Chapter 4 - The Woman Victor Wanted Dead
Security increased.
The police became involved.
The newspapers exploded.
Someone leaked a rumor that the Moretti family was under federal investigation.
Luca denied nothing.
He simply kept working.
I admired that about him.
He never ran from a crisis.
He walked directly through it.
But the biggest shock came from Isabella.
She summoned me to the estate.
Alone.
“I need you to listen carefully.”
She handed me an old photo.
It showed four people.
Matteo.
Daniel.
Victor.
And a woman I didn’t recognize.
“Who is she?”
“Catherine Moretti.”
Luca’s mother.
I stared.
“What does she have to do with this?”
“She knows what happened the night Matteo died.”
My stomach tightened.
“Does Luca know?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was afraid of what he would do.”
That frightened me.
“What happened?”
Isabella explained that Catherine had been in the car with Matteo the night of the crash.
She survived.
Matteo didn’t.
Catherine told police the brakes had failed.
But Isabella never believed it.
“She lied?”
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
“To protect Luca.”
I went still.
“From Victor?”
Isabella nodded.
“Catherine believed someone inside the family wanted Matteo dead.”
“Who?”
“She never told me.”
Later that night, Luca’s mother arrived at my apartment.
She looked exhausted.
“I know what you’ve found.”
“Then tell me.”
She sat down.
“I loved Matteo.”
“I know.”
“I loved him enough to lie.”
My heart pounded.
“Did Victor kill him?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
She looked at me.
“Someone much closer.”
Before she could continue, the doorbell rang.
We both froze.
A second later, the power went out.
Catherine whispered, “They found us.”
Someone tried the apartment door.
Luca arrived with security thirty seconds later.
The attacker escaped.
But Catherine finally confessed.
The night Matteo died, he had discovered that one of his closest advisers had been secretly working with Victor.
That adviser was not an employee.
It was Matteo’s brother.
Luca’s uncle.
Arthur.
Not Victor.
Arthur had been the strategist behind the fraud.
Victor was merely the public face.
Arthur wanted the company to collapse.
Then he planned to buy the remaining shares cheaply.
Luca stared at his mother.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because after your father died, I was afraid you would go after him.”
“You let me spend twenty years believing Victor did it.”
“I protected you.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You protected me by lying.”
Catherine cried.
“I was wrong.”
Luca looked away.
I took his hand.
He squeezed it.
The truth became public two days later.
Arthur denied everything.
Then the financial records surfaced.
The shell companies.
The transfers.
The secret accounts.
The payments.
Everything.
Arthur was arrested.
Victor cooperated.
The Moretti family fractured.
But the mystery still had one missing piece.
Why had my father disappeared?
Daniel finally contacted us.
His message contained one sentence.
Meet me at the cemetery.
We went.
He was standing beside my mother’s grave.
I stopped walking.
“Dad?”
He turned.
For years, I had imagined him as a villain.
A coward.
A man who abandoned us.
Instead I saw an older version of the father who had once carried me on his shoulders.
He opened his arms.
I cried.
I hated him.
I missed him.
I wanted answers.
All at once.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I shook my head.
“Why did you leave?”
“To protect you.”
“Everyone says that.”
He looked at Luca.
“You know what happened?”
“Yes.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Then you know why I vanished.”
He told us he had been framed after Matteo’s death.
Arthur threatened to hurt Emma and her mother.
Daniel disappeared.
He worked under different names.
He sent money anonymously.
He watched from a distance.
“What about Mom?”
“She knew.”
I cried.
“She forgave you?”
“Eventually.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she wanted you to have a normal childhood.”
I laughed through tears.
“That worked terribly.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“I know.”
Then he handed Luca an envelope.
“For your father.”
Luca opened it.
A letter from Matteo.
The final paragraph read:
If my son ever loves a Carter, do not let fear destroy what our families once built.
Luca looked at me.
I stared back.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Daniel smiled.
“I think your father knew before you did.”
Luca reached for my hand.
May you like
He whispered:
“I think mine did too.”
