”
Sarah watched Luca's expression change.
He looked less like an angry son and more like a man calculating how many people had betrayed him.
“Preserve every access log,” Luca said. “And give everything to the detectives.”
After ending the call, he looked toward Evelyn.
“Where is Father's confession?”
“I placed it inside the fortieth pearl after I found his letter.”
“What letter?”
Evelyn's breathing grew shallow.
“The one he wrote the night before he died.”
Sarah moved closer.
“Mrs. Moretti, you need to rest.”
But Evelyn shook her head.
“I waited too long.”
She looked at Luca.
“Antonio told me Richard was moving money through companies that didn't exist. He suspected the accounts were being used to hide payments to dangerous people.”
“Why didn't you report it?”
“I tried.”
Evelyn's face twisted with grief.
“The lawyer I contacted disappeared from Chicago two days later. Then Richard came to our house and told me that if I continued asking questions, you would be next.”
Luca stood motionless.
“You believed him?”
“I believed he was capable of hurting you.”
A long silence followed.
Then Sarah asked the question neither of them wanted to face.
“Why did you wait until now?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Because last month I discovered that the stolen scholarship money had been routed through the same accounts.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“Richard reopened the old network?”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa knew?”
Evelyn's tears returned.
“She was helping him.”
Suddenly, the door opened.
A hospital security officer entered with a detective.
“Mr. Moretti, I'm Detective Hannah Brooks.”
She held up a sealed evidence envelope.
“We recovered something from a trash container behind the Bellini residence.”
Inside was a single pearl.
Its surface had been scratched.
The tiny seam was visible.
Luca stepped forward.
“Is there something inside?”
Detective Brooks nodded.
“A rolled document. We're processing it now.”
“Can you tell us what it says?”
The detective hesitated.
“Only one line was legible in the initial examination.”
She looked toward Sarah.
“It's a name.”
Sarah's stomach tightened.
“Whose name?”
May you like
Detective Brooks answered quietly.
“MICHAEL COLLINS.”
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