Chapter 2 - THE LETTER VITTORIO NEVER SENT
Alessandro locked the hospital room door.
Marco stood beside it.
Rosa remained near the window.
Sophia lay in bed holding the envelope.
Emma sat quietly beside her mother.
Nobody knew where to begin.
Finally, Alessandro looked at Rosa.
“Tell me everything.”
Rosa lowered her eyes.
“Your father became suspicious three months before the crash.”
“Suspicious of whom?”
“He never told me directly.”
“Then what did he tell you?”
“That someone close to him was selling information.”
Alessandro’s jaw tightened.
“Information about what?”
“Businesses.”
“Routes.”
“Accounts.”
“Names.”
Marco’s expression darkened.
“That kind of information could destroy the organization.”
Rosa nodded.
“It almost did.”
Alessandro remembered those years.
He had been twenty-two.
His father died.
Three Moretti businesses were raided within six months.
Two allies disappeared.
A third betrayed them.
Alessandro had always believed chaos followed Vittorio’s death.
Now he wondered whether the chaos had caused it.
Sophia placed the envelope on the blanket.
“My father told my mother Vittorio discovered the traitor.”
“Who?”
“He never said.”
Alessandro looked at the envelope.
“Open it.”
Sophia hesitated.
Then she handed it to him.
The seal had already been broken.
Alessandro pulled out several yellowed pages.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
His father’s.
Alessandro,
If you are reading this, then I failed to come home.
Trust Mateo.
Do not trust the man who stands closest when everyone else runs.
Alessandro stopped reading.
Marco frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Alessandro continued.
I built too much power around men who learned to confuse loyalty with entitlement.
One of them believes everything I created should become his.
He has already begun working with people who want our family weakened.
Mateo knows the truth.
Protect him.
Protect his family.
And whatever happens, do not punish his children for the choices of powerful men.
Alessandro lowered the page.
Sophia’s eyes were wet.
“My father trusted yours.”
Alessandro turned to Rosa.
“And we let Mateo go to prison.”
Rosa whispered,
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the evidence looked undeniable.”
“Evidence can be manufactured.”
“We know that now.”
Alessandro’s voice sharpened.
“You knew something then.”
Rosa looked ashamed.
“I knew Vittorio trusted Mateo.”
“That should have been enough.”
“It wasn’t.”
“For you.”
Rosa flinched.
Emma squeezed Sophia’s hand.
“Mom?”
Sophia looked down.
“It’s okay.”
But it wasn’t.
Alessandro continued reading.
One sentence near the bottom made him stop.
There is a second ledger.
The first will be found.
The second must not be.
Mateo knows where it is.
Marco stepped closer.
“Ledger?”
Sophia looked confused.
“My father never mentioned one.”
Rosa suddenly sat down.
Alessandro noticed.
“What?”
Rosa shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Rosa.”
She looked at him.
“I remember the night before Vittorio died.”
Alessandro waited.
“He came home carrying a blue ledger.”
Marco frowned.
“Blue?”
“Yes.”
“He locked it inside his study.”
Alessandro looked toward Marco.
“The old study?”
Rosa nodded.
“The room that was renovated after the fire.”
Sophia looked up.
“What fire?”
Alessandro answered.
“Three weeks after my father died.”
Everyone went silent.
Marco understood first.
“Someone destroyed the study.”
Alessandro folded the letter.
“Or tried to.”
Sophia suddenly coughed.
The coughing became violent.
Emma panicked.
“Mom!”
Alessandro hit the call button.
Nurses rushed inside.
Marco carried Emma into the hallway while doctors worked around Sophia.
Alessandro stood outside the glass.
For the first time in years, he felt powerless.
Emma buried her face against Marco’s shoulder.
“Is she going to die?”
Marco froze.
He looked toward Alessandro.
Alessandro crouched beside her.
“No.”
“You don’t know.”
She was right.
He didn’t.
Alessandro took her hand.
“Then I’ll tell you what I do know.”
Emma looked at him.
“Your mother is getting the best care in this hospital.”
“And if this hospital isn’t enough?”
“Then I’ll find one that is.”
Emma stared at him.
“You promise?”
Alessandro thought of his father’s letter.
Protect his family.
“I promise.”
An hour later, Sophia was stable.
But Alessandro had already made another decision.
He called Marco.
“Take a team to the mansion.”
“What are we looking for?”
“The old study.”
“That room hasn’t existed for twenty years.”
“Walls remember.”
Marco nodded.
Then Alessandro added,
“And Marco?”
“Yes?”
“Tell no one what we’re doing.”
Marco paused.
“No one?”
“No one.”
Because Vittorio’s letter had been hidden for twenty years.
Mateo had died before exposing the truth.
May you like
And if the traitor was still alive...
Then someone might already know Alessandro had finally started looking.
