Chapter 5 - The Wolf at the Dinner Table
Renato Moretti did not deny it.
That surprised Anna.
She expected lies.
Outrage.
A performance.
Instead, he looked past Lorenzo and directly at her.
“You look like him.”
Anna felt as if the hallway had narrowed around her.
“Marco?”
“Your father.”
Lorenzo moved between them.
“Start explaining.”
Renato looked almost tired.
“You always were impatient.”
“And you always thought I was stupid.”
“No.”
Renato’s expression softened in a way that might once have fooled Lorenzo.
“I thought you were young.”
“You made sure I stayed that way.”
For the first time, Renato looked at his nephew instead of Anna.
“I saved you.”
“You arranged the attack.”
“I kept you out of the car.”
“You murdered my father.”
“I prevented a civil war.”
Lorenzo laughed.
No humor.
“My father was the head of the family.”
“Your father was dismantling it.”
The words landed hard.
Renato continued.
“He wanted legitimacy. Banks. Real estate. Hotels. He thought men who had spent their lives spilling blood would suddenly become accountants because he had developed a conscience.”
Anna watched Lorenzo.
He did not move.
Renato pointed toward him.
“You inherited an empire because I protected it.”
“You inherited it for me.”
“I preserved what belonged to you.”
“No.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“You preserved what allowed you to control me.”
Renato’s face hardened.
“There is no control without structure.”
“And Marco?”
“A complication.”
Anna’s voice came before she could stop it.
“He had a daughter.”
Renato finally looked at her.
“Most complications do.”
Rage replaced fear.
Anna moved.
Lorenzo caught her before she reached him.
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“He murdered my father.”
“I know.”
“He destroyed my mother’s life.”
“I know.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“Noted.”
Renato smiled faintly.
“That temper is Giulia’s.”
Anna stared at him.
“You don’t get to say her name.”
“No?”
His tone became cruel.
“She was offered a comfortable life if she surrendered the records.”
Lorenzo’s grip on Anna loosened.
Anna stopped struggling.
“What?”
Renato continued.
“She refused.”
“My mother never told me that.”
“She was stubborn.”
“So you hunted her.”
“I stopped hunting her years ago.”
“Someone kidnapped her yesterday.”
“That was not my order.”
Lorenzo’s expression sharpened.
“Whose?”
Renato said nothing.
Leo appeared behind him.
Phone in hand.
“Boss.”
Renato turned slightly.
Leo looked at Lorenzo.
“Bellomo.”
The room went silent.
Anna remembered the name from Marco’s letter.
Carlo Bellomo.
Renato’s secret ally.
Leo continued.
“We traced the men who grabbed Giulia. One works for Bellomo.”
Renato swore.
Lorenzo smiled coldly.
“Your partner stopped listening.”
“He was never my partner.”
“Marco’s ledger says otherwise.”
Renato’s eyes changed.
There.
Confirmation.
“You opened the box.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Renato moved toward the stairs.
Leo blocked him.
“Move.”
Leo did not.
Renato looked at Lorenzo.
“You’re imprisoning me?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“You owe everything you have to me.”
Lorenzo’s eyes went flat.
“I spent twenty years believing the man who tried to save my father was responsible for killing him.”
A pause.
“I owe you nothing.”
Renato laughed softly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Bellomo doesn’t care about your father.”
“Then what does he care about?”
“The ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because Marco recorded more than my payments.”
Renato looked toward Anna.
“Her father found the names of every politician, judge, union official, and businessman Bellomo paid on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Anna’s stomach tightened.
“That’s what they wanted from Mom.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Renato smiled without warmth.
“Because I would prefer not to spend the rest of my life in prison.”
At least he was honest.
Lorenzo looked at Leo.
“Put him downstairs.”
Renato’s face changed.
“You cannot hold me.”
“I can for the next hour.”
“You think Bellomo is your biggest problem?”
Lorenzo paused.
Renato lowered his voice.
“You have no idea how many men around you remember who built this family.”
“You mean you.”
“Yes.”
“You’re threatening me in my sister’s house.”
“I’m warning you.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“No. You spent twenty years calling threats warnings.”
His voice became quiet.
“That ends today.”
Leo escorted Renato downstairs.
Anna did not breathe normally until the door closed.
Then she turned on Lorenzo.
“You should give the ledger to the police.”
“Yes.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“Yes.”
Anna stared.
“You agreed too fast.”
“I’ve been considering it since the bank.”
“You run a criminal organization.”
“Thank you. I had forgotten.”
“You give that ledger to federal prosecutors and they investigate you too.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And they should.”
Anna looked at him as though he had switched languages again.
Lorenzo walked into Isabella’s study.
She followed.
He poured water, not whiskey.
“My father wanted out.”
Anna remained silent.
“Not out entirely. He still believed the family needed power. But he wanted to end the worst parts.”
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“Would it have changed you?”
“At sixteen?”
He shook his head.
“Probably not.”
“What about now?”
Lorenzo looked toward the door through which Renato had disappeared.
“My entire adult life was built around avenging my father by becoming exactly the kind of man who murdered him.”
Anna did not know what to say.
So she chose truth.
