Chapter 6 - THE FALSE KING
The moonlight sliced through the tall windows of the Moretti estate, casting long, skeletal shadows across the floor.
Most of the guests had been ushered into the East Wing library to calm down, guarded by the men loyal to Luca. The grand ballroom was empty now, save for me, Luca, Adrian, and Margaret.
I sat near the fireplace, clutching the silver rosary Nurse Helen had given me. The knowledge that Leo was sleeping safely in a high-tech medical suite below the mansion felt like a heavy weight lifted off my chest.
But the war wasn't over.
“Victor has the deed,” Luca said, pacing across the marble floor. “Even if the ledger is fake, that deed is real. He legally owns this estate. He can bring the police tomorrow to force us out.”
Adrian leaned against the grand piano, tracing the scar on his wrist. “The offshore loan was real, Luca. Our father took it out twenty years ago to pay Victor the ransom for my life. A ransom Victor collected, but never honored.”
Margaret sat silently, her eyes fixed on the empty safe behind her late husband's portrait.
“Victor thinks the deed gives him absolute power,” Margaret finally said, her voice cutting through the tension. “But Victor is arrogant. And arrogance breeds blindness.”
She stood up and walked toward a massive antique globe in the corner of the room.
“When my husband took out that loan, he knew Victor was the shadow lender,” Margaret explained, running her hand over the polished wood of the globe. “He knew Victor would eventually call the debt and try to seize the estate.”
She pressed a specific sequence of wooden mountains on the globe. There was a soft hiss of pressurized air, and the globe split in half down the equator.
Inside was a high-tech biometric scanner, completely out of place in the antique object.
“My husband built a failsafe,” Margaret said. “The deed Victor holds is tied to the Moretti Holding Company. But twenty-two years ago, my husband restructured the company's charter.”
Luca stopped pacing. “What restructuring? I’ve reviewed the charter a thousand times.”
“You reviewed the public charter, Luca,” Adrian said, stepping forward. “The one that says you are the sole heir.”
Margaret nodded. “The secret charter states that any hostile transfer of assets must be approved by both living heirs of Donato Moretti.”
My eyes widened. “But everyone thought Adrian was dead.”
“Exactly,” Margaret smiled sharply. “Which means for twenty-two years, Victor has been building his hostile takeover on a contract that is legally void the second Adrian proves his identity.”
“But how do we prove it?” Luca asked. “We can't just walk into a courtroom. Victor owns half the judges in Chicago. He’ll bury us in injunctions, or worse, have Adrian killed before he reaches the stand.”
“We don't go to court,” Margaret said coldly. “We go to the bank. Tonight.”
She pointed to the biometric scanner inside the globe.
“This scanner is directly linked to the central servers of the Swiss bank holding Victor’s funds,” Margaret explained. “When Donato paid the ransom, he secretly embedded a trojan protocol into the digital transfer. If both heirs place their thumbs on this scanner, it triggers the protocol. It drains Victor’s offshore accounts entirely and reclaims the estate.”
Luca let out a breath. “Brilliant. So we scan our prints right now.”
“It’s not that simple,” Margaret said, her face falling slightly. “The scanner requires both heirs' thumbprints, yes. But it also requires the physical Master Key to unlock the transmission.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened. “The family crest.”
Margaret nodded.
I frowned, looking at the gold cufflink I had given back to Margaret. “Isn't that the crest?”
“Only half of it, Emily,” Adrian said gently. “My father broke his signet ring in two the night I was taken. He turned one half into my cufflink.”
“And the other half?” I asked.
Luca’s expression turned utterly lethal.
“He turned it into a diamond-encrusted necklace,” Luca growled. “He gave it to Victor as collateral for the loan.”
The room went dead silent.
I remembered the heavy, suffocating diamonds sitting on Vanessa Bellini’s neck all night. The way they caught the light when she mocked Margaret. The way she flaunted them.
“Vanessa is wearing the Master Key,” I whispered.
“She doesn't know what it is,” Margaret said. “Victor probably gave it to her to mock us tonight. A twisted inside joke.”
Luca checked his watch. It was nearing midnight.
“Victor’s helicopter flew them back to the Bellini penthouse downtown,” Luca said, his voice dropping into the terrifying, calm tone he used when making dangerous decisions. “The penthouse is a fortress. We’ll never get past the security.”
Adrian picked up Marco’s gun from the table. “We don't need to get past his security. We just need to get Vanessa.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
It was a text message.
From an unknown number.
May you like
I opened it, my blood freezing in my veins.
I know you tricked us with the hospital, Emily. But I left a little present in Leo’s IV bag before we realized he was gone. Come alone to the loading dock in ten minutes, bring the real ledger, or the slow-acting poison in his system will stop his heart by dawn. - Vanessa.
