Chapter 5 - THE FIRST MOVE
By midnight, Moretti Estate looked less like a mansion and more like a fortress.
Vehicles blocked both gates.
Security teams walked the perimeter.
Exterior cameras were checked twice.
Nobody entered without authorization.
Nobody left alone.
Elena hated every second of it.
“This is exactly why I stayed away.”
She stood in Dominic’s kitchen wearing one of Rosa’s sweaters while Lily slept upstairs.
Dominic poured coffee.
“You stayed away because someone forged a letter.”
“And because men are outside your house carrying guns.”
“They were carrying guns yesterday too.”
“That isn’t comforting.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Dominic, Lily is six.”
“I know.”
“She should be worrying about spelling tests.”
“I know.”
“Not whether somebody is photographing her through a gate.”
Dominic put the cup down.
“I know.”
The third answer sounded different.
Elena’s anger softened.
Dominic looked tired.
Not physically.
Somewhere deeper.
“She’s been in danger because of me since before she was born,” he said.
“No.”
“My family threatened you because of me.”
“Your family made choices.”
“My name created the opportunity.”
“Stop.”
He looked at her.
“You don’t get to turn guilt into some dramatic punishment where you decide Lily would be safer if you disappeared.”
Dominic said nothing.
“I know that look.”
“You haven’t seen me in seven years.”
“I still know that look.”
Despite everything, that nearly destroyed him.
Elena stepped closer.
“She wanted you before she knew you were her father.”
Dominic’s brow furrowed.
“She walked into your building because she believed you could fix something.”
“She thought I fired you.”
“She still trusted you enough to ask why.”
Elena looked toward the staircase.
“Don’t make her regret it.”
Dominic nodded once.
“I won’t.”
At seven the next morning, Marco entered carrying bad news.
“The photographer got away.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“How?”
“Vehicle had stolen plates. Cameras picked him up two miles west, then nothing.”
“Adrian?”
“No proof.”
“There will be.”
Marco placed another folder down.
“We found something else.”
Elena joined them.
Marco opened several employee records.
“Two Bellmont managers involved in Elena’s firing resigned yesterday.”
“Names?”
“Patrick Sloan and Melanie Price.”
Elena recognized both.
“Patrick was my supervisor.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
“Define gone,” Dominic said.
“Apartment empty. Phone disconnected. Car abandoned at Newark Airport.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
“And Price?”
“Lawyered up.”
“Smart.”
“She’s asking for protection.”
That caught everyone’s attention.
“From whom?”
“She won’t say unless she speaks directly to Dominic.”
“Bring her.”
Two hours later Melanie Price sat inside Moretti Plaza’s private conference room looking like she had not slept.
She was forty-five, immaculately dressed, and terrified.
Dominic sat across from her.
Elena remained beside Marco.
Melanie looked at Elena.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena’s face stayed cold.
“For firing me?”
“For everything.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Start talking.”
Melanie swallowed.
“Mr. Moretti, I was told Ms. Carter was stealing confidential records.”
“By whom?”
“Mr. Adrian Moretti.”
Dominic’s face revealed nothing.
“He instructed me to process an immediate termination.”
“Using my signature?”
“He sent the document completed.”
“Did you believe I authorized it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said you didn’t want questions.”
Convenient.
“What about Patrick Sloan?”
“He knew more.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
Fear trembled in her voice.
“He met with Adrian several times. After Ms. Carter started looking into Westerly, Patrick told us to block her access.”
Elena spoke.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Melanie looked ashamed.
“I have two children.”
“So do people you helped hurt.”
“I know.”
Dominic raised a hand.
Elena stopped.
“What else?” he asked.
Melanie hesitated.
“Patrick mentioned something strange.”
“What?”
“He said Adrian had dealt with Ms. Carter before.”
Silence.
Elena’s face drained.
“When?”
“He didn’t say. He called you ‘unfinished business.’”
