Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Never Died
Adrian stared at the dead man standing in front of him.
For twelve years, Daniel had existed only in photographs and memories.
Now he stood at the top of a basement staircase, holding a pistol.
Alive.
Breathing.
Watching Adrian with the same dark eyes he had as a boy.
Marco raised his weapon.
Daniel raised his.
Adrian stepped between them.
“Lower it.”
Marco did not move.
“Boss.”
“Lower it.”
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“Still giving orders.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You’re alive.”
Daniel descended one step.
“Apparently.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“You let me bury you.”
“You buried a stranger.”
“I mourned you.”
“I know.”
“You watched?”
Daniel’s expression shifted.
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because I mourned you too.”
Adrian crossed the basement before Marco could stop him.
He grabbed Daniel by the jacket and slammed him against the wall.
“You had twelve years.”
Daniel did not resist.
“Twelve years to call me.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You could.”
“They were watching you.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward Marco.
Adrian followed his gaze.
Marco’s expression changed.
“You think it was me?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“Then speak.”
Daniel lowered his weapon.
“Carlo.”
Adrian went still.
Their uncle.
Carlo Moretti.
The man who had helped raise them after their mother died.
The man who had stood beside Adrian through every war.
The man who was currently second in command of the Moretti organization.
Adrian released Daniel.
“No.”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“That is exactly what I said.”
“Proof.”
Daniel pointed toward the laptop.
“You’re looking at some of it.”
“Some?”
“I have more.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Why are you here now?”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Because Sofia stopped answering.”
Adrian froze.
“You know where she is?”
“I always know where she is.”
“You abandoned her.”
“I protected her.”
“She thinks you’re dead.”
Daniel looked away.
Adrian’s anger returned instantly.
“You let your wife believe you were murdered?”
“If she knew I survived, they could force it out of her.”
“She has spent three years raising your daughter alone.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“No.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“I think you decided her suffering was acceptable as long as you could call it protection.”
Daniel’s eyes flashed.
“I was shot three times outside our apartment.”
“I know.”
“I survived because the ambulance crew thought I was dead.”
Adrian said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“When I woke up, there was already a man waiting in the hospital.”
“Who?”
“One of Carlo’s people.”
Marco frowned.
“You’re sure?”
“I killed him.”
Silence.
Daniel continued.
“That night I understood something.”
He looked directly at Adrian.
“They weren’t after me anymore.”
“They were after Emily.”
Adrian remembered the message on Pierce’s phone.
REMOVE THE CHILD TONIGHT.
“Why Emily?”
Daniel looked toward the flash drive.
“Because Father changed the family trust before he died.”
Adrian frowned.
Their father had died five years earlier from a stroke.
“What trust?”
“The original Moretti holdings.”
“I control them.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You control voting power.”
“What is the difference?”
“A very large one.”
Daniel walked toward the laptop.
“Our grandfather created the trust before either of us was born.”
“If the eldest son survives, control passes to him.”
“That is me.”
“Yes.”
“But ownership gets divided among all legitimate descendants.”
Adrian understood slowly.
“You.”
“And Emily.”
Adrian stared at him.
Daniel nodded.
“If my survival becomes public, I regain part of the empire.”
“And if you die?”
“My share goes to Emily.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“So Carlo wants both of you dead.”
“Not just Carlo.”
“Who else?”
Daniel looked at Marco again.
“Your father.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“My father is dead.”
“He wasn’t when this started.”
Adrian’s voice became sharp.
“Careful.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You think Father was innocent?”
“I think you should choose your next words carefully.”
Daniel laughed.
“There he is.”
“Daniel.”
“Our father ordered my first murder attempt.”
The words hit harder than Adrian expected.
“No.”
“I heard the recording.”
“From whom?”
“Carlo.”
“That proves Carlo said it.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“I heard Father’s voice.”
Adrian turned away.
He remembered Vittorio Moretti as many things.
Cold.
Controlling.
Brutal.
But a man who would order the death of his own son?
Adrian wanted to reject it.
Yet another memory surfaced.
Daniel and their father arguing in the study.
Vittorio shouting.
You have no idea what this family requires.
Daniel answering.
Then maybe this family deserves to die.
Adrian had ignored it.
He had been twenty-nine.
Already becoming the man everyone feared.
Maybe he had ignored many things.
Daniel moved closer.
“Father built an empire using secrets.”
“Carlo wanted those secrets.”
“So he sold them?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
“Then he realized controlling the archive was more valuable than selling it.”
Adrian looked toward the laptop.
“The accounts.”
“Exactly.”
Names.
Payments.
Blackmail.
People owned by the Moretti family.
Adrian had always known his father had leverage.
He had never known how much.
“Where is the complete archive?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian laughed once.
“You spent twelve years hiding and you don’t know?”
“I know where part of it is.”
“Where?”
Daniel looked directly at him.
“Inside your estate.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Impossible.”
“That’s why Pierce was there.”
Adrian felt the pieces connect.
Pierce had not simply been stealing from staff.
He had been searching.
Using Sofia gave him access.
Threatening her kept her compliant.
“And Sofia?”
Daniel looked away.
“I never expected her to end up there.”
“But once she did?”
“I watched.”
Adrian’s anger returned.
“You watched your sick wife work inside the home of a man you supposedly didn’t trust?”
“I trusted you more than anyone else.”
“That is not what your letter said.”
Daniel looked at the envelope.
“I wrote that thirteen years ago.”
“Before you decided to spy on me for three.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“I needed to know whether you had become Father.”
The sentence landed like a punch.
Adrian stared at him.
“And?”
Daniel’s eyes moved toward the stairs.
“Today, you fired Pierce because a three-year-old girl had raw hands.”
He looked back.
“Father would have fired the girl.”
Silence.
Marco’s phone vibrated.
He answered.
His face immediately changed.
“What?”
Adrian turned.
Marco listened.
Then ended the call.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone breached the estate.”
Adrian’s pulse sharpened.
“Sofia?”
“Safe.”
“Emily?”
Marco hesitated.
Adrian grabbed his arm.
“Emily?”
“Missing.”
Daniel’s face went white.
Adrian’s voice dropped to almost nothing.
“When?”
“Six minutes ago.”
Daniel raised his gun.
Adrian was already moving.
They ran upstairs.
Neither man spoke.
They did not need to.
May you like
For the first time in twelve years, the Moretti brothers were fighting the same enemy.
And someone had just taken the one person both of them would burn Chicago to protect.
