Chapter 5 - The Tape Her Mother Left BehindThe VHS tape sat on Adrian’s desk until midnight.
Neither he nor Elena wanted to press play.
They spent the afternoon reconstructing what had survived.
Daniel photographed every page of Sofia’s letter.
Gabriel dispatched men to retrieve the storage facility’s camera recordings, although most exterior footage had mysteriously gone offline seventeen minutes before the attack.
The fire department called the blaze electrical.
Adrian did not bother arguing.
Someone wanted the contents destroyed.
Someone had failed.
The tape still existed.
At eleven fifty-eight, Gabriel returned carrying an old television and combination VCR he had found in the basement of one of Adrian’s properties.
Elena stared.
“You actually found one.”
Gabriel set it down.
“I have many talents.”
Adrian glanced at him.
“Most involve breaking things.”
“Still a talent.”
For the first time since the wedding, Elena smiled.
It lasted perhaps two seconds.
But Adrian noticed.
He wished he hadn’t.
Because something about seeing her smile made the situation more personal than it already was.
Gabriel connected the machine and stepped away.
“You want privacy?”
Elena nodded.
Once he left, Adrian inserted the tape.
Static.
Then an image appeared.
Sofia Moretti sat in what looked like the storage unit.
The date in the corner was nineteen years earlier.
Elena’s mother was younger than Elena remembered her.
Her hands were clasped tightly.
“If Elena is watching this,” Sofia began, “then I failed to make things right before she became old enough to understand.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Adrian said nothing.
“I need you to know something first, sweetheart.”
Sofia looked directly into the camera.
“None of this was your responsibility.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“Your father will teach you that family loyalty means silence. It does not.”
Sofia took a breath.
“It means protecting people, especially when the truth is difficult.”
The tape jumped.
Then Sofia told the story.
Victor Moretti had spent years stealing from Bellandi Shipping.
Not small amounts.
Millions.
He used shell companies to redirect cargo payments.
Bribes.
Illegal contracts.
Adrian’s father had unknowingly invested in one of Victor’s schemes.
Matteo discovered inconsistencies while learning the family business.
At seventeen, he had been idealistic enough to believe evidence protected people.
It didn’t.
“He came to me because he was afraid of Victor,” Sofia said.
“I promised to speak with Adrian’s father.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“I didn’t,” Sofia continued. “That was my greatest mistake.”
“Why?” Elena whispered at the screen.
Sofia answered as though hearing her.
“Victor threatened my children.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“He told me Dominic would disappear first. Then Elena.”
Adrian’s hands tightened.
“I arranged for Matteo to leave Chicago.”
Sofia explained that an old Bellandi employee drove Matteo to Milwaukee.
From there, he was supposed to travel west using false documents.
Sofia never saw him again.
“I received one postcard six months later.”
Adrian went rigid.
Sofia held it up to the camera.
The front showed mountains.
No location.
On the back:
I’m safe. Tell A I’m sorry. —M
Adrian looked away.
Seventeen years.
His brother had been alive.
At least for six months.
Why had he never come home?
The answer arrived moments later.
“Victor learned Matteo had contacted me,” Sofia said.
“He sent men looking for him.”
Her voice broke.
“I don’t know whether they found him.”
Elena glanced at Adrian.
His face was unreadable.
Then Sofia leaned toward the camera.
“There is one more person involved.”
The recording distorted.
A horizontal line rolled through the image.
Sofia’s voice became muffled.
Adrian stood.
“No.”
The video skipped.
“—man Adrian trusts—”
Static.
“—not Victor alone—”
The picture vanished.
Elena stared at the screen.
“That can’t be it.”
Adrian rewound.
Played again.
Same failure.
They tried twice more.
Nothing.
Sofia had apparently named an accomplice.
The tape had degraded exactly at that section.
Adrian called Gabriel.
“Get this professionally restored.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel entered five minutes later and took the tape.
Elena remained on the couch.
“Someone you trust.”
Adrian nodded.
“How many people knew Matteo was investigating?”
“Very few.”
“Gabriel?”
“No. I didn’t know him then.”
“Daniel?”
“He was in law school.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Adrian hesitated.
“My uncle.”
“Your father’s brother?”
“Sebastian.”
“Where is he?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Dead.”
Elena exhaled.
“Convenient.”
Adrian nearly smiled despite himself.
“You sound like Daniel.”
“I don’t know whether that’s a compliment.”
“It isn’t.”
She looked toward the blank television.
“My mother lived with that for years.”
“Yes.”
“She knew my father threatened her children.”
“Yes.”
“And she stayed.”
Adrian recognized the accusation beneath the words.
Not toward Sofia.
Toward herself.
“You’re wondering why she didn’t leave.”
Elena looked at him.
“I’m wondering why I didn’t.”
“You were a child.”
“I stopped being a child six years ago.”
“Fear doesn’t disappear on birthdays.”
She looked away.
“Easy for you to say.”
“No.”
That caught her attention.
Adrian stood near the fireplace.
“My father wasn’t Victor.”
“But?”
“He believed weakness invited death.”
Adrian’s mouth tightened.
“When Matteo disappeared, he blamed me.”
“You?”
“I was supposed to pick him up from the warehouse that evening.”
“What happened?”
“I forgot.”
Elena said nothing.
