Chapter 4 - MIGUEL’S LAST MESSAGE
Rosa watched Miguel’s recording three times.
The first time as a widow.
The second as a mother.
The third as a witness.
Each time, she noticed something different.
His dirty work jacket.
The cut on his thumb.
The way he kept glancing toward the construction trailer door.
The fear.
Miguel Delgado had always been bad at hiding fear from Rosa.
On the screen, he lowered his voice.
“They’re moving containers through the site at night.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“What containers?”
Miguel answered as if he had heard him eighteen months in advance.
“Shipping containers marked as construction equipment.”
He held up photographs.
Inside were crates.
Weapons.
Cash.
Documents.
Alessandro’s eyes narrowed.
None of it had been authorized by him.
Miguel continued.
“Luca is using Moretti manifests. He’s changing container numbers after midnight. Duca trucks pick everything up.”
Vivian’s family.
Rosa looked toward Alessandro.
He had gone completely still.
Miguel swallowed.
“I copied what I could.”
Another file appeared.
Ledgers.
Payments.
Names.
One repeated more than any other.
L. ROMANO.
A second set of initials:
V.D.
Then a third.
C.D.
“Carlo Duca,” Alessandro said.
Vivian’s father.
Miguel continued.
“I tried calling Moretti headquarters.”
Alessandro’s breathing changed.
Rosa looked at him.
Miguel said, “The secretary transferred me to Romano because the site is his division.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
He had tried to warn Alessandro.
And the warning had gone directly to the man he feared.
Miguel’s video shook.
“If I don’t come home, Rosa, take Lily and leave.”
Rosa covered her face.
On-screen, Miguel smiled weakly.
“Kiss my girl for me.”
Lily did not understand the spoken words.
But she saw her father.
She moved toward the monitor.
Her small hands touched the screen.
Daddy.
Rosa made a broken sound.
Lily remembered him only in fragments.
Pictures.
Hopper.
The way he bounced her on one knee.
Now Miguel was alive again for sixty-two seconds.
Rosa knelt and held her.
Alessandro looked away.
The recording continued.
“There’s one more thing.”
Everyone turned back.
Miguel held the camera closer.
“Luca keeps saying Alessandro won’t matter much longer.”
Alessandro’s face changed.
“He said once Vivian gets close enough, everything changes.”
The file ended.
Silence filled the room.
Rosa wiped her face.
“So Miguel died because he saw them.”
Gabriel said carefully, “We don’t know exactly what happened.”
“I do.”
Rosa’s eyes flashed.
“They said he fell.”
“Rosa—”
“They brought me a closed coffin.”
Her voice rose.
“They told me his body was too damaged.”
Lily startled.
Rosa immediately lowered her voice and signed.
Mommy okay.
It was another lie adults told children because the truth had teeth.
Alessandro crouched near Lily.
He signed.
Your daddy was brave.
Lily stared at him.
You knew Daddy?
No.
Then she asked:
Scar man knew Daddy?
Alessandro’s throat tightened.
Yes.
Lily looked at Hopper’s torn body on the floor.
Her expression became furious.
Bad scar man.
Rosa almost laughed through tears.
“Very bad.”
Gabriel copied the memory card using an offline evidence protocol.
Alessandro insisted the original remain with Rosa.
Again, she was surprised.
Again, he noticed.
“You keep expecting me to take things from you.”
Rosa looked down.
“Men with power usually call it protecting.”
That sentence stayed with him.
At 2:17 in the morning, Alessandro asked for Luca.
Not to confront him.
To watch him.
They met in the downstairs library.
Luca entered carrying two glasses of water.
Alessandro nearly smiled at the irony.
“Doctor says you’ll be fine.”
“So I’m told.”
Luca handed him one glass.
Alessandro did not touch it.
Luca noticed.
“Careful now?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Luca sat.
“Vivian?”
“Upset.”
“You suspect her?”
Alessandro looked at him.
“Should I?”
Luca spread his hands.
“She gave you the wine.”
There it was.
So easy.
