Chapter 8 - The Uncle Who Never Died
Matteo stepped off the yacht alone.
He was older than the photograph.
But the eyes were the same.
Cold.
Intelligent.
Patient.
Masimo stood across from him.
"Uncle."
Matteo smiled.
"You look like your father."
"I hope not."
"That hurts."
"You killed him."
Matteo's expression changed.
"I didn't."
"Then who did?"
"Time."
Masimo nearly laughed.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Matteo looked toward Cora.
"I expect you to believe her."
Cora frowned.
Matteo smiled.
"Your mother survived for four years after the fire."
Cora froze.
"You knew her."
"Yes."
"Where is she buried?"
Matteo looked away.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I stopped lying to myself a long time ago."
He handed Cora an envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Maribel.
Alive.
Pregnant.
Standing beside Thomas Halliday.
Cora stared.
She looked at her mother as though seeing her for the first time.
"Why did you keep this?"
"Because she asked me to."
"Why?"
"She knew she was dying."
Matteo explained.
Maribel had been ill.
She knew she would not survive long.
She asked Matteo to protect Cora.
He failed.
Thomas had discovered the full network and planned to expose everyone.
Maribel wanted to stop him.
But before she could, Enzo made his move.
He faked his death.
Matteo followed.
The family fractured.
The diner burned.
Thomas died.
Cora was left alone with Milo.
"What about Milo?" she asked.
Matteo looked at her brother.
"His illness was collateral."
"No."
"Yes."
Cora stepped toward him.
"You knew."
"Yes."
Masimo stepped between them.
"You're not getting near my family."
Matteo laughed softly.
"Family."
He looked at Masimo.
"You finally understand the word."
A helicopter appeared overhead.
Matteo looked up.
"Too late."
Masimo drew his weapon.
Men emerged from the yacht.
But they did not attack.
They stood aside.
A man walked down the ramp.
Enzo Orsini.
Masimo stared.
The dead man.
His father.
Alive.
Enzo looked at his son.
"Masimo."
Masimo's voice was barely audible.
"Why?"
Enzo sighed.
"I was trying to protect you."
"You abandoned me."
"I gave you the company."
"You gave me a grave."
Enzo looked at Cora.
"I didn't know she survived."
Cora stared.
"You knew my mother?"
"Yes."
"Did you order the fire?"
"No."
"Then who did?"
Enzo looked at Matteo.
"Your uncle."
Matteo smiled.
"Still blaming me."
"Because you did it."
"And you let it happen."
Silence.
Masimo looked between them.
"What is the truth?"
Enzo finally answered.
"The company was never the goal."
"Then what was?"
"Money was."
He explained the final part.
A secret government contract had been created decades earlier.
A private chemical research division had operated through shell companies.
Matteo wanted the research.
Enzo wanted the money.
Maribel discovered the program.
Thomas tried to expose it.
The diner was used to destroy the records.
But Thomas had already hidden the most important evidence.
In Cora.
Not literally.
He had used a code based on her childhood drawings.
The entire ledger could be decoded through one repeated symbol.
A little blue bird.
Cora had drawn one on every page of her father's old notebook.
She suddenly remembered.
"Milo."
Masimo looked at her.
"What?"
"He has the notebook."
They rushed back to the estate.
Milo was sitting at the kitchen table.
His notebook was open.
On every page, he had drawn blue birds.
Cora picked it up.
The patterns formed a sequence.
Coordinates.
A location.
A storage facility in Charlestown.
The place had been sold years earlier.
The same place her mother had disappeared.
They went there that night.
Beneath the building, they found a small room.
A single wooden box.
Inside were medical files.
Original contracts.
Photographs.
And one cassette tape.
Cora played it.
Maribel's voice.
"If you're hearing this, Cora, then I've failed to protect you."
Cora cried.
"I'm sorry."
The recording continued.
"Your father loved you. He was not perfect. Neither was I."
She explained the truth.
The fire was ordered by Matteo.
Enzo tried to stop it.
He arrived too late.
Thomas died.
Maribel escaped.
She spent her last years hiding.
And before she died, she gave the evidence to a man she trusted.
Samuel Price.
But there was one last condition.
The evidence would only be released if Cora and Masimo found it together.
Cora looked at Masimo.
"Why us?"
The answer was on the last line.
Because your fathers started the fire.
And you are the ones who will end it.
Outside, sirens began to approach.
Someone had tipped off the authorities.
Masimo looked at the box.
Then at Cora.
"Are you ready?"
"No."
He held out his hand.
May you like
She took it.
"But I'm coming."