Dominic’s voice became ice.
“Anything else?”
Melanie reached into her purse slowly.
Marco’s hand moved beneath his jacket.
She noticed.
“It’s just a flash drive.”
She placed it on the table.
“Patrick kept copies of payment schedules.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against Adrian?”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Check it on an isolated machine.”
Marco nodded.
Melanie whispered, “There was one more thing.”
Dominic waited.
“Patrick said Adrian wasn’t stealing because he wanted to be richer.”
“Why then?”
“He said, ‘By spring, Dominic won’t be chairman anymore.’”
That afternoon the first move came.
Moretti Group stock was privately held, but its banking relationships were not.
Three lenders suddenly requested emergency meetings.
Two board members resigned.
A financial journalist called asking whether Dominic was under federal investigation.
The rumor had been planted.
Adrian was accelerating.
At 4:20 p.m., Dominic received notice of an emergency board meeting scheduled for Monday.
Agenda:
Leadership Stability and Fiduciary Concerns.
Marco read it.
“He’s going after your chair.”
“Yes.”
“You want me to cancel it?”
“No.”
Marco looked up.
“No?”
Dominic buttoned his jacket.
“I want every board member in one room.”
Elena studied him.
“You’re setting a trap.”
“Yes.”
“What are you missing?”
“Proof strong enough to bury him.”
Marco’s secure laptop chimed.
The flash drive had been opened.
Hundreds of spreadsheets.
Vendor payments.
Accounts.
Private share purchases.
Then one encrypted folder.
Marco frowned.
“Need time to crack it.”
“How much?”
“Don’t know.”
Dominic hated those words.
His phone rang.
Security.
He answered.
“What?”
The voice on the other end changed his expression instantly.
“Where?”
Elena stood.
“What happened?”
Dominic did not answer.
He was already moving.
Lily’s school had called.
Although she was supposed to remain at the estate, Elena had insisted Lily attend her school’s Friday winter program through a secured remote classroom arrangement at a nearby Moretti property.
Someone had arrived there.
A man wearing a city child-services badge.
He carried paperwork claiming Elena Carter had been hospitalized and Lily needed to be transferred into emergency custody.
The documents looked real.
The badge looked real.
The man was not.
Security challenged him.
He ran.
They caught him in the parking garage.
When Dominic arrived, the stranger was sitting against a concrete pillar with two guards watching him.
Dominic crouched.
“Who sent you?”
The man stared silently.
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco placed a photograph on the ground.
Adrian Moretti.
The stranger’s eyes flickered.
Enough.
Dominic stood.
“Turn him over to police.”
Marco looked surprised.
Years earlier, that would not have been Dominic’s answer.
The man actually laughed.
“You think cops scare me?”
Dominic looked down.
“No.”
He adjusted his cuff.
“But the federal kidnapping charge might.”
The laughter stopped.
Elena appeared at the garage entrance.
Lily was holding her hand.
Dominic’s anger vanished beneath fear.
“Why is she here?”
“She refused to stay upstairs.”
Lily looked at the man.
Then at Dominic.
“Was he going to take me?”
Nobody answered.
Her lower lip trembled.
Dominic crossed the distance immediately.
He crouched.
“No one is taking you.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
“Even the bad men?”
Dominic looked directly into his daughter’s gray eyes.
“Especially them.”
She suddenly wrapped both arms around his neck.
Dominic froze.
Lily held tighter.
It took him three seconds to understand what to do.
Then his arms closed around her.
Elena watched.
So did Marco.
For the first time in his life, Dominic Moretti understood that fear could feel exactly like love when you had something worth losing.
His phone vibrated.
Marco checked the message first.
The encrypted folder had been opened.
Inside were scanned documents going back seven years.
One was Elena’s forged breakup letter.
Another was the current termination letter.
And both files had been created from the same source template.
A template stored under one employee account.
May you like
ADRIAN MORETTI.
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