Chapter 4
Luca turned toward Matteo.
"What did Mom hide?"
Matteo didn't answer.
The call remained connected.
Gabriel's breathing filled the silence.
Luca pressed speaker.
"What did she hide?"
Matteo looked at Adrian, who had just reached the basement stairs with two guards and Vanessa behind him.
Adrian's face changed.
He knew.
Luca saw it.
"You too?"
Adrian lowered his eyes.
That was enough.
Luca laughed.
A tired, broken sound.
"Of course."
Vanessa whispered:
"Luca—"
He held up one hand.
"Not one word."
She stopped.
Gabriel spoke through the phone.
"Family reunions are exhausting."
Luca ignored him.
"Matteo."
His brother looked at him.
"Our mother knew about Gabriel."
"How?"
"She found Dad's files."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Elena found bank records I kept in a locked cabinet."
Luca looked at him with disgust.
"You brought this into the house."
"I know."
"Stop saying that."
Adrian went silent.
Matteo continued.
"Mom started copying everything."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because you were twenty-six, angry at the world, and already fighting Dad over the company."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"So she trusted you."
"No."
Matteo shook his head.
"She trusted nobody."
That made Luca stop.
Matteo looked at him carefully.
"She created an insurance policy."
Gabriel said over the phone:
"Finally."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"What insurance policy?"
"A set of files," Matteo said. "Original files. Enough to expose Gabriel, Carlo's network, Dad's involvement, Domenico, everyone."
"Where?"
Matteo looked at the silver key.
"That's what 317 opens."
The captured guard laughed.
"It opens a safe deposit compartment."
Luca turned.
"You said it wasn't a vault number."
"It isn't."
Matteo crouched near him.
"Then what?"
The guard smiled.
"March seventeenth is the code. The key is physical access."
Luca looked at Matteo.
"Where is the compartment?"
Matteo hesitated.
Gabriel answered.
"Your mother's mausoleum."
Silence.
I felt cold.
Luca didn't move.
"Our family crypt?"
"Under her memorial plaque," Matteo said.
Luca's face changed.
"You knew?"
"I found out after the crash."
"And you never opened it?"
"I couldn't."
"Why?"
"The key was missing."
We all looked at me.
I swallowed.
"The key was taped under Luca's study table."
Matteo nodded slowly.
"Mom must have hidden it there before she got sick."
Luca stared at the floor.
His mother's final year had been difficult.
I knew only what staff whispered.
Cancer.
Hospital.
Months of treatment.
A funeral eight months after Adrian and Matteo's supposed deaths.
Luca had lost all three within one year.
Except now two had returned.
And the third had left a secret in her tomb.
Gabriel's voice came through.
"Meet me at the cemetery."
Luca looked at the phone.
"You already have the key."
"I need the code."
"March seventeenth."
Gabriel laughed.
"That's not the code."
Matteo closed his eyes.
Luca looked at him.
"What?"
Matteo said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
"Your mother was smarter than that. The date tells you where to look, not what to enter."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"What do you need from me?"
"Memory."
"Meaning?"
"She left the code in something only her sons would know."
Matteo whispered:
"The lullaby."
Luca looked at him.
Gabriel went quiet.
Too quiet.
Matteo cursed.
"Hang up."
Luca ended the call.
"What lullaby?"
Matteo stared at him.
"You don't remember?"
"No."
"You were older."
"I was ten when she stopped singing to me."
Matteo nodded.
"Exactly."
He turned toward Adrian.
"Do you remember the music box?"
Adrian's face softened painfully.
"Blue porcelain."
"Where is it?"
Nobody answered.
Then Mrs. Carter did.
"In the nursery."
Everyone looked at her.
She was sitting on the basement steps, pale but steady.
"The old nursery."
Luca frowned.
"That room has been locked for twenty years."
Mrs. Carter nodded.
"Your mother asked me never to clear it."
Luca stared at her.
"You knew?"
"Not about this."
She looked down.
"Only that she wanted the room left untouched."
We went upstairs.
The old nursery was on the third floor, beyond a hall most staff never used.
Luca unlocked it with a master key.
Dust.
White sheets.
A wooden rocking horse.
A shelf of children's books.
Two beds.
One larger.
One smaller.
Matteo stopped in the doorway.
For a second, he looked seven years old.
Luca went straight to a tall cabinet.
He opened it.
Inside were old toys and boxes.
Matteo reached behind a stack of picture books.
Nothing.
"She kept it here."
Mrs. Carter entered.
"No."
She pointed to the window seat.
"After Matteo broke the ballerina figurine, your mother moved it."
Matteo almost smiled.
"I forgot that."
"You blamed Luca."
"I was six."
"You were a terrible liar."
Luca glanced at him.
"Still is."
For one second, the brothers looked like brothers.
Then the moment passed.
Mrs. Carter lifted the window-seat cushion.
Underneath was a blue porcelain music box.
Luca picked it up.
A crack ran across the lid.
He opened it.
A tiny silver moon turned.
The melody began.
Simple.
Slow.
Matteo whispered the words.
"Three stars over water..."
Luca stared.
Memory returned to his face.
"Two lights by the door."
Matteo nodded.
"One moon for the traveler..."
Luca finished.
"And home forevermore."
Inside the lid were four tiny painted symbols.
Three stars.
Two lanterns.
One moon.
A house.
