Chapter 5 - Isabella Had Known the Traitor’s NameDante read the letter once without speaking.
Then again.
By the third time, the words no longer looked like ink.
They looked like Isabella sitting across from him.
Warning him from six years in the past.
Dante,
If you are reading this, then Adrien found out that I know.
I pray I am being paranoid.
You always tell me I assume the best about people, so perhaps you will appreciate the irony that this time I am assuming the worst.
For seven months, money has been disappearing from companies attached to the Moretti redevelopment projects.
At first I thought it was accounting fraud.
It isn’t.
Someone is selling information about your contracts, routes, and private schedules.
I traced three transfers to entities connected to Adrien.
Please do not confront him alone.
That sentence stabbed Dante differently.
Please do not confront him alone.
Isabella had understood Adrien better than Dante had.
The letter continued.
I know you love him like a brother.
That is why I have not told you without evidence.
But yesterday I saw him meeting with Julian Salerno.
He denied it when I asked.
Then he told me something I cannot forget.
He said men like you survive because men like him decide what truths you are allowed to hear.
Dante stopped.
Julian Salerno had been a rival businessman with ties to organized crime.
He had died four years earlier.
At the time of Isabella’s accident, Salerno had been attempting to take control of several waterfront properties Dante owned.
The flash drive contained photographs.
Adrien leaving a restaurant with Salerno.
Financial transfers.
Copies of internal schedules.
A photograph of Adrien speaking to Dr. Leonard Vale at St. Brendan’s.
Taken nine days before Isabella’s crash.
Vivien covered her mouth.
“He planned the hospital part before the accident.”
Marcus looked at Dante.
“Or prepared for the possibility.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
Isla sat on a chair at the opposite end of the room drawing with a pen the banker had given her.
She looked up.
“Was Adrien your friend?”
Dante nodded.
“For a long time.”
“Why did he hurt Isabella?”
Dante looked toward the documents.
“I don’t know everything yet.”
Isla frowned.
“You say that a lot.”
Vivien touched her shoulder.
“Because sometimes adults don’t have answers.”
“That doesn’t stop adults from pretending they do.”
Marcus coughed into his fist to hide a smile.
Dante looked at his daughter.
“You definitely get that from your mother.”
“Which one?”
Dante glanced at Vivien.
“Both, apparently.”
The final item in the box was another envelope.
Not addressed to Dante.
To Our Baby.
Dante stared at it.
He could not open it.
Not yet.
He handed it to Vivien.
“You keep this for her.”
Vivien shook her head.
“It belongs to you too.”
“It belongs to Isla.”
Isla looked up.
“What is it?”
“A letter from Isabella.”
Her face changed.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Can I read it?”
Vivien looked at Dante.
Dante answered carefully.
“When you want to.”
“I want to now.”
The adults exchanged glances.
Then Vivien opened the envelope.
The letter had been written before Isabella knew whether the baby was a girl or boy.
My little love,
Your father believes you are going to have my eyes.
I hope you have his courage, although I hope you use it more carefully.
He is pretending not to be nervous about becoming a father.
This is a lie.
He has already checked the locks on your bedroom windows four times.
Dante looked away.
Marcus smiled openly now.
The letter continued.
There are many things people will tell you about your father.
Some will call him powerful.
Some will call him dangerous.
Some will fear him.
I hope you know him differently.
I hope you know the man who brings me tea when I am sick and complains the entire time so no one realizes he is worried.
Isla giggled.
Dante rubbed a hand across his face.
Vivien kept reading.
And if I am lucky, by the time you read this, you will be old enough to roll your eyes when I tell you that the greatest power anyone can have is the courage to love people without owning them.
That sentence silenced the room.
Dante looked at Vivien.
Love people without owning them.
Isabella had written that before she knew how important it would become.
Before another woman would spend six years raising her daughter.
Isla reached for the letter.
Vivien gave it to her.
The child held it carefully.
“Can I keep it under my pillow?”
“Yes,” Dante said.
They left the bank shortly after sunset.
Halfway to the mansion, Dante’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Victor reached for it.
Dante stopped him.
He answered.
“Dante.”
A familiar voice came through.
Adrien.
“Six years,” Adrien said. “And all it took was one child sitting on the wrong cushion.”
Dante’s expression became ice.
“Where are you?”
“You know I’m not stupid enough to tell you.”
“You tried to take my daughter.”
A pause.
“Your daughter?”
Adrien almost laughed.
“Interesting choice of words considering another woman raised her.”
Dante looked toward Vivien and Isla in the vehicle behind them.
“Say her name again and I will—”
“You’ll what?”
Adrien interrupted.
“That’s always been your problem. Everyone thinks you’re the dangerous one.”
Dante said nothing.
Adrien continued.
“Isabella thought so too.”
The car seemed to become colder.
“You killed her.”
“No.”
“Then come tell me that in person.”
“I didn’t kill Isabella.”
“You arranged the crash.”
Silence.
That silence was the closest thing to a confession Dante had heard.
Finally Adrien said, “Isabella made decisions she didn’t understand.”
“She discovered you were selling me out.”
“She discovered pieces.”
“You had Vale falsify the hospital record.”
“I protected everything we built.”
“By murdering my wife?”
“She was going to destroy you.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“No. She was going to expose you.”
Adrien’s control slipped.
Only slightly.
But Dante heard it.
Then Adrien said something that changed the shape of the entire betrayal.
“You still don’t understand. Isabella wasn’t supposed to die.”
Dante sat forward.
“What?”
“The car was supposed to frighten her.”
Victor began recording.
Adrien continued.
“She was supposed to hand over the evidence. Instead, the driver lost control.”
“Whose driver?”
Adrien realized his mistake.
He went silent.
Dante pushed.
“Whose driver, Adrien?”
The call disconnected.
Victor immediately began tracing it.
Marcus cursed.
Dante stared out the window.
Isabella was not supposed to die.
That meant someone else had been involved.
Someone had driven the vehicle that forced hers through the barrier.
And if that person was still alive, they could prove the conspiracy.
Victor’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“Got something.”
“What?”
“A traffic camera database from six years ago. There was another vehicle following Isabella.”
Dante turned.
Victor enlarged a grainy image.
Black sedan.
Partial plate.
Marcus stared.
“I know that car.”
Dante did too.
It had belonged to Moretti Corporate Security.
Not Adrien.
Not Salerno.
Dante looked at Victor.
Victor’s face had gone pale.
May you like
Because the person assigned that vehicle six years earlier had been a member of Dante’s own security team.
A man who still worked inside the mansion.
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