Chapter 5 - The Man Everyone Thought Was Dead
Marco Bellandi had supposedly died twelve years earlier.
Officially, he had been killed in a warehouse fire.
There had been no body.
No funeral.
No confirmed identification.
Just silence.
For years, people had assumed he was gone.
They were wrong.
Nadia knew where he was.
She had worked for him.
“He calls himself Victor now,” she said.
“Where?” Casius asked.
“Everywhere.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“He doesn't stay in one place.”
“Then how do you reach him?”
Nadia looked at me.
“He reaches us.”
That night, my phone received a message.
Your father told Victoria everything before he died.
Then another.
Ask Casius why he really chose you.
I looked up.
Casius was across the room.
“Did you send this?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
He took my phone.
His face changed.
“I know this number.”
“Who is it?”
“My mother.”
“That isn't possible.”
He opened the metadata.
The number belonged to an inactive account registered to Victoria Leone.
I stared.
“Someone is using her identity.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To make us follow.”
The following message contained an address.
An old theater.
We went.
The stage was empty.
A projector switched on.
Victoria appeared onscreen.
She was younger.
Beautiful.
Terrified.
“I am recording this in case I die.”
Casius stood motionless.
Victoria looked directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, Marco survived.”
She swallowed.
“He will come for my son.”
The video skipped.
Then continued.
“He will also come for Nadia.”
My sister and I stared at each other.
Victoria continued:
“Because Nadia's mother knows where the evidence is buried.”
I whispered, “My mother?”
The screen went black.
A light came on backstage.
An older woman stepped forward.
My mother.
Alive.
I couldn't breathe.
She looked at me.
Then at my sister.
She was crying.
“I thought I would never see either of you again.”
I ran to her.
She held me.
I couldn't speak.
For twelve years, I had believed my mother was dead.
She had faked her death to escape Bellandi.
She had watched us from a distance.
She had never stopped loving us.
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
“Why?”
“He knew Marco would use you to find me.”
I pulled away.
“What happened to Dad?”
“He betrayed Bellandi.”
“What did he do?”
“He stole a ledger.”
“The ledger.”
She nodded.
“The real ledger.”
The missing document that contained every payment, every murder, every name.
“Where is it?”
She looked at Casius.
“Your mother's dress.”
I stared.
“The dress?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria and I used it to hide the final pages.”
Casius closed his eyes.
“That means the person who stole the dress—”
“Has the ledger,” my mother said.
Footsteps echoed outside.
Casius pulled his weapon.
Dante shouted.
“Movement!”
A man entered.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Elegant.
He smiled.
“Casius.”
Casius froze.
“Marco.”
Marco Bellandi smiled wider.
“I prefer Victor.”
My mother stepped behind us.
Marco looked at me.
“You've grown.”
I felt sick.
“You killed my father.”
“I gave him a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Loyalty or death.”
“And he chose?”
“Your mother.”
Casius raised his weapon.
Marco laughed.
“You won't shoot.”
“Try me.”
Marco looked at him.
“You already know how this ends.”
He dropped a photograph at our feet.
It showed Casius's uncle meeting Marco.
Then he disappeared through the curtains.
Dante ran after him.
Too late.
The theater was empty.
I looked at the photograph.
Casius's uncle had betrayed him.
But there was another person in the image.
A woman.
My blood went cold.
May you like
Gemma.
She was standing beside Marco.
