Chapter 5 - I Learned My Wife’s Brother Had Been Working Inside My Organization for Two Years, and His Real Target Was the Man I Had Spent My Life ProtectingDaniel Carter had disappeared.
He had access to everything.
Security schedules.
Shipping manifests.
Employee records.
Medical information.
He knew my routines.
He knew Clara's routines.
He knew about the pregnancy.
He knew when I would return from overseas.
That was why the attack had happened that night.
My return had been unexpected.
Daniel hadn't planned for it.
The family had attacked Clara before I returned because they needed her unable to speak.
Then I arrived.
The plan changed.
They shifted toward the port shipment.
But Daniel had made another mistake.
He left evidence.
A hotel receipt.
Philadelphia.
Room 817.
I went there.
The room was empty.
But someone had been living there.
A laptop.
Photographs.
Clara.
Me.
Our house.
My mother.
Every person close to me.
The wall was covered in names.
At the center:
ADRIAN HART.
My name.
Beside it:
REMOVE.
Underneath:
TAKE FALCO ROUTE.
I stared.
Then I found something else.
A photograph of Daniel.
Beside him, Elias.
Beside Elias, Victor.
The three men were working together.
But there was a fourth person.
The person sitting at the head of the table.
A woman.
I recognized her.
Clara's mother.
She had died five years earlier.
Or so I thought.
She was alive.
And she had been behind everything.
Clara's father had obeyed because she threatened their family.
The brothers had obeyed because they feared her.
Daniel had worked for her.
Elias financed her.
Victor betrayed me for her.
She wanted one thing.
The Moretti? No—our organization.
But why?
The answer was in the files.
My father had taken her family's business twenty-five years earlier.
She wanted it back.
And Clara was the only person standing between her and complete revenge.
Her own daughter.
She had deliberately targeted Clara because she knew I would retaliate.
The ultimate goal wasn't money.
It was war.
She wanted our two families fighting until both were destroyed.
Then she would take what remained.
I found the location.
A private estate outside Pennsylvania.
We went.
But before we arrived, she called me.
“Adrian.”
I recognized the voice.
“Where is my wife?”
“With me.”
My blood froze.
“Put her on.”
Clara's voice came through.
“Please…”
I closed my eyes.
“Clara.”
“Don't come.”
“I'll come.”
“No.”
She was crying.
“They want you to.”
I understood.
This was the trap.
She knew it too.
Then her mother came on.
“You've spent your life believing you're untouchable.”
“You're not.”
“If you want Clara alive, come alone.”
I looked at my men.
Then at the road.
I had one choice.
May you like
I would go.
But not alone.
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