Chapter 9 - The Lie Hidden in the Camera
Dante did not react the way Aria expected.
He did not shout.
He became silent.
That silence moved through the house like a blade.
“Nico, search the perimeter,” he ordered. “No one shoots unless they see a weapon.”
Nico left with two guards.
Dante examined the open back door. No lock had been forced. No alarm had sounded.
Aria looked at the message on the table.
“Lucia would never write this.”
“You have known her for two days.”
“And you have known her your whole life.”
Dante glanced at her.
“Do you believe she betrayed you?” Aria asked.
“I believe evidence before sentiment.”
“That sounds like something my father would say.”
The words hit harder than she intended.
Dante’s expression closed.
Aria stepped closer.
“Victor makes evidence. He creates photographs, recordings, medical reports, and witness statements. Then he tells people the truth is whatever survives on paper.”
Dante looked at the security image again.
The face was Lucia’s.
But the body seemed wrong.
“Play the footage,” Aria said.
Nico’s technician connected remotely and displayed the recording on the television.
The hooded figure entered the control room at 5:12 p.m. The person disabled two exterior cameras, inserted a device into the central console, and left.
“Slow it down,” Aria said.
The technician reduced the speed.
“Stop.”
The image froze as the figure reached toward the console.
“Lucia wore a ring at the gala,” Aria said.
Dante remembered it. A thin gold band from their mother.
The person in the video wore no ring.
“She could have removed it,” the technician said.
“Look at the wrist.”
A small tattoo appeared beneath the sleeve.
Three black lines.
Dante recognized it immediately.
Dominic Vale’s private security unit used the mark to identify senior members during covert operations.
“Lucia has no tattoo,” he said.
Nico’s voice came through the radio.
“We found her.”
They rushed to the garage.
Lucia lay unconscious inside the trunk of a supply vehicle. Her wrists were bound, and a bruise darkened her temple.
Dr. Park examined her.
“She has been sedated. She should recover.”
Dante crouched beside his sister.
For one second, the feared leader disappeared. He was simply a brother staring at the only family he trusted.
Aria touched his uninjured shoulder.
He looked up.
“The image was altered,” she said. “Dominic’s people used her face.”
Dante’s expression hardened again.
“Where is the drive?”
Nico approached holding a phone recovered from beneath the vehicle.
“One outgoing call was made ten minutes ago.”
“To whom?”
“Victor Sterling.”
The phone rang in Nico’s hand.
Dante answered.
Dominic Vale’s voice came through.
“You should have honored the treaty.”
Dante rose slowly. “Where are you?”
“Beyond your reach.”
“You attacked my sister.”
“I protected the organization you are destroying.”
“By working with Sterling?”
“By preventing you from sacrificing decades of power for a frightened girl.”
Aria heard every word.
Dante looked at her.
“She has a name,” he said.
Dominic laughed. “That is exactly the problem. Three days ago, she was currency. Now she is Aria.”
“What do you want?”
“The copy of Catherine Sterling’s files.”
“You took the drive.”
“A partial copy. Lucia transferred most of it before we reached the house.”
Dante glanced at the laptop.
The secure upload had completed.
“What makes you think I will give it to you?”
A second voice sounded through the phone.
Elena screamed.
Aria ran toward the stairs.
Elena’s bedroom was empty.
The window stood open.
A guard lay unconscious beneath it.
Dominic had used Lucia’s disappearance to pull everyone downstairs.
“Bring the files to Pier Forty-One tomorrow at midnight,” Dominic said. “No police. No federal agents. No army.”
“If you hurt her—”
“You will do what? Kill me? You have killed better men for smaller betrayals.”
The line disconnected.
Aria stood in Elena’s room, gripping the phone so hard her nails cut into her palm.
“This is my fault.”
Dante took the phone from her.
“No.”
“I told her she was safe.”
“So did I.”
“You should have left us with Victor.”
Dante’s eyes flashed. “Never say that.”
“People around you are being hurt because of me.”
“People are being hurt because Victor and Dominic chose to hurt them.”
She turned away.
Dante moved into her path without touching her.
“Look at me.”
Aria raised her eyes.
“I will not allow you to carry guilt that belongs to cruel men.”
Tears burned behind her eyes.
“What if we can’t reach Elena this time?”
“We will.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No,” he said. “I do not.”
His honesty terrified her.
Then Dante held out his hand.
“We need a plan.”
Aria stared at his open palm.
“What plan?”
“Dominic knows my methods. He expects force.”
“He knows mine too. He expects fear.”
“Then we give him neither.”
Lucia regained consciousness an hour later.
She remembered a trusted guard bringing her a message from Dante. When she entered the garage, someone struck her from behind.
“The guard?” Nico asked.
“Samuel Kerr.”
Nico’s face darkened.
Kerr had served the Rossi family for eighteen years. He had protected Dante and Lucia after their mother’s death.
Dante turned toward the window.
Dominic had not recruited desperate outsiders.
He had turned family history into a weapon.
Lucia looked at Aria.
“The files reached Judge Hale before they took the drive.”
“Judge Hale has them?”
“And she responded.”
Lucia opened the secure message on the laptop.
Margaret Hale had written one sentence.
Catherine prepared for this night. Bring both daughters to the old federal courthouse at noon.
Aria stared at the screen.
“Why the courthouse?”
Lucia opened an attached audio file.
Catherine Sterling’s voice filled the room.
“If Victor is still alive when you hear this, trust no institution he controls. Trust Margaret. Trust my daughters. And never trust Enzo Rossi.”
Everyone turned toward Dante.
Enzo Rossi had been Dante’s uncle.
He had also been dead for eight years.
Dominic had served under him.
Dante replayed the final sentence.
Aria watched the color leave his face.
“What did Enzo do?” she asked.
Dante closed the laptop.
“I don’t know.”
But the answer was written in his eyes.
May you like
He feared Enzo Rossi had done more than work with Victor.
He feared the Rossi family had helped murder Catherine Sterling.
