The Mafia Boss Watched Her Dance With His Brother—Then She Slipped Him a Bloody Note
Chapter 9
Victoria denied it.
“I didn’t touch the computer.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You knew the password.”
“Yes.”
“And the files?”
“I didn’t erase them.”
Luca looked at her.
“Then who did?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
The detective stepped forward.
“Mrs. Romano, we need you to come with us.”
Victoria nodded.
“Of course.”
Before leaving, she looked at Luca.
“Your father hid something else.”
“What?”
“The original recording.”
“Of what?”
“His final meeting with the Council.”
Luca froze.
“Where?”
Victoria whispered:
“His office.”
Luca stared.
“That’s been abandoned for twelve years.”
“Exactly.”
They drove there immediately.
The old office sat above a closed restaurant on the South Side.
Dust covered the windows.
The door still carried the Romano name.
Inside, everything remained untouched.
Luca walked toward his father’s desk.
He remembered sitting there as a teenager.
His father had once told him:
“Never trust the loudest person in the room.”
Luca had forgotten the lesson.
He opened the desk.
Nothing.
Elena searched the shelves.
Gabriel examined the walls.
Matteo checked the floor.
Then Elena noticed a small scratch beneath the desk.
“Here.”
Luca moved the cabinet.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
And a note.
For my sons.
Luca pressed play.
His father’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, I’m dead.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“I want you to understand one thing. I did not choose this life for you.”
Luca’s throat tightened.
“I built the organization because I believed I could control the people who controlled this city.”
A pause.
“I was wrong.”
His father named the Council.
Then several names.
One shocked everyone.
A United States senator.
Another was a federal judge.
Another was a billionaire businessman.
Then he said:
“The person closest to me is the one I fear most.”
The recording crackled.
Luca leaned closer.
“Richard?”
His father’s voice continued.
“Not my wife.”
Victoria’s face changed.
“Not my sons.”
Another pause.
“Someone I raised like family.”
Luca looked at Vincent.
Vincent shook his head.
The recording continued.
“His name is—”
The tape stopped.
Everyone stared.
“That’s it?” Matteo asked.
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“The tape was damaged.”
Elena looked at the recorder.
“Maybe not.”
She turned it over.
There was a tiny memory card hidden beneath the battery.
She removed it.
The detective inserted it into a laptop.
A digital file appeared.
The final seconds.
Luca pressed play.
His father’s voice returned.
“His name is…”
Static.
Then:
“…Daniel.”
Everyone froze.
“Daniel who?” Matteo asked.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Moretti.”
Elena’s face drained of color.
“My uncle.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Your father’s brother.”
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t have an uncle.”
“You did.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared before you were born.”
Luca stared.
“Is he alive?”
Gabriel’s expression was grim.
“I don’t know.”
The detective checked the file metadata.
“Someone edited this.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Luca looked at Elena.
Someone had deliberately left the name incomplete.
Someone wanted them searching.
Someone wanted them fighting each other.
Then Elena noticed another file.
A photograph.
A man standing beside the Council members.
She opened it.
Her breathing stopped.
The man was older.
Gray hair.
Dark suit.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
He whispered:
“Daniel.”
Elena stared.
“My uncle is alive.”
Luca looked at the date.
The photograph had been taken two weeks earlier.
In Chicago.
At a private hospital.
Daniel Moretti was not simply alive.
He was nearby.
And beneath his photograph was one sentence:
He is the Council.