Luca was already giving Vivian away.
Alessandro asked, “Would she poison me?”
Luca looked pained.
“I don’t want to believe it.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Alessandro leaned back.
“Why?”
“Her father.”
“Carlo?”
“Maybe the alliance was never real.”
Luca’s voice became softer.
“You know I warned you about the Ducas.”
Another lie.
Luca had encouraged the engagement.
Alessandro remembered.
Peace is cheaper than war, brother.
Vivian is disciplined.
She understands our world.
Luca continued.
“We should secure her immediately.”
“We?”
Luca smiled.
“Always.”
Always.
The word hurt.
Alessandro almost preferred the poison.
Then Luca said, “What did the little girl see?”
Alessandro’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“Rosa’s kid.”
“How do you know she saw anything?”
Luca hesitated.
Only a fraction.
“She was on the terrace with you.”
“So?”
“You don’t sign to random children for fun.”
Alessandro stared.
Luca smiled slightly.
“You forget I knew Bianca.”
No.
Alessandro had not forgotten.
That made it worse.
“What did she tell you?” Luca asked.
“Nothing useful.”
Luca relaxed.
Barely.
Alessandro saw.
Then his phone vibrated.
Gabriel.
One message.
WE FOUND MIGUEL’S ORIGINAL SITE REPORT.
Alessandro stood.
“Get some sleep.”
Luca laughed.
“In your house tonight?”
“You’ve slept through worse.”
“That’s true.”
Luca left.
Alessandro waited until the door closed.
Then opened Gabriel’s report.
Miguel Delgado’s accident paperwork claimed he had fallen from the ninth floor at 11:42 p.m.
But building-access logs showed Miguel’s badge entered the basement at 11:51.
Nine minutes after he supposedly died.
Rosa read over Alessandro’s shoulder.
“That’s impossible.”
“Unless the report was created before whatever actually happened.”
Gabriel added:
“And there’s no hospital intake record.”
Rosa stared.
“What?”
“No ambulance record either.”
“But they said—”
“The death certificate came through a private physician.”
“Who?”
Gabriel turned the page.
Dr. Stephen Vale.
Alessandro knew the name.
Vale had treated Luca after the Queens shooting years earlier.
Rosa whispered, “So where was Miguel’s body?”
Nobody answered.
Then a security alarm sounded.
Not the outer gate.
The wine cellar.
Gabriel touched his earpiece.
“What happened?”
A guard answered.
“Cellar service exit forced.”
Alessandro stood.
“Who?”
Static.
Then:
“Mr. Romano.”
Rosa went cold.
Luca had realized.
Maybe from Alessandro’s questions.
Maybe from the missing memory card.
Maybe because traitors eventually learned to recognize suspicion in people they had betrayed.
Gabriel ran toward the hallway.
Alessandro followed.
Rosa grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
He turned.
She held up her phone.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
ONE COPY. MIDNIGHT TOMORROW. COME ALONE.
Below it:
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE MIGUEL REALLY IS.
Rosa stopped breathing.
Alessandro read it twice.
Then another message appeared.
A photograph.
Miguel’s wedding ring resting on a dirty concrete floor.
Rosa whispered his name.
Alessandro looked toward the dark service corridor where Luca had escaped.
The man he had once called brother had already taken her husband.
Now he was trying to use a dead man’s memory to pull Rosa into the dark.
Alessandro’s voice became cold.
“He doesn’t get you alone.”
Rosa looked at him.
“He may know where Miguel is.”
“I know.”
“I need to know.”
“I know.”
Her eyes filled with anger.
“Then don’t tell me I can’t go.”
Alessandro paused.
Old instinct demanded an order.
No.
Stay here.
I’ll handle it.
Instead he said:
“Then we make sure you come back.”
Rosa stared.
May you like
That was the first moment she understood Alessandro Moretti might be dangerous without needing to make everyone around him powerless.
And somewhere outside the gates, Luca Romano was about to learn that the people he had underestimated had started comparing their pieces of the truth.
