Chapter 12 - THE MAN WHO WANTED THE THRONE
No one moved.
Matteo held Sofia against his chest.
His pistol rested beneath her jaw.
Bear bared his teeth.
“Call him off,” Matteo said.
Sofia looked at the dog.
“Bear, stay.”
The dog trembled but obeyed.
That child had more control than half the men I employed.
“Let her go,” I said.
Matteo laughed.
“And lose the only advantage I’ve had all night?”
“You’re my brother.”
“That stopped mattering years ago.”
“Not to me.”
His eyes flickered.
Small.
Almost invisible.
But real.
“Don’t,” he said.
“Don’t what?”
“Pretend this is about family.”
“What is it about?”
“You.”
The word echoed.
“All of this has always been about you.”
I stared at him.
Matteo’s gun remained steady.
“Father chose you.”
“Because I was older.”
“No.”
“You were better.”
Bitterness filled his voice.
“Stronger. Smarter. Colder when necessary. Even Mother watched you differently.”
Maria stepped forward.
“I loved you both.”
Matteo laughed.
“Please.”
Sofia looked up at him.
“Why are you so mad?”
Everyone froze.
Matteo looked down.
The absurdity of an eight-year-old questioning him seemed to confuse him.
“What?”
“You have money.”
Silence.
“You have a nice suit.”
Gabriel coughed to hide something.
“You have a family.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
“Had.”
Sofia studied him.
“So you’re doing all this because Nico got more attention?”
I almost smiled.
Matteo looked offended.
“This is more complicated than that.”
“That means yes.”
Elena made a sound somewhere between a sob and laugh.
Even Maria looked amused.
Matteo tightened his hold.
“Enough.”
Sofia winced.
My amusement vanished.
“You hurt her and there is nowhere on earth you can hide.”
His gaze returned to me.
“There. That.”
“What?”
“That certainty.”
He shook his head.
“You always speak like the world eventually becomes what you decide.”
“Usually.”
“Exactly.”
The timer reached fifty-five minutes.
Matteo looked toward the terminal.
“Sofia stops the release.”
“No.”
“She does, or—”
“Or what?”
I stepped closer.
“You kill her?”
“Yes.”
“No, you don’t.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think you know me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s your mistake.”
“No.”
I kept walking.
“You had chances.”
“Stop.”
“When Elena disappeared, you could have killed Sofia.”
“Stop.”
“When Gabriel faked his death, you could have found her.”
“Nico.”
“When she came to my house tonight, Anthony could have killed her.”
“Stop moving!”
“You don’t want her dead.”
I was close enough now to see sweat at his temple.
“You want the trust.”
“Yes.”
“You want the empire.”
“Yes.”
“You want to beat me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“But killing an eight-year-old?”
I shook my head.
“That isn’t you.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I changed your diapers.”
That shocked him.
“What?”
“You cried when Father drowned your dog.”
Matteo’s expression broke.
No one else knew that.
“He said weakness needed to be removed.”
Matteo swallowed.
“You slept in my room for three months afterward.”
“Shut up.”
“You were seven.”
“Shut up.”
“You kept the dog’s collar under your pillow.”
His gun began shaking.
Sofia looked at him.
“You had a dog?”
Matteo’s eyes filled.
I continued.
“Father taught you love was weakness.”
“Nico.”
“He taught both of us.”
“Stop.”
“But he was wrong.”
Matteo looked at Sofia.
For one second, his grip loosened.
Bear moved.
Fast.
He lunged and struck Matteo’s knees.
Sofia dropped.
I fired.
The bullet hit Matteo’s shoulder.
Gabriel pulled Sofia away.
Matteo fell against the terminal.
Maria kicked the gun from his hand.
Luca, who had entered quietly during the standoff, pinned him to the floor.
Sofia ran to me.
I caught her.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Matteo.
“I think Bear is.”
The dog stood over my brother growling.
“Bear.”
He returned to Sofia.
Matteo laughed from the floor.
Blood ran down his arm.
“You always win.”
I looked at him.
“This isn’t winning.”
The timer reached fifty-two minutes.
Daniel groaned.
Alive.
His wound was high chest.
Elena applied pressure.
Gabriel checked the terminal.
“We still need to decide about the release.”
Maria stood beside him.