“You scared me at the hotel.”
“I know.”
“You threatened me.”
“Yes.”
“You thought because people feared you, you could decide what happened.”
“Yes.”
“That man is not different from Renato just because he looks better in a suit.”
Lorenzo’s eyes moved to hers.
The insult landed.
Good.
Anna continued.
“You want to know whether you’re him?”
He waited.
“Watch what you do next.”
Silence.
Then Lorenzo nodded.
The federal prosecutor arrived ninety minutes later.
Her name was Rachel Stone.
She had prosecuted organized crime cases for fifteen years and possessed exactly zero visible fear of Lorenzo Moretti.
Anna liked her immediately.
Rachel reviewed photocopies of selected pages.
Not originals.
“Where did this come from?”
“Marco Rizzo,” Lorenzo said.
Rachel looked at Anna.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard the name.”
“Probably not kindly.”
“No.”
Anna’s jaw tightened.
Rachel said, “History is often written by whoever survives long enough to brief reporters.”
That earned her more approval.
Lorenzo sat across from her.
“What happens if I surrender the ledger?”
“You don’t surrender evidence casually.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I investigate.”
“Renato.”
“Bellomo.”
“And me.”
Rachel did not blink.
“Yes.”
Isabella inhaled.
Lorenzo remained still.
“For what?”
“Depends what I find.”
“I’m not innocent.”
“No one asked.”
Anna watched him.
This was the door.
He could close it.
He could destroy the ledger.
Silence Rachel.
Run.
Fight.
Every option belonged to the man Anna had first met in the hotel lobby.
Instead Lorenzo asked, “Can you protect Giulia Bennett?”
Rachel looked toward Anna.
“If she cooperates, yes.”
“Anna?”
“If necessary.”
“My sister’s family?”
Rachel frowned.
“That depends on whether your sister is involved.”
“She isn’t.”
“Then probably.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Everything.”
His jaw tightened.
Rachel leaned forward.
“You don’t get to dismantle only the criminals who betrayed you, Mr. Moretti. Cooperation is not revenge with government stationery.”
Anna almost smiled.
Lorenzo noticed.
“This is amusing?”
“Extremely.”
Rachel continued.
“If you want immunity, I cannot promise it.”
“I’m not asking.”
That surprised Anna.
Lorenzo looked at the ledger.
“I want this finished.”
A crash came from downstairs.
Leo shouted.
Everyone stood.
Lorenzo reached the hallway first.
The basement door was open.
One guard lay unconscious.
The rear entrance swung in the cold wind.
Renato was gone.
Leo swore.
“How?”
Lorenzo looked at the unconscious guard.
Then toward Isabella.
“Someone inside.”
Again.
Always someone inside.
Anna remembered Renato’s warning.
You have no idea how many men around you remember who built this family.
Lorenzo turned to Rachel.
“You need to leave.”
Rachel’s expression sharpened.
“I’m not taking orders from you.”
“Then consider it hospitality advice.”
Anna almost laughed despite everything.
Rachel pocketed the copied pages.
“I want the originals tomorrow.”
“You’ll get them.”
After she left, Lorenzo gathered every security employee inside the townhouse.
Eight men.
Anna watched from the staircase.
Lorenzo asked questions.
Short.
Specific.
Where were you?
Who had access?
Who checked the basement?
The men answered.
Anna listened.
Hospitality had taught her something investigators occasionally forgot.
People practiced lies.
They did not practice irrelevant details.
One guard named Paul answered too perfectly.
Time.
Location.
Sequence.
Nothing unnecessary.
Another, Andre, was nervous but messy.
He complained about the broken coffee machine.
Mentioned checking a basketball score.
Admitted taking six minutes longer than allowed because he had been in the bathroom.
Paul’s story was clean.
Too clean.
Anna walked down.
Lorenzo stopped questioning.
“What?”
She pointed at Paul.
“Him.”
Every head turned.
Paul stared.
“What?”
Lorenzo looked at Anna.
“Why?”
“He rehearsed.”
Paul’s face hardened.
Anna knew immediately she was right.
His hand moved toward his jacket.
Leo was faster.
Within seconds Paul was against the wall.
A phone fell from his pocket.
One recent call.
Unknown number.
Lorenzo looked at Anna.
“How did you know?”
“He didn’t complain.”
Lorenzo stared.
“That’s your reason?”
“People complain when things are real.”
Leo looked down at Paul.
“He really is one of Renato’s.”
Anna shrugged.
“Five-star hospitality.”
For the first time since discovering his uncle’s betrayal, Lorenzo smiled.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
The smile disappeared.
“What?”
He listened.
Anna watched color leave his face.
“No.”
He turned toward her.
Her stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
Lorenzo lowered the phone.
“Your mother left the hospital.”
Anna frowned.
“She would never—”
“She didn’t leave voluntarily.”
Cold moved through her.
“Bellomo?”
Lorenzo nodded.
A message arrived before he could speak again.
A photograph.
Giulia sat in a chair.
Alive.
Terrified.
Beside her stood Renato.
May you like
Below the picture were seven words.
BRING MARCO’S LEDGER OR BURY HIS WIFE.