3-2-1-?
"What number is home?" Daniel asked.
Luca shook his head.
Matteo looked beneath the box.
Scratched into the porcelain:
HOME IS WHERE FOUR RETURN.
"Four," I said.
Matteo nodded.
"3214."
Adrian looked at the clock.
"Gabriel has at least a ten-minute head start."
Luca turned to Daniel.
"Cars."
Vanessa stepped forward.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Luca—"
"No."
"My father's files may be there."
"Your father is dead because of this."
"Exactly."
He looked at her.
"And you helped Gabriel get this far."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I can help stop him."
"You can help by telling Daniel everything you know."
"There's something I haven't told you."
Luca's expression went cold.
"Shocking."
She flinched.
"Gabriel isn't going to the cemetery alone."
"Who?"
She looked at Adrian.
"Domenico."
Adrian swore.
Luca went very still.
"How do you know?"
"I heard them talking yesterday."
"You said you thought Domenico was in Miami."
"I didn't know he was part of this until then."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Gabriel said he'd kill me."
Luca glanced at my shoulder.
"You were frightened for your life, so you attacked Mia."
Vanessa looked down.
"Yes."
He turned away.
That hurt her more than shouting would have.
We left her under guard.
I expected Luca to order me to stay too.
He did.
"No."
I folded my arms.
"No?"
"You are not going to a cemetery in the middle of the night with armed criminals waiting there."
"Mrs. Carter almost died because Gabriel thought I mattered."
"Which is why—"
"If he thinks I matter, he may try to use me again."
"That is not an argument for bringing you."
Matteo said quietly:
"She's right."
Luca looked at him.
"Whose side are you on?"
"Mia's."
"Wonderful."
I stepped closer.
"I found the phone. I found the key. I recognized the basement."
"You also got hurt."
"By Vanessa. Not Gabriel."
"That distinction isn't comforting."
I lowered my voice.
"I can stay in the car."
Luca stared at me.
Matteo said:
"She won't."
I looked at him.
He shrugged.
"You don't seem like a stay-in-the-car person."
Luca rubbed his forehead.
"Fine."
I almost smiled.
"Under one condition."
"What?"
"You do exactly what I say."
I hesitated.
Matteo laughed.
"She can't agree without lying."
Luca glared at him.
Twenty minutes later, four SUVs entered the Moretti family cemetery.
The mausoleum stood at the top of a hill.
Stone.
Columns.
Iron doors.
The place looked pale beneath the moon.
Daniel's team spread out.
No visible vehicles.
No people.
Too quiet.
Luca looked at me.
"Stay behind me."
I did.
For now.
Inside, the air smelled like stone and old flowers.
Three memorial walls.
Adrian Moretti.
Matteo Moretti.
Both names still engraved.
Matteo stared at his own plaque.
"That's unsettling."
Luca didn't respond.
At the center was Elena Moretti.
Beloved Wife. Beloved Mother.
March 17.
Luca touched the stone.
His hand stayed there.
Matteo stood beside him.
Neither spoke.
Then Daniel found the key slot.
Hidden inside a brass flower holder.
Luca inserted 317.
Turned.
A section of stone opened.
Inside was a keypad.
Matteo entered 3214.
Green light.
A drawer slid forward.
Empty.
Luca stared.
"No."
Matteo checked it.
Nothing.
Gabriel had beaten us.
Then I noticed dust.
The inside of the drawer was dusty except for one clean rectangle.
Something had been removed recently.
Daniel examined the floor.
"Footprints."
A sound came from behind the crypt wall.
Metal.
Scrape.
Then a click.
Matteo's face changed.
"Down!"
An explosion tore through the entrance.
Stone cracked.
Dust filled the room.
I hit the ground.
My ears rang.
Someone dragged me behind a column.
Luca.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Daniel shouted.
Adrian disappeared into smoke.
Matteo fired through the broken doorway.
Then another voice echoed from behind the mausoleum.
Older.
Familiar.
"Luca!"
Luca froze.
A man stepped through the dust.
White hair.
Expensive coat.
A gun pointed directly at Adrian.
Domenico Moretti.
Luca's uncle.
He smiled.
"Sorry I'm late."
Adrian stared at his brother.
"Domenico."
Domenico pulled the trigger.
The shot hit Adrian in the chest.
Luca shouted.
Adrian collapsed.
Matteo fired.
Domenico disappeared behind stone.
I dropped beside Adrian.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Luca pressed both hands over the wound.
"Dad."
Adrian looked up.
For the first time, Luca had called him that.
Adrian smiled weakly.
"That took long enough."
"Don't talk."
Matteo shouted for the medic.
Adrian grabbed Luca's wrist.
"Listen."
"No."
"The files."
"Forget the files."
"Gabriel doesn't have them."
Luca froze.
"What?"
Adrian coughed.
Blood touched his lips.
"He took the decoy."
Matteo turned.
"What decoy?"
Adrian looked at me.
"Mia has the real key."
I stared.
"What?"
He pointed weakly toward my apron.
I reached inside.
Nothing.
Then I felt something sewn into the torn lining.
A thin plastic card.
I pulled it out.
Black.
No markings except one word.
ELENA.
Adrian's eyes closed.
Luca shook him.
"Dad."
Adrian whispered:
May you like
"Your mother always trusted the person nobody noticed."
Then his hand went limp.
