Chapter 9 - BENEATH EVELYN'S GRAVE
Carlo survived surgery.
Barely.
The bullet had missed his heart by less than an inch and damaged a lung.
Sebastian sat beside his hospital bed until sunrise.
He had spent eleven years believing his father dead.
Now he had nearly watched him die for real.
The difference was cruel.
Carlo woke shortly after six.
“You look terrible.”
Sebastian stared.
“You got shot.”
“I’ve looked worse.”
“You’ve been dead for eleven years. Your standards are unreliable.”
Carlo smiled weakly.
For a moment, they were father and son instead of two men separated by secrets.
Then Sebastian remembered everything.
The spying.
Anthony.
Daniel.
Elena.
Maria.
“Why did you hide the fifth recording in Mom’s grave?”
Carlo’s smile vanished.
“I didn’t.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Evelyn told me before I disappeared.”
“When?”
“Two days before the explosion.”
Sebastian looked away.
“You saw her after she supposedly stopped speaking to you.”
“Yes.”
“More lies.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
Sebastian almost preferred it.
“What’s on the recording?”
“I never heard it.”
“Then why hide it there?”
“She said dead people were the only Morettis nobody interrogated.”
Sebastian gave a humorless laugh.
That sounded exactly like Evelyn.
By eight that morning, Sebastian stood at the Moretti family cemetery.
Maria came with him.
He had told her not to.
She ignored him.
He was beginning to realize he liked that about her.
Daniel remained with Lucy.
Thomas stayed beside Anthony, who was processing the discovery that the father he had wondered about all his life had been sitting ten feet away from him for days.
Michael was in federal custody.
Vale had been charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, obstruction, fraud, and several older crimes Donovan believed they could now prove.
Rebecca remained a cooperating witness.
Sebastian had not spoken to her again.
At Evelyn’s grave, a groundskeeper removed a narrow side panel hidden in the stone base.
Inside sat a sealed metal container.
Maria looked at Sebastian.
“Your mother planned everything.”
“Except telling me.”
“She may have been trying to protect you.”
“That sentence has ruined enough lives.”
Maria nodded.
“You’re right.”
No defense of Evelyn.
No softening.
Sebastian appreciated it.
Inside the container were photographs, legal documents, and a small recorder.
They played it inside the cemetery chapel.
Evelyn’s voice began.
“If this message is being heard, then every person I tried to protect has probably learned that protection through silence becomes another kind of harm.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
Finally.
Someone admitted it.
“Thomas’s surviving son was placed with Frank and Susan DeLuca. They named him Anthony.”
Maria squeezed Sebastian’s hand unconsciously.
Neither noticed immediately.
Evelyn continued.
“Carlo’s baby, Gabriel, died during the Mercy evacuation. Jonathan Vale could have helped him sooner. Whether that would have saved the infant, I will never know.”
Then came something neither expected.
“Michael Vale was at Mercy that night.”
Sebastian frowned.
Michael would have been an infant himself.
“He was Jonathan’s eight-month-old son. Jonathan brought him because his wife had left him.”
Maria whispered, “So Michael was actually there.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn continued.
“When Gabriel died, Jonathan began making irrational claims. He told Elena he could replace one child with another. She believed he intended to switch Michael into the Moretti family.”
Sebastian’s blood ran cold.
Vale had tried to turn his own baby into a Moretti heir.
“He failed. Elena escaped with evidence. Michael remained Jonathan’s son, but Jonathan spent years telling him a Moretti child had stolen his destiny.”
That explained everything.
Michael hadn’t invented the grievance.
His father had planted it from infancy.
Evelyn’s voice continued.
“Giovanni Moretti ordered Daniel framed. I helped conceal evidence because he threatened Sebastian and my younger son, Nicholas.”
Sebastian sat forward.
Nicholas.
His younger brother.
Missing for seventeen years.
The family believed Nicholas had been killed after disappearing during a trip to Miami.
No body.
Another disappearance.
Sebastian suddenly felt sick.
“My brother.”
Maria looked at him.
Evelyn continued.
“If Sebastian ever hears this, there is something he must know about Nicholas.”
Sebastian stopped breathing.
“Nicholas discovered the remaining Mercy network before Carlo did.”
A long pause.
“He did not die.”
Sebastian stood.
Maria stared.
