Chapter 2 - The Missing Brother
Marco stared at the photograph until the screen went dark.
Elena had already reached the front door.
She stopped.
“What happened?”
“Nothing you need to be involved in.”
She looked at him.
“That expression says otherwise.”
“Elena.”
“Your mother is upstairs recovering from a public humiliation. If whatever just happened could affect her, I need to know.”
Marco studied her.
Most people became careful around him once they understood who he was.
Elena seemed to become less careful.
“My brother is missing.”
She returned slowly.
“The signature on those documents?”
“His.”
“The one you said was forged?”
“Yes.”
“Then this started before tonight.”
Marco said nothing.
Elena understood.
“The wedding wasn’t only a wedding.”
“It was supposed to merge waterfront assets held by both families.”
“And Malcolm tried to move something before the marriage?”
“Several properties held in Nicholas’s trust.”
“Why?”
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
Marco called his security chief.
“Find Nicholas. Quietly.”
He paused.
“And nobody wakes my mother.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“You should call the police.”
Marco looked at her.
“That complicated?”
“That necessary.”
“If Nicholas has been kidnapped—”
“We don’t know that.”
“You just received a photograph of your missing brother with a man connected to fraudulent documents.”
Marco’s voice remained calm.
“And if I make the wrong move before understanding why, Nicholas may pay for it.”
Elena hated that he had a point.
She also hated how easily he seemed to transform fear into strategy.
“You do this often?”
“Cancel weddings?”
“Control rooms.”
“Only when rooms require controlling.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
A security officer entered.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
Marco turned.
“We found Nicholas’s car.”
“Where?”
“Hotel parking garage.”
“Cameras?”
“Reviewing them.”
“Phone?”
“Inside the car.”
Marco’s face hardened.
Elena thought of Sofia upstairs.
“I’m staying.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“This is not your problem.”
“Sofia is.”
“And I’m telling you—”
“Your mother asked me to come back. If something happens tonight, she’ll need someone who isn’t carrying a gun or pretending not to be terrified.”
The security officer looked away.
Marco noticed.
“So you think I’m terrified?”
“I think your brother is missing.”
A long silence.
Then Marco nodded toward the sitting room.
“Stay there.”
“See? You can ask nicely.”
“I didn’t.”
Elena walked away before he could answer.
Within twenty minutes, the house changed.
Men entered quietly.
Phones rang behind closed doors.
Laptop screens illuminated maps.
Marco stood at the center of it without ever raising his voice.
Elena watched from the doorway.
The legends had described a Mafia boss.
What she saw looked more like a crisis executive.
That frightened her more.
A man named Dominic brought security footage from the hotel.
“Garage level three.”
The video showed Nicholas arriving alone before the ceremony.
He parked.
He stepped from the vehicle.
Then another man approached.
Nicholas appeared to recognize him.
They spoke.
Nicholas willingly followed him toward a service elevator.
Marco leaned closer.
“Freeze it.”
The image stopped.
Elena recognized the man.
“I saw him tonight.”
Every head turned.
Marco looked at her.
“Where?”
“Near the catering entrance.”
“Who was he with?”
“Nobody. He asked which elevator went to the private suites.”
Dominic enlarged the image.
“Do you know him?”
Marco did.
“Charles Vane.”
Elena waited.
“Who is that?”
“My mother’s attorney.”
The room went silent.
Marco called him.
The phone rang twice.
“Marco.”
“Where is Nicholas?”
A pause.
“I was hoping you’d call.”
“Answer me.”
“Nicholas is safe.”
“Where?”
“Not over the phone.”
Marco’s voice became colder.
“You have sixty seconds to convince me not to involve federal authorities.”
Elena noticed Dominic glance at him.
Apparently that threat meant something.
Vane exhaled.
“Your brother discovered what Malcolm was doing three weeks ago.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because Malcolm claimed someone inside your organization was helping him.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Nicholas?”
“He came to me tonight because he believed the wedding was the deadline.”
“For what?”
“The transfer.”
Marco looked at the documents.
Vane continued.
“The marriage would have activated a restructuring agreement. Once you signed the final authorization, the forged trust amendment could have moved Nicholas’s properties into the combined holding company.”
“And then?”
“Malcolm could borrow against them.”
“How much?”
“Approximately one hundred and eighty million dollars.”
Elena stared.
Marco barely reacted.
“Where is my brother?”
Vane hesitated.
Then said an address.
Dominic immediately wrote it down.
Marco ended the call.
“I’m going.”
Elena stepped forward.
“No.”
He stared at her.
She pointed upstairs.
“If you disappear ten minutes after bringing your mother home, she’ll know something is wrong.”
“She’s asleep.”
“She survived cancer. She isn’t stupid.”
Marco looked toward the staircase.
Elena continued.
“You need someone to stay with her.”
“You already volunteered.”
“And you need someone to remind you that tonight started because somebody treated Sofia like she didn’t matter.”
Marco’s gaze changed.
Elena realized she had touched something deeper than the fraud.
He looked at Dominic.
“Take six men.”
Then to Elena.
“Stay with my mother.”
She nodded.
Marco reached the front door.
Sofia’s voice came from the stairs.
“Where are you going?”
Everyone froze.
Sofia stood halfway down, wearing a cotton cap and robe.
Marco moved toward her.
“Mama.”
“Where is Nicholas?”
He stopped.
She looked at every man in the room.
Then at Elena.
“Elena?”
Elena couldn’t lie.
“We’re trying to locate him.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
“I knew it.”
Marco stared.
“Knew what?”
“Nicholas came to see me yesterday.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked me something strange.”
Sofia descended another step.
“He asked whether your father had ever kept a second ledger.”
Marco’s face went still.
“My father?”
Sofia nodded.
“Then he gave me a key.”
“What key?”
Sofia looked toward the old library.
“I hid it where your father used to hide everything he didn’t want his sons to find.”
They entered the library together.
Sofia walked to an antique cabinet.
She reached behind a row of books.
Her fingers stopped.
The hiding place was empty.
Someone had already taken the key.
Then the lights went out.
May you like
A door opened somewhere in the dark.
And a man inside the house whispered Marco’s name.
