Chapter 6 - The Brother No One Buried
The photograph changed everything.
Luca took me back to the mansion.
I refused to leave without answers.
"Who is the boy?"
Mrs. Carter stared at the picture for almost a minute.
Then whispered,
"Daniel Cross."
I shook my head.
"That's my biological father."
"No."
She pointed to the child's face.
"That is his son."
My heartbeat stopped.
"I have a brother?"
"Older."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Luca looked at Daniel.
"Find him."
"We will."
The search took hours.
A hospital record surfaced.
A boy named Noah Cross had been admitted twenty-nine years ago.
Then another record.
A new identity.
Noah Bellini.
Vanessa's surname.
I stared at the screen.
"No."
Luca looked at me.
"Vanessa's brother."
Mrs. Carter nodded.
"She was protecting him."
"Arthur took him?"
"Yes."
"Then why would he let Vanessa marry you?"
"Because he knew Luca would protect her."
Luca looked stunned.
"She manipulated me."
"She also saved her brother."
I sat down.
The entire story was suddenly darker.
Vanessa wasn't innocent.
But she wasn't the mastermind either.
She had been trapped.
Daniel finally found a location.
A private clinic outside Chicago.
Luca and I went there.
Noah Bellini sat in a wheelchair by the window.
He was thirty-one.
Thin.
Scarred.
Alive.
When he saw Vanessa's photograph in my hand, he started crying.
"She found you."
I crouched beside him.
"You're my brother."
He nodded.
"Your father told me."
"Which father?"
"Daniel."
"What did he say?"
"He said John would keep you safe."
"Why?"
"Because Arthur knew you were the key."
"The key to what?"
Noah reached beneath his chair.
He removed a metal box.
Inside was a cassette.
Another tape.
Luca played it.
Daniel Cross's voice emerged.
"John, if you are hearing this, Arthur has found us."
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"There is one thing he doesn't know."
A click.
"Elena hid the real ledger inside the Moretti chapel."
Luca looked at me.
"The chapel."
The recording continued.
"Not the public chapel. The underground one."
Noah whispered,
"There's more."
The tape ended.
He handed Luca a second envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Richard Moretti.
Standing beside Arthur.
And another man.
A priest.
Luca recognized him.
"Father Michael."
"Who?"
"The priest who married my parents."
I looked at Noah.
"Where is he?"
"Dead."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Everyone who knew the truth is dead."
"Not everyone," I said.
He looked at me.
"You're alive."
"So are you."
His eyes stayed on mine.
Something shifted between us.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Trust.
For the first time, we were standing on the same side.
We returned to the mansion with Noah.
Vanessa was there.
She had been brought back by Daniel.
She looked exhausted.
When she saw Noah, she collapsed.
"I'm sorry."
Noah cried.
"You should have told me."
"I tried."
"You lied to everyone."
"I was trying to keep you alive."
Luca stood between them.
"Tell me everything."
Vanessa nodded.
"Arthur recruited me three years ago."
"Why?"
"He found Noah."
"What did he threaten?"
"Death."
"Why did you agree to marry me?"
"Because he promised Noah would be released."
"Was that true?"
"No."
Luca closed his eyes.
"So you never loved me."
Vanessa looked heartbroken.
"I did."
The room went silent.
"But you were afraid."
"Yes."
Luca's face softened slightly.
"Why steal my mother's necklace?"
"Because Arthur ordered me to."
"Why fake the emerald?"
"He wanted the compartment."
"What's inside?"
"Nothing."
Luca frowned.
"Nothing?"
"The evidence was removed years ago."
"By whom?"
Vanessa looked at me.
"Your father."
I looked at Luca.
"John?"
"No."
"Richard."
That name again.
Vanessa continued.
"Richard discovered Arthur was planning to betray him. So he took the ledger and hid the evidence."
"Then why did he kill Elena?"
"Because she found out."
Luca's voice became cold.
"Who was at the hospital?"
"Daniel Cross."
"Your brother?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Vanessa looked at Noah.
"Our father."
A terrible silence filled the room.
Luca paced.
"Where did Richard hide the ledger?"
Vanessa looked at me.
"Your father knew."
"My father was John."
"Yes."
"And he died."
"Yes."
"But Richard was the one who hid the original."
Vanessa shook her head.
"No."
She looked at Noah.
"Arthur wants you to think that."
"What happened?"
"Richard hid the ledger in a place Arthur could never search."
"Where?"
Vanessa said,
"Inside the heart of the mansion."
Everyone stared.
"The foundation?"
"No."
"The safe room?"
"No."
She looked toward the dining room.
"The table."
I frowned.
"The dining table?"
"The original dining table."
Luca's eyes widened.
"My mother designed it."
"Yes."
"It has a glass center."
"Look beneath it."
We returned to the dining room.
The cake still sat untouched.
Six tiers.
White frosting.
Gold leaves.
Luca knelt beneath the table.
There was a tiny keyhole.
He looked at me.
"Where did you get the key?"
I remembered the leather box.
The key from the train station.
I handed it to him.
He inserted it.
A panel slid open.
Inside was a ledger.
Thick.
Black.
Real.
Arthur had been hunting it for twenty years.
Luca opened the first page.
Hundreds of names.
Payments.
Dates.
Locations.
Then he saw one entry.
Richard Moretti — $250,000 — Elena Moretti.
He turned the page.
Arthur Vale — $100,000 — Elena Moretti.
Then another.
John Parker — protective payment.
Luca stopped.
"Your father wasn't paid."
"Then what?"
"He was protecting you."
At the bottom of the page was a handwritten message.
From Elena.
Luca, when you finally see this, do not seek revenge.
Protect the innocent.
I started crying.
Luca looked at the words.
Then closed the ledger.
"No."
I stared at him.
"No what?"
"I'm not becoming my father."
He looked toward Vanessa.
Then Noah.
Then me.
"Arthur wants a war."
May you like
Luca picked up the ledger.
"He isn't getting one."
