Chapter 2 - The Shadow of the Family
After the wedding was called off, the Moretti estate was placed under an unspoken state of martial law. Guests were escorted out through separate exits under the tight supervision of the personal vanguard. No one was allowed to use their phone or contact the outside world until the grand hall was completely empty.
I sat in my father’s study on the third floor. The room remained exactly as it had been arranged thirty years ago: mahogany bookshelves filled with leather-bound ledgers, a massive desk scarred by time, and a large oil portrait of my father hanging directly behind the armchair. In the painting, he stared straight ahead with cold, stern eyes—the eyes of a man who never allowed personal feelings to interfere with family business.
The door opened, and Luca walked in, carrying the scent of damp earth and gunpowder. He closed the heavy oak door, locked it from the inside, and approached my desk.
"How is Vanessa?" I asked without looking up, spinning my gold Zippo lighter.
"She’s in her bedroom in the west wing. I’ve stationed four of our men outside. No one enters or leaves, not even the servants," Luca reported, his voice as calm as ever. "Ryan tried to force his way in to see her three times, claiming he wanted to comfort his future sister-in-law. But I turned him away on your orders."
"How did Ryan react?"
"He was furious. He said you were overreacting to the nonsense of a four-year-old child, and that calling off the wedding with the Hale family would severely damage our partnership."
I let out a cold laugh, the Zippo's flame snapping alive and dying with a dry click. "Partnership? The Hale family is on the brink of bankruptcy. They need this wedding more than we need them. The southern port merger contract is only valid when Vanessa is my wife. Ryan knows that, and whoever is pulling the strings behind the scenes knows it too."
I stood up, walking to the large window overlooking the estate's inner courtyard. The rain still fell relentlessly, and the sentries in black uniforms moved like ghosts under the pale yellow floodlights.
"What about the man at the side gate?" I asked.
"We checked the security cameras around the western side gate," Luca said, pulling a tablet from his coat pocket and placing it on the desk. "All the footage from the nights the little girl mentioned has been deleted or overwritten by a looping script. This is the work of an insider. Only those with high-level access to the estate's security system could do this."
I picked up the tablet, scrolling through the empty system logs. "Exactly as I thought. The traitor isn't out there. He’s sitting at the dinner table with us, sharing our wine and our family secrets."
"Alessandro," Luca lowered his voice further, stepping closer to me. "Do you really believe Vanessa is innocent? Those envelopes... what if she is selling our information to another faction? The Hales might have betrayed us to save themselves."
"Vanessa is no informant," I asserted. "If she wanted to sell me out, she wouldn't have cried. She’s a smart woman; she knows the price of betraying a Moretti. Those envelopes didn't contain our information going out. They contained something going in to blackmail her."
I turned back, looking straight into Luca's eyes. "There is a detail little Emma mentioned. That man forced Vanessa to take those envelopes. She cried and shook her head. That means she is being blackmailed. Someone is holding leverage over her to force her to do something on the wedding day."
"An assassination attempt?" Luca speculated, his hand instinctively drifting toward the holster under his arm.
"Or a transfer of power," I said. "This wedding is not just a religious ceremony. It’s where I was supposed to sign the legal documents sharing the management of the Moretti trust fund with my lawful wife. If Vanessa is controlled, whoever holds her indirectly holds half of this family's assets."
An impatient, heavy knock rattled the door.
"Alessandro! Open up! I know you're in there!" Ryan's voice shouted from the other side of the heavy oak door.
I gestured for Luca to open it. Ryan burst into the room looking disheveled, his neatly gelled morning hair now falling over his forehead. He was a younger, more hot-headed version of me, inheriting all of our father's arrogance but lacking the patience required of a leader.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ryan screamed, lunging straight toward my desk. "Calling off the wedding in front of all of New York's elite? Because of the rambling of a housekeeper's kid? Do you have any idea how crazy the Hales are going right now? Mr. Hale just called me, threatening to pull all his shares from the port project!"
"Let him pull them," I said calmly, sitting back in my leather armchair. "And if you scream at me in our father's office again, Ryan, I’ll have you sweep the entire grand hall outside with your bare hands."
Ryan froze, the anger in his eyes morphing into a defensive wariness. He knew I never joked about my punishments.
"I’m just thinking about the family," Ryan said, his voice softening as he poured himself a glass of whiskey from the silver tray in the corner. "Vanessa is a good woman. She’s been with you for two years. Keeping her locked up like this is an insult."
"I’m not locking her up, Ryan. I’m protecting her," I said, my eyes locked onto his every movement. "Until I find out who was waiting behind that side gate."
As Ryan lifted his glass to drink, his shirt sleeve pulled back slightly, exposing the silver watch on his wrist gleaming under the office lights. It was a classic, intricate watch with exquisite engraving along the strap.
May you like
My eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second.
That watch looked very familiar. But I didn't say anything yet.
