Chapter 5 - The Birthday Trap
Dante evacuated the estate before sunrise.
No explanation.
No debate.
Every relative, employee, caterer and guest was ordered away.
Bomb teams searched the mansion.
They found nothing.
That made Dante more worried.
Marco sat handcuffed in a secure facility guarded by men whose names were not in any Moretti records.
He refused to speak.
Sofia arrived at the lake house at seven.
She hugged Dante.
Then Claire.
Then Lily.
When Dante showed her Ethan’s files, Sofia’s face changed.
“You knew,” Dante said.
Sofia sat slowly.
“I suspected.”
“Marco said to ask you.”
“Of course he did.”
“About Adrian.”
Sofia looked toward Lily.
“Not in front of the child.”
Claire carried Lily upstairs.
When she returned, Sofia began.
Adrian Bellini had not betrayed the Moretti family.
Not originally.
Dante’s father, Salvatore, had ordered Adrian to create secret accounts used to bribe officials.
When investigators came close, Salvatore prepared to sacrifice Adrian.
Adrian discovered the plan.
He threatened to expose everything.
Then he disappeared.
“Father killed him?”
Dante asked.
Sofia shook her head.
“I helped Adrian escape.”
Dante stared.
“You?”
“He had a wife.”
Sofia’s voice softened.
“A baby.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I gave him money and documents. He promised never to return.”
“Marco believes he was murdered.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
“Because Adrian begged me not to.”
Dante walked away.
“So Marco built his entire revenge on a lie.”
“Not entirely.”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“Your father did destroy them.”
Claire understood the tragedy immediately.
Men had died because one brother believed another was dead.
“Can we prove Adrian survived?”
she asked.
Sofia nodded slowly.
“I have one letter.”
The letter was dated nine years earlier.
Adrian thanked Sofia.
He mentioned his son.
His new life.
And begged her never to contact him.
Dante photographed it.
“We show Marco.”
They did.
For the first time, Marco Bellini broke.
He read the letter once.
Then again.
“No.”
Dante placed it closer.
“Her handwriting?”
Marco stared at Sofia’s note attached to it.
“Where is he?”
“No one knows.”
“You’re lying.”
“Marco.”
Dante sat across from him.
“You killed Ethan because you thought my family killed Adrian.”
Marco’s eyes filled with something Claire had not expected.
Grief.
“I killed Ethan because he was going to destroy everything.”
“What everything?”
Marco looked away.
Dante leaned forward.
“The birthday attack.”
Silence.
“Who planned it?”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“Anthony.”
Dante recoiled.
His cousin.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You worked for him.”
“No.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“He worked for me until three months ago.”
“What changed?”
“He realized revenge wasn’t enough.”
Marco looked at Dante.
“He wants your empire.”
“And the attack?”
“Not explosives.”
“What?”
Marco’s eyes shifted toward the security camera.
“Anthony controls three companies contracted for tomorrow’s event.”
Dante understood.
“Food.”
Marco shook his head.
“Air.”
The ballroom ventilation system.
A chemical agent.
Odorless.
Fast acting.
Designed to incapacitate everyone before Anthony’s men entered.
Claire felt sick.
“Staff too?”
Marco looked at her.
“He didn’t care.”
“Children?”
Silence.
Claire wanted to strike him.
Instead, she thought of Lily.
“Where is the agent?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante stood.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Anthony stopped trusting me when I refused to kill Claire and the girl.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
Marco looked at her.
“Those photographs weren’t surveillance for Ethan’s files.”
“Then what?”
“Anthony wanted you dead.”
“Why?”
“Because Ethan left evidence with you.”
“He didn’t.”
“Anthony didn’t know that.”
Claire remembered the night Lily saw Marco.
“You were at our window.”
Marco nodded.
“I was checking whether Anthony’s men had entered your room.”
“Why?”
Marco looked almost embarrassed.
“Because killing Ethan was enough.”
Claire stared at the man who murdered her husband.
There was no forgiveness inside her.
But for the first time, she saw something other than a monster.
A coward.
A grieving brother.
A murderer who had finally discovered his revenge had been built on lies.
Dante stepped toward the door.
“Where would Anthony keep the chemical?”
Marco thought.
Then his face changed.
“The wine cellar.”
They returned to the estate with federal hazardous-material specialists brought through one of Dante’s attorneys.
Behind a false wall in the cellar, they found six pressurized cylinders.
Enough agent to fill the ballroom twice.
The birthday attack was stopped.
But Anthony was still missing.
Dante ordered every account frozen.
Every property watched.
Every airport alerted.
By afternoon, nothing.
Then Claire remembered something.
The drawing.
Not the one on Dante’s car.
The photograph of Lily’s drawing stored in Ethan’s file.
A strange symbol appeared beside the Moretti crest.
Claire enlarged it.
A lighthouse.
“Does Anthony own one?”
Dante frowned.
“No.”
Sofia did.
“There’s an old Moretti property on Long Island.”
They drove there before sunset.
The abandoned lighthouse stood above the water.
Inside, they found computers.
Passports.
Cash.
Weapons.
And Anthony’s escape plan.
A private aircraft scheduled to leave at midnight.
Dante looked at the destination.
“Montreal.”
Rocco shook his head.
“He’ll change it now.”
Claire noticed a second monitor.
A live camera feed.
It showed the Moretti estate.
Specifically, the servants’ wing.
Her room.
Claire stepped closer.
The image was live.
Someone was standing inside.
A man in a dark coat.
He looked directly into the hidden camera.
Then raised his phone.
Claire’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Anthony Moretti’s voice came through.
“Claire, I think you have something that belongs to me.”
Claire looked at Dante.
“What?”
Anthony laughed.
“Your husband’s original ledger.”
Claire frowned.
“We found everything.”
“No.”
His voice became colder.
“Ethan hid the original somewhere only you could reach.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will.”
A sound came through the phone.
Wood breaking.
Anthony was searching her room.
Then he stopped.
“Oh.”
Claire heard paper unfold.
Anthony whispered two words.
“Found it.”
The call ended.
Dante ran for the door.
But Claire was staring at the screen.
Anthony had disappeared from her room.
The closet door behind him slowly swung open.
Someone else stepped out.
And Claire recognized him.
May you like
Her husband.
Ethan Bennett was alive.