“If the files go public, every compromised person becomes exposed.”
“Good,” Elena said.
“No.”
Maria shook her head.
“Some of them are intelligence assets. Some are judges handling active cases. Some are witnesses. The archive doesn’t distinguish guilt from coercion.”
“So we stop it?”
“That protects the guilty too.”
Of course.
Richard Bell had designed a weapon with no clean outcome.
Sofia looked at the screen.
“What happens if I do nothing?”
Maria answered.
“Bad people get exposed.”
“And good people?”
“Some could be hurt.”
“What happens if I stop it?”
“Bad people remain hidden.”
Sofia frowned.
“Those are terrible choices.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Grandpa make me choose?”
Maria did not have an answer.
I did.
“He didn’t.”
Everyone looked at me.
“He expected adults to be standing here with you.”
I crouched.
“You don’t decide this alone.”
Sofia’s shoulders relaxed.
That mattered.
Children should not carry adult sins.
I turned to Evelyn Shaw’s number.
Luca stopped me.
“Federal leak.”
“I know.”
“Then who?”
I looked at Gabriel.
“There has to be someone outside the network.”
Gabriel thought.
“International.”
Maria nodded.
“Richard trusted Interpol liaison Anna Keller.”
“On the list?”
“No.”
I called Evelyn anyway.
When she answered, I said one sentence.
“Find Anna Keller. Now.”
She paused.
“How do you know that name?”
“Can you?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
Twenty minutes later, Anna Keller joined through encrypted video.
German-born.
Former Europol financial crimes investigator.
Richard Bell’s longtime legal security consultant.
She reviewed the archive protocol.
“Do not stop the release,” she said.
Maria frowned.
“Why?”
“Because it doesn’t release publicly.”
“What?”
Keller shared a technical diagram.
“The warning language is deliberately vague. Files are distributed to seven independent law-enforcement and journalistic custodians.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Richard didn’t trust any one institution.”
“Correct.”
“And the innocent?”
“Identities flagged as coerced witnesses are encrypted separately.”
Maria stared at the screen.
“He never told me.”
“Perhaps he did not trust you either.”
That landed.
The timer showed twenty-eight minutes.
Matteo laughed from his chair where Luca had restrained him.
“You think this ends everything?”
I looked at him.
“What else?”
He smiled.
“Ask Keller about Project Monarch.”
Anna Keller went silent.
There.
Another secret.
“What is Project Monarch?” I asked.
She did not answer immediately.
Then:
“A contingency Richard Bell created after Sofia’s birth.”
“What kind of contingency?”
“If Bellweather ever fell under criminal control, ownership would automatically transfer.”
“To whom?”
Keller looked at Sofia.
“To Sofia’s biological father.”
Everyone turned toward me.
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Luca laughed once in disbelief.
Maria whispered, “Richard…”
Keller continued.
“Upon Sofia’s biometric confirmation and verified paternity, Nicolas Moretti becomes temporary trustee until Sofia reaches twenty-five.”
I almost laughed.
Six hundred million dollars.
Ports.
Companies.
Properties.
Control of half the infrastructure in the state.
I wanted none of it.
Matteo stared at me.
His face collapsed.
Even this.
Even after everything.
Richard Bell had chosen me.
The timer reached zero.
The screen went black.
Then one line appeared.
ARCHIVE DISTRIBUTED.
Across the country, phones began ringing.
Careers ended.
Investigations began.
Men who believed themselves untouchable learned otherwise.
And my phone received one final message from Richard Bell’s automated system.
VIDEO MESSAGE AVAILABLE FOR NICOLAS MORETTI.
I opened it.
An old man appeared.
Richard Bell.
Elena’s father.
Sofia’s grandfather.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Nico, if you are watching this, then I am dead.”
He coughed.
“And if Sofia is alive, then you have already done the one thing I was never certain you could do.”
“What?” Sofia whispered.
Richard Bell smiled from the screen.
“You chose her over power.”
Then his expression darkened.
“Now comes the harder part.”
He leaned toward the camera.
“Someone murdered me.”
Elena froze.
Richard continued.
“And the person who did it is standing in the room with you.”
The video ended.
No one moved.
Eight adults.
One child.
May you like
One wounded dog.
And a murderer among us.