“Nicholas is alive?”
The recording continued.
“I arranged his disappearance.”
Sebastian laughed once in disbelief.
Another dead man who wasn’t dead.
“Where?”
Evelyn answered.
“Do not search for him unless the Mercy network resurfaces. If it does, contact Father Matthew Delaney at St. Agnes Parish in Boston. He will know how to reach Nicholas.”
Sebastian was already grabbing his phone.
St. Agnes confirmed Father Delaney still served there.
Donovan arranged federal transport.
But Sebastian refused to wait.
By evening he was on a plane to Boston with Maria.
“You didn’t have to come,” he told her.
“You say that often.”
“You ignore it often.”
“I’ve worked for your family nineteen years. Ignoring Moretti men is a survival skill.”
He looked at her.
She smiled slightly.
It was the first light moment either had experienced in days.
At St. Agnes, Father Delaney was seventy-six.
When Sebastian gave his name, the priest closed his eyes.
“I knew this day would come.”
“Where is Nicholas?”
“He’s here.”
Sebastian’s heartbeat changed.
“Here?”
The priest led them through a courtyard.
A man stood repairing a wooden bench beneath an oak tree.
He was thirty-seven now.
Older.
Lean.
A scar crossed his chin.
But Sebastian knew his brother immediately.
“Nicky.”
The man stopped.
The hammer fell from his hand.
“Seb?”
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Nicholas crossed the courtyard.
They collided in an embrace hard enough to stagger both.
Sebastian had spent seventeen years wondering whether his brother died afraid.
Nicholas had spent seventeen believing returning home would kill Sebastian.
Both men cried.
Neither apologized.
Later, inside the parish house, Nicholas explained.
He had discovered financial accounts tied to Giovanni’s remaining network.
Anthony, unknowingly, had helped him trace them years earlier.
Evelyn arranged Nicholas’s disappearance after men tried to kill him in Miami.
“Why didn’t you contact me after Mom died?”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why?”
“Because the seventh man was still alive.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Evelyn was listed as seventh.”
Nicholas shook his head.
“No.”
“We found the ledger.”
“You found the altered ledger.”
Sebastian became still.
“Who changed it?”
“Jonathan Vale.”
“Who was seventh?”
Nicholas looked toward Maria.
Then back.
“Someone inside your organization.”
“Anthony?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Nicholas leaned forward.
“Your attorney.”
Sebastian’s stomach tightened.
Charles Whitmore had represented the Moretti family for thirty-three years.
He handled trusts.
Property.
Marriage contracts.
Inheritance.
Including Sebastian’s upcoming marriage to Rebecca.
Nicholas continued.
“Whitmore kept Giovanni’s hidden accounts alive after Giovanni died.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
“Where is he now?”
Nicholas looked surprised.
“With you, I assumed.”
Sebastian grabbed his phone.
Three missed calls from Chicago.
All from Daniel.
He called.
Daniel answered instantly.
“Sebastian.”
“What happened?”
“Lucy is gone.”
Sebastian stopped breathing.
Maria heard.
Her face emptied.
“No.”
Daniel continued.
“Whitmore came to the house with court papers. Said federal agents needed Maria’s employment files.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Where was security?”
“He had clearance.”
Of course he did.
Thirty-three years.
Every gate recognized him.
“Where is Lucy?”
“We don’t know.”
A message appeared on Sebastian’s phone.
From Whitmore.
A video.
Lucy sat inside a dark office.
She was crying but unharmed.
Whitmore appeared behind her.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Bring Nicholas Moretti home.”
Nicholas went pale.
Whitmore continued.
“He has something that belongs to me.”
The video ended.
Sebastian looked at his brother.
“What does he think you have?”
Nicholas was silent.
“Nicky.”
His brother reached beneath his shirt.
He removed a tiny brass key.
“Giovanni’s final account.”
Sebastian stared.
“How much?”
Nicholas swallowed.
“Not money.”
“What, then?”
“Names.”
“Whose?”
“Judges. Senators. Police commanders. Business owners.”
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
Nicholas continued.
“And one name you’re not going to like.”
Sebastian almost laughed.
“At this point, try me.”
Nicholas looked at Maria.
“The person who helped Whitmore enter the Moretti mansion tonight.”
Sebastian waited.
May you like
Nicholas whispered:
“Rebecca.”
