Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER WHO WANTED THE THRONE
For the first time since Vincent returned to Chicago, Robert Moretti looked surprised.
Vincent noticed immediately.
“You didn’t plan that.”
Robert said nothing.
On the screen, Daniel pressed the gun against Catherine’s temple.
Victoria screamed.
“Daniel!”
Daniel smiled.
“Hello, sister.”
Vincent stared at his younger brother.
“Put the gun down.”
“No.”
Daniel sounded different.
No nervousness.
No weakness.
The frightened gambler had disappeared.
Perhaps he had never existed.
“You fooled me,” Vincent said.
Daniel smiled.
“For years.”
Vincent almost admired it.
Almost.
“You don’t have gambling debts.”
“Oh, I have debts.”
Daniel shrugged.
“Just not the kind you thought.”
Robert shouted toward the screen.
“What are you doing?”
Daniel laughed.
“Replacing you.”
Robert’s face tightened.
There it was.
The fracture Vincent needed.
Daniel had been working with Robert.
But not for him.
“Where’s the ledger?” Daniel asked.
Robert touched his coat.
“Safe.”
“Keys?”
Robert remained silent.
Daniel pressed the gun harder against Catherine.
“Uncle.”
Victoria stared.
“You knew he was alive?”
Daniel looked at her through the screen.
“Of course.”
“You let him use me.”
“You were easy to use.”
Victoria’s face collapsed.
Vincent looked at his sister.
For years she had humiliated Isabella.
Whatever manipulation existed did not erase that.
But now Vincent understood something.
Robert and Daniel had built a machine powered by every weakness in the family.
Catherine’s fear.
Victoria’s jealousy.
Daniel’s resentment.
Vincent’s absence.
And Isabella had been trapped in the middle.
“What do you want?” Vincent asked.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“You really don’t know?”
“No.”
“I want what should have been mine.”
Vincent almost laughed.
“The empire?”
“The family.”
“You have the family.”
“I had your leftovers.”
Daniel stood.
“Do you know what it’s like being Vincent Moretti’s younger brother?”
“No.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Daniel walked behind Catherine.
“Every room I entered, people asked about you. Every deal I made, people wondered whether you approved. Father looked at you and saw his successor.”
His eyes burned.
“He looked at me and saw a child.”
“You were seventeen.”
“I’m not seventeen anymore.”
“Then stop behaving like one.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
He fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside Catherine.
Victoria screamed.
Vincent did not move.
Daniel smiled.
“Still calm.”
“You missed intentionally.”
“For now.”
Robert suddenly turned off the screen.
“Enough.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Your partner is stealing your operation.”
“He’s emotional.”
“He’s ambitious.”
Robert’s eyes narrowed.
Vincent continued.
“And he has my mansion.”
Robert understood.
Daniel controlled the central Moretti network.
Accounts.
Communications.
Perhaps men.
Robert had the keys but Daniel possessed infrastructure.
Neither could win without the other.
Vincent could use that.
“You need me,” Vincent said.
Robert laughed.
“For what?”
“To survive Daniel.”
Robert raised his gun.
“I survived Antonio.”
“Barely.”
Silence.
Vincent stepped closer.
“Daniel knows you have the keys. The moment you unlock whatever Father hid, you become unnecessary.”
Robert’s expression changed.
“You think I haven’t considered that?”
“I think you underestimated him because everybody did.”
That landed.
Vincent had underestimated Daniel too.
Robert looked toward Isabella.
“Bring her.”
Vincent’s body tightened.
“No.”
“She’s coming.”
“Why?”
“Because Antonio designed the system around her.”
Isabella stared.
“What system?”
Robert smiled.
“You’ll see.”
They traveled beneath the warehouse through a tunnel Vincent had never known existed.
At the end stood an underground vault.
Antonio’s vault.
Robert inserted the brass key.
Then Isabella’s ring key.
Nothing happened.
“Fingerprint,” Samuel said.
Robert looked at Isabella.
“Antonio’s favorite insurance policy.”
Isabella placed her hand against the scanner.
Green light.
The vault opened.
Inside was not gold.
Not cash.
Not weapons.
Servers.
Rows of them.
A private archive.
Vincent entered slowly.
Antonio had preserved everything.
Transactions.
Recordings.
Names.
Robert approached the central terminal.
A message appeared.
IDENTITY REQUIRED.
Robert entered his name.
Denied.
Vincent tried.
Accepted.
Robert stared.
The next screen:
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED: ISABELLA MORETTI.
Vincent looked at her.
She touched the scanner.
Accepted.
A video appeared.
Antonio Moretti sat behind his desk.
Older.
Tired.
Alive again, at least on screen.
Vincent stopped breathing.
“If you are seeing this,” Antonio said, “then I failed.”
Nobody moved.
“Vincent, I imagine you are angry.”
Vincent almost smiled.
His father knew him.
“Do not let anger make your decision.”
Antonio leaned closer.
“Crown is not an organization.”
Robert’s face changed.
“It is a system.”
Files began appearing.
Judges.
Police.
Corporations.
Politicians.
Criminal groups.
“Robert believed he created Crown.”
Antonio continued.
“He did not. He inherited something older and more dangerous.”
Robert whispered, “Liar.”
Antonio’s recording continued.
“The ledger is not a record of our crimes.”
Vincent stared.
“It is a record of everyone Crown controls.”
Thousands of names appeared.
Samuel sat down.
“My God.”
Antonio continued.
“With this archive, you can destroy Crown.”
Robert raised his gun.
“No.”
Vincent looked at him.
Robert aimed at the servers.
“You destroy Crown, you destroy half this city.”
“No,” Vincent said.
“We free it.”
Robert laughed.
“You sound like a hero.”
“I’m not.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“But I know what happens to men who think fear makes them kings.”
Robert fired.
The bullet struck a server.
Sparks exploded.
Michael tackled him.
Gunfire erupted.
Victoria screamed.
Samuel pulled Isabella behind a console.
Vincent fought Robert for the weapon.
Then every screen went black.
A countdown appeared.
DATA PURGE INITIATED.
10:00.
9:59.
9:58.
Robert laughed from the floor.
“Daniel.”
Vincent stared.
Daniel had remotely activated a purge.
Samuel rushed toward the terminal.
“He’ll erase everything!”
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe.”
9:41.
Michael restrained Robert.
Isabella looked at Antonio’s video.
“There’s another message.”
Vincent turned.
A final line appeared.
IF THE ARCHIVE IS COMPROMISED, ISABELLA KNOWS WHERE THE TRUE COPY IS.
Everyone looked at her.
Isabella shook her head.
“I don’t.”
Robert began laughing.
“Antonio trusted her even more than I thought.”
Vincent stared at his wife.
Then Isabella suddenly remembered.
Her face went white.
“The song.”
“What song?”
“The song Antonio played at our wedding.”
Vincent frowned.
Isabella looked at him.
“It wasn’t a song.”
She grabbed his hand.
“It was a code.”
Before she could explain, Michael shouted.
“Vincent!”
Robert had escaped his grip.
He raised the gun.
May you like
The shot echoed through the vault.
And Isabella fell into Vincent’s arms.
