Chapter 14 - The Truth About Luca
Vincenzo did not confess again.
He did not need to.
The boathouse recording gave investigators enough to open doors Henry Bell had been trying to unlock for years.
The rest came from documents.
Money trails.
Security logs.
Old messages.
The truth about Luca was uglier than Elena expected and simpler than Alejandro feared.
Luca had discovered Vincenzo’s network.
He had planned to expose it after moving Elena somewhere safe.
Vincenzo intercepted him.
The crash was staged to look like an attack from a rival group.
Luca died before the fire.
The second body in the vehicle belonged to one of Vincenzo’s men.
Elena had never been inside.
Vincenzo used the false assumption of her death as cover.
Then he spent years searching for what Luca left behind.
Emma.
The watch.
Henry’s evidence.
Alejandro sat alone in the study after reading the final report.
Emma found him there.
She was not supposed to wander the mansion alone.
Nobody had the energy to enforce rules anymore.
She climbed into the chair across from him.
“You sad?”
“Yes.”
“Because Daddy died?”
“Yes.”
Emma thought about that.
“Were you his brother when he died?”
Alejandro frowned.
“Yes.”
“Then you can be sad with me.”
Four-year-old logic.
Impossible to argue with.
Alejandro rubbed his face.
“I should have found you.”
Emma shrugged.
“I was hiding.”
He almost laughed.
“You were very good at it.”
“Mama said I had to.”
“I know.”
Emma looked at the rabbit on his desk.
He had repaired the torn ear himself.
Badly.
She inspected it.
“You sew bad.”
“I run companies.”
“That’s not sewing.”
“No.”
He smiled.
Emma pointed to the old photograph of Luca on the shelf.
“Daddy looks like you.”
“I looked better.”
“No.”
Alejandro laughed for the first time since the poisoning.
Elena heard it from the hallway.
She stopped outside the door.
For four years, Alejandro Moretti had existed in her mind as a warning.
A possible threat.
A man she had built from one anonymous message and every terrible rumor she had heard afterward.
Reality was more complicated.
That did not make him harmless.
It made him human.
She entered.
“We need to talk.”
Alejandro’s smile vanished.
“That phrase has not gone well for me lately.”
“We’re leaving.”
Emma immediately protested.
“No!”
Elena looked at her.
“We need our own place.”
Alejandro nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
That surprised her.
“You’re not going to argue?”
“I was going to.”
“What changed?”
He looked at Emma.
“I finally figured out that keeping someone safe and keeping someone close are not the same thing.”
Elena said nothing.
Alejandro continued.
“I’ll pay for security if you want it.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll arrange housing.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“You enjoy saying that.”
“I’ve had four years of practice.”
Emma looked between them.
“Can Uncle Alejandro visit?”
Elena’s throat tightened.
“If he behaves.”
Alejandro looked offended.
“I nearly died in my own study.”
“Then you have motivation.”
Later that evening, Tomas arrived with one final recovered file from Luca’s watch.
The corruption had been repaired.
Luca’s voice filled the room again.
“There are only two people who fit.”
Everyone leaned forward.
“One is Vincenzo.”
A pause.
“The other is me.”
Alejandro frowned.
Luca continued.
“If Vincenzo finds this recording, he’ll try to convince Alejandro I betrayed him.”
“So I’m documenting the truth now.”
Then came a sound none of them expected.
A second voice.
Alejandro’s own.
Four years younger.
“You’re overreacting, Luca.”
Alejandro went still.
He remembered the conversation.
He had forgotten the words.
Luca answered.
“One day your confidence in the people around you is going to cost you someone you love.”
The recording ended.
Alejandro stared at nothing.
His brother had warned him.
May you like
And Alejandro had laughed.
