Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE SECURITY ROOM
The darkness lasted four seconds.
But four seconds was enough.
Luca heard a chair scrape.
Then glass breaking.
Then Isabella screamed.
"Ma!"
Luca lunged toward the sound.
His hands found his mother's shoulders.
"Stay with me."
A gunshot exploded somewhere downstairs.
Everyone froze.
Another shot followed.
His security men immediately drew their weapons.
"Nobody moves," Luca ordered.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Dim red illumination filled the hallway.
Naomi looked toward Vivian.
The woman who had been crying moments earlier was gone.
Luca noticed too.
"Where is she?"
A guard pointed toward the eastern corridor.
"She ran."
Luca's expression became murderous.
"Lock the mansion."
Every door slammed shut.
The security system activated.
Then the alarms began.
Naomi hurried toward Isabella.
"Mrs. Moretti?"
Isabella grabbed her hand.
Her eyes were wide.
She pointed toward the floor.
Naomi followed her finger.
Under the piano bench was a small trail of blood.
Not Isabella's.
Someone had been injured.
Luca saw it.
"Nobody leaves."
He turned toward his security chief.
"Find Vivian."
Three men disappeared into the corridor.
Luca looked at Naomi.
"You."
She straightened.
"Me?"
"What happened before I arrived?"
Naomi explained everything.
The locked room.
The documents.
The forced fingerprint.
The slap.
The phone.
The hidden box.
Luca listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he looked at Isabella.
"Ma, did Vivian ever bring anyone into this house?"
Isabella hesitated.
Then nodded.
"How many?"
Isabella raised two fingers.
"Two?"
She nodded again.
Luca's face tightened.
"Men?"
Another nod.
"When?"
Isabella pointed toward the clock.
Then toward the basement.
Naomi understood first.
"At night?"
Isabella nodded.
Luca turned to his security chief.
"Pull every camera recording from the last eight months."
The man hesitated.
"Boss, the internal system was replaced six months ago."
Luca stared at him.
"By whom?"
"We were told Vivian arranged it."
Silence.
Luca looked toward the security room.
"Take me there."
Naomi followed.
The security room was hidden behind a bookshelf near the servants' corridor.
Luca entered.
Monitors covered the wall.
Half the screens were black.
His security chief sat at the console.
"Someone wiped the archives."
"Everything?"
"Almost."
"Almost?"
He pointed toward a separate drive.
"This system stores motion-triggered backups."
He opened the folder.
Hundreds of clips appeared.
Luca watched.
A timestamp from three months earlier.
2:13 a.m.
The basement door opened.
Vivian entered.
Behind her came a man wearing a doctor's coat.
Luca leaned closer.
"Zoom in."
The image sharpened.
The man's face appeared.
Luca's expression changed.
He recognized him.
"That's Dr. Harrison."
His security chief shook his head.
"No."
Luca looked at him.
"Why?"
"Dr. Harrison died two years ago."
Naomi covered her mouth.
Luca watched the footage again.
Vivian opened a locked cabinet.
The fake doctor removed several small bottles.
Then Isabella appeared in the doorway.
The footage showed Vivian turning.
The video ended.
Luca stared at the screen.
"Continue."
The next clip began.
Same room.
Two days later.
Vivian stood beside Isabella's wheelchair.
She placed something into a glass of water.
Luca's fist clenched.
"Enhance."
The guard did.
Naomi whispered:
"Is that medicine?"
"No," Luca said.
He knew the difference.
It was something else.
Something his mother had never been prescribed.
Luca's phone rang.
His lawyer.
He answered.
"Speak."
"Mr. Moretti, I received an emergency notice from your mother's estate attorney."
"What notice?"
"Her assets were scheduled for transfer tomorrow morning."
Luca went still.
"Transfer to whom?"
There was a pause.
"An offshore trust."
"Beneficiary?"
"Vivian Cole."
Luca closed his eyes.
Naomi watched him.
"Cancel it."
"I've tried."
"Try harder."
"There's a problem."
"What?"
"The authorization was already approved."
Luca's eyes opened.
"By whom?"
"Your mother."
"Impossible."
"I agree."
"Then someone forged it."
His lawyer lowered his voice.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The trust document names you as the person responsible for executing the transfer."
Luca stared at the screen.
That was the moment he understood.
This wasn't simply about Vivian stealing his mother's money.
It was designed to make Luca appear responsible.
If the transfer happened, the paper trail would lead back to him.
Someone wanted the Moretti family destroyed from inside.
And Vivian wasn't acting alone.
Luca turned toward Naomi.
"Where is the phone?"
"The one you found?"
"Yes."
His security chief handed it over.
Luca unlocked it.
The newest message was still displayed.
THE SON IS HOME. ABORT PHASE TWO.
He scrolled backward.
Hundreds of messages had been deleted.
But the phone's backup hadn't been wiped.
One message remained.
From an unknown number.
When Isabella signs, Luca becomes legally exposed. When Luca is exposed, the council will remove him.
Luca stared.
"The council."
Naomi looked confused.
"Who is the council?"
Nobody answered.
Luca finally spoke.
"Men who have been waiting for me to make one mistake."
His security chief looked uneasy.
"Boss, you don't think—"
"I do."
Another message appeared.
PHASE THREE: MAKE HIM BELIEVE HIS MOTHER BETRAYED HIM.
Luca stopped breathing.
He looked toward the mansion.
His mother had been trying to warn him.
But someone had anticipated that.
They wanted him angry at her.
They wanted him isolated.
They wanted him to believe the person who had raised him was secretly working against him.
Luca's phone rang again.
This time, it was an unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
"You should have stayed at your meeting."
Luca said nothing.
"You were never supposed to come home tonight."
"Who are you?"
A quiet laugh.
"Ask your mother."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"Ask her what happened twenty-eight years ago."
The call ended.
Naomi stared at him.
"What happened twenty-eight years ago?"
Luca didn't answer.
Because he remembered.
Twenty-eight years ago, his father had died.
Officially, it had been a car accident.
Luca had been fifteen.
His mother had never spoken about it.
Never once.
He turned toward the door.
"Bring my mother to the study."
Naomi followed him.
But before they reached the hallway, a guard shouted.
"Boss!"
Everyone turned.
The guard was standing beside the main entrance.
The door was open.
Rain blew across the marble floor.
Vivian was gone.
But she hadn't escaped alone.
Someone had opened the gate from inside.
Luca walked toward the doorway.
On the wet stone outside was a single object.
A gold wedding ring.
Luca recognized it instantly.
It belonged to his father.
His father had been wearing it the night he died.
Luca picked it up.
His hand began to tremble.
For the first time that night, he looked frightened.
Naomi whispered:
"Where did that come from?"
Luca stared into the darkness beyond the gate.
"I don't know."
Then he looked at the ring again.
"But I know who can tell me."
He turned toward his mother.
May you like
And Isabella was already crying.
Because she knew exactly what Luca had just found.