“I was twenty-six. I had meetings. A woman I was seeing wanted dinner. Matteo called twice.”
Adrian stared into the fire.
“I ignored him.”
“Adrian.”
“If I had answered—”
“You don’t know what would have happened.”
“I know my brother called me for help.”
His voice hardened.
“And I wasn’t there.”
Elena understood guilt.
Perhaps that was why she did not tell him he was wrong.
Instead she asked, “Is that why you became…”
She gestured vaguely around them.
“What everyone says you are?”
Adrian gave a faint smile.
“Feared?”
“Yes.”
“Partly.”
“Did it help?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
He looked at her.
“Fear is efficient. It’s not the same as safety.”
Elena lowered her eyes.
“I didn’t know that until yesterday.”
Something in her expression twisted.
“Yesterday I thought you were going to be worse than my father.”
“I know.”
“I almost ran from the church.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Dominic was standing near the door.”
Adrian’s face darkened.
She saw it.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Get that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you decide someone needs to disappear.”
“Unfortunately, several people currently qualify.”
That pulled another tiny laugh from her.
Adrian realized he wanted to hear it again.
Dangerous thought.
Very dangerous.
Then Gabriel rushed into the room without knocking.
Adrian immediately knew something was wrong.
“What?”
Gabriel held a phone.
“The restoration technician called.”
“Already?”
“He hasn’t restored anything.”
“Then why is he calling?”
Gabriel looked at Elena.
“Because someone broke into his lab.”
Adrian stood.
“The tape?”
“Gone.”
Elena’s face dropped.
Adrian swore.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Security?”
“One guard unconscious. Nobody killed.”
Adrian looked toward the windows.
Whoever was behind this was not improvising.
They had surveillance.
Contacts.
Timing.
And access to information inside Adrian’s organization.
Sofia’s warning echoed.
A man Adrian trusts.
Adrian turned to Gabriel.
“Who knew where you were taking that tape?”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“You.”
“Elena.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“My operations team.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
“Names.”
Gabriel listed them.
Adrian knew every man.
One had worked for his father.
Two had been with Adrian more than a decade.
A betrayal among them was possible.
But then Elena spoke.
“Adrian.”
He looked at her.
“My father knew.”
“How?”
“He saw the tape.”
“No. At the storage unit, he wasn’t there.”
“Not today.”
She shook her head.
“When I was a child.”
Adrian frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“I remember that room.”
Her voice changed.
“I didn’t recognize it at first.”
She stood slowly.
“But my mother took me there once.”
“When?”
“The week before she died.”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“What happened?”
“She was packing papers.”
Elena pressed fingers to her temples.
“My father came in.”
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
“They argued.”
“About?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
Adrian watched her breathing become uneven.
He wanted to stop asking.
But she continued.
“My mother told me to hide in the cabinet.”
“What?”
“She pushed me inside.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“I heard my father shouting.”
“What did he say?”
“I don’t…”
Then her face changed.
She remembered.
“He said, ‘You think the tape will protect you?’”
Adrian and Gabriel exchanged a look.
Elena continued.
“My mother said somebody already had a copy.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
She shook her head.
“He asked who.”
“And?”
“My mother laughed.”
Elena opened her eyes.
“She told him he’d never guess.”
Adrian felt a sudden chill.
“What happened next?”
Elena’s face went pale.
“There was another man.”
“Inside the unit?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I never saw his face.”
“But you heard him?”
“Yes.”
Adrian moved closer.
“What did he say?”
Elena stared at him.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“He called my father Victor.”
“That doesn’t narrow it.”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“But my father called him…”
Her lips parted.
Then she whispered one word.
“Vale.”
Adrian stopped moving.
Gabriel’s head turned sharply.
Elena looked between them.
“Adrian…”
There were only three adult Vale men alive when Elena was seven.
Adrian’s father.
His uncle Sebastian.
And Adrian himself.
Adrian knew he had never been there.
His father had died ten years ago.
Sebastian had supposedly died twelve years earlier.
Supposedly.
Gabriel reached for his phone.
Adrian spoke first.
“Find Sebastian’s death certificate.”
“I know where he died.”
“Find it anyway.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“You think—”
“I don’t know what I think.”
Twenty minutes later Daniel arrived with archived records.
The death certificate looked legitimate.
Sebastian Vale.
Age fifty-one.
Car accident outside Lake Geneva.
Body recovered after the vehicle burned.
Dental identification.
Adrian read the report twice.
Then Daniel placed another file beside it.
“What’s that?”
“The dentist who supposedly identified Sebastian.”
Adrian looked up.
Daniel’s expression was grim.
“He disappeared three weeks after signing the report.”
A long silence followed.
Elena whispered, “So your uncle might be alive.”
Adrian looked at the photograph attached to the report.
Sebastian Vale had taught Adrian to shoot.
To negotiate.
To read people.
He had stood beside Adrian at Matteo’s funeral even though there had never been a body.
And now Adrian remembered something else.
Something he had buried for years.
Sebastian had been the first person to tell him Sofia Moretti killed Matteo.
Not Adrian’s father.
Sebastian.
Adrian rose slowly.
Gabriel asked, “What do we do?”
Adrian looked at Elena.
May you like
She understood before he spoke.
“We find a dead man.”
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