Chapter 42 - The Enemy Inside the Family
The hospital survived.
No patients died.
Three staff members suffered minor injuries.
Leo required six stitches and complained that Adrian’s technique was insulting.
Adrian told him to stop moving.
Catherine demanded coffee.
Normality returned in pieces.
But the Moretti crisis did not end.
During Luca’s arrest, investigators found a message on his tablet.
One sentence.
PLAN B IS YOURS.
Recipient unknown.
Roman stared at it.
“There’s someone else.”
Marcus nodded.
“The transmission went through an anonymous relay.”
Clara leaned over the table.
“Inside or outside?”
“Unknown.”
Roman looked toward the estate windows.
His children played in the garden beneath absurd levels of security.
Antonio had nightmares now.
He never admitted it.
Roman knew because he had begun sleeping outside his son’s door.
Clara found him there the third night.
She sat beside him on the floor.
“You can sleep in his room.”
“He says he’s a big boy.”
“You say you’re retired.”
Roman glanced sideways.
“Cruel.”
She rested her head against his shoulder.
“We need to make the house feel like home again.”
“It stopped being safe.”
“Safe and home are not the same thing.”
Roman understood more than he wanted to.
The next morning, Marcus found the recipient.
Not a person.
A company account.
Bellweather Holdings.
Roman frowned.
“Never heard of it.”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“You own thirty percent.”
Roman stared.
“What?”
“It was inherited through Antonio’s old trusts.”
Clara looked at Roman.
“You didn’t know?”
“I own pieces of too many companies.”
“That is not relatable.”
Marcus continued.
“The remaining shares are held by…”
He stopped.
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Marcus turned the tablet.
Catherine Bell.
Silence.
Roman looked toward the garden.
Catherine sat beneath a tree reading to Sofia.
Clara whispered, “No.”
Marcus said, “The account receiving Luca’s message was opened under Catherine’s credentials.”
Roman stood.
Clara caught his arm.
“Credentials can be stolen.”
“I know.”
But the old wound had opened.
Victor.
Betrayal.
Someone trusted.
Someone inside.
Roman walked into the garden.
Catherine looked up.
“Your face is doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“The suspicious orphan thing.”
Sofia looked between them.
“What’s an orphan thing?”
“Inside,” Roman said gently.
Sofia frowned.
Catherine nodded.
“Go.”
After Sofia left, Roman handed Catherine the tablet.
She read.
Her face changed.
Not guilt.
Recognition.
“I know Bellweather.”
Roman’s voice hardened.
“How?”
“It was my husband’s company.”
Everyone froze.
Roman had never heard Catherine speak about a husband.
“You were married?”
“For eleven months.”
“What happened?”
“He died.”
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Clara sat beside her.
“What was his name?”
“Samuel Bell.”
Marcus searched.
Nothing.
Catherine laughed sadly.
“You won’t find him under Bell.”
Roman went still.
“What name?”
Catherine looked at him.
“Moretti.”
Silence fell.
“My husband was Samuel Moretti.”
Vincent and Elena’s uncle.
Luca’s great-uncle.
Roman stepped backward.
“You married into their family.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me?”
“Because Samuel hated them.”
Catherine’s eyes filled.
“He discovered Carlo and Arthur Kessler were using foster homes as laundering channels. Children’s charities moved money without scrutiny.”
Adrian looked sick.
“Saint Gabriel House.”
Catherine nodded.
“Samuel tried to expose it.”
“What happened?”
“His car went off a bridge.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Another convenient accident.
“So Bellweather?”
“Samuel created it to protect evidence.”
Marcus asked, “Why are you still listed as owner?”
“Because after he died, everything transferred to me.”
Clara asked the important question.
“Who else knew?”
Catherine looked toward Roman.
“Antonio.”
Roman laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Catherine reached beneath her sweater.
She wore a tiny brass key.
“I kept this for sixty years.”
Roman stared.
“What does it open?”
“I never knew.”
Marcus scanned the key.
A serial number appeared.
It matched an old Bellweather safe-deposit registry.
Location:
Boston.
Catherine stood.
“If Luca sent Plan B to Bellweather, he wasn’t sending it to me.”
Roman understood.
“He was sending it to whatever Samuel hid.”
Marcus’s computer chimed.
The Bellweather account had just initiated a transfer.
Not money.
Ownership.
A private security company controlling contracts at forty-three hospitals and six ports had changed hands.
New owner:
SOFIA DUCA.
Roman went completely still.
Clara whispered, “Why would they transfer it to our daughter?”
Then another document appeared.
A legal guardianship contingency.
If Roman and Clara Duca were declared unfit or deceased, management of Sofia’s assets would transfer to a named trustee.
Roman read the name.
His blood ran cold.
VINCENT MORETTI.
Vincent was in federal custody.
Which meant someone was constructing a legal path toward Roman’s daughter.
And suddenly Plan B became terrifyingly clear.
May you like
They no longer needed to kidnap Sofia.
They intended to inherit her.
