Chapter 10 - THE NOTE
The estate became a command center.
Police.
Private security.
Phones.
Maps.
No broken glass.
No forced entry.
Whoever took him had access.
Marcus checked every employee badge.
One had opened the west service door at 1:42 a.m.
Rosa's badge.
She swore she had been asleep.
Her card had been copied.
The hallway camera failed for eleven minutes.
Exactly enough time.
Carmine wanted to tear the house apart.
Instead, he forced himself to think.
The note demanded information.
Not money.
That meant Leo was leverage.
Anthony sat downstairs with Detective Reyes.
Carmine walked in.
"What did Elena find?"
"I told you everything."
"No. You told me what makes you look guilty. That's not the same thing."
Reyes said, "Mr. Moretti, if you know something, now is the time."
Then whispered, "Elena believed the shell company wasn't mine."
"You said you stole the money."
"I moved it. But the account structure already existed."
"Who created it?"
"I thought Helena did."
"Thought?"
"She said she was following instructions."
"Whose?"
"Dad's."
Their father had been dead five years.
But at the time of Elena's accident, he was alive.
"No."
Anthony opened another archived email.
Their father, Vincent Moretti, had authorized payments to vendors that did not exist.
Helena processed them.
Anthony hid them.
Elena found them.
"What was Dad doing?"
Anthony said, "Buying land through proxies."
"Why hide it?"
"Because some parcels were under environmental restrictions. Protected wetlands."
Illegal development.
Bribery.
Fraud.
Their father's empire had a rot underneath it.
Elena had found it.
Carmine whispered, "Did Dad know she knew?"
Then Carmine's phone buzzed.
A video message.
Leo appeared on screen sitting in a dim room.
He was crying, but alive.
A woman's voice spoke from behind the camera.
Helena.
"Tell your father what you want."
"Daddy... don't give her the papers."
Carmine's heart broke.
Then Helena laughed softly.
"Smart boy."
The video ended.
May you like
A location appeared beneath it.
An abandoned Moretti construction site outside the city.
