Chapter 3
**THE GHOST INSIDE THE HOSPITAL**
Marco crossed the room in two strides and ripped open the cabinet.
A man unfolded himself from the narrow space inside.
He wore a nurse’s uniform, a surgical mask, and a Moretti security badge.
But he was not a nurse.
He drove his shoulder into Marco, sending both of them crashing against the wall.
Alejandro reached beneath his pillow and pulled out a pistol.
Mama covered my eyes.
I still heard everything.
The struggle.
The heavy breathing.
The metal tray striking the floor.
Then Alejandro’s voice, cold and steady.
“Move again, and you won’t leave this room.”
When Mama lowered her hand, the intruder was kneeling beside the bed with Marco’s arm locked around his neck.
Lucia stood in the doorway.
Her face had gone white.
The man looked at her.
“Sister,” he said.
Mama turned toward Lucia.
“What did he call you?”
Lucia closed her eyes.
The intruder pulled off his mask.
He had Luca’s dark eyes.
The same narrow mouth.
The same scar along his jaw.
“Matteo Vieri,” Alejandro said.
Marco tightened his grip.
Luca’s younger brother had supposedly died in the Belladonna fire.
Apparently, the dead were gathering around us.
Matteo smiled.
“Your family has always believed its own stories.”
Alejandro pointed the weapon at him.
“Why are you here?”
“To retrieve the card.”
“Who sent you?”
Matteo looked at Lucia again.
Mama stepped between them.
“Answer him.”
Lucia’s expression hardened.
“I did.”
The words struck Mama like a slap.
I felt her hand go limp around mine.
Lucia slowly entered the room.
“I sent Matteo to retrieve the recording before Luca could use it.”
“Matteo tried to attack us,” Marco said.
“He was told not to hurt anyone.”
Matteo laughed bitterly. “Plans changed.”
Alejandro’s gaze moved between them.
“You are not Luca’s prisoner.”
“I was,” Lucia replied. “Then I learned the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That Luca was not the only traitor inside your empire.”
She looked toward the memory card.
“The Belladonna money was not stolen for Luca.”
Alejandro’s face remained still.
“Who was it stolen for?”
Lucia walked to the window.
“Your father.”
The room became silent.
Vittorio Moretti had been dead for almost a decade. His portrait hung in the mansion’s grand hall, larger than Gabriel’s and darker than Alejandro’s.
He had built the Moretti organization into a kingdom.
And according to Lucia, he had also built the conspiracy that destroyed his sons.
“Your father knew Gabriel was collecting evidence,” she said. “He ordered Luca to stop him.”
Mama’s eyes filled with tears.
“Then why did Gabriel trust you?”
“Because I was supposed to help him escape.”
Lucia looked at the floor.
“I loved him too.”
Mama stopped breathing.
The sisters faced each other across the hospital room.
Two women.
One dead man.
One child standing between the ruins of their secrets.
Lucia’s voice softened.
“Gabriel met me first. At the hotel. I introduced him to you because he needed someone Luca would never suspect.”
Mama shook her head.
“You used me.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“He fell in love with you.”
Pain moved through Lucia’s face.
“And I hated you for it.”
Mama stared at her as if seeing a stranger.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I planned to take you away after he escaped.”
“But he never escaped.”
Lucia looked at Matteo.
“He betrayed us.”
Matteo laughed.
“You all betrayed one another.”
Alejandro leaned forward despite the monitors tugging at his chest.
“Where is Luca?”
Matteo’s smile vanished.
“Closer than you think.”
The hospital alarms stopped.
Power returned.
The television on the wall flickered to life by itself.
A live video appeared.
Luca stood inside the Moretti mansion’s grand hall.
Behind him sat Rosa, the elderly housekeeper, tied to a chair.
Luca faced the camera.
“Good morning, Alejandro.”
Alejandro’s hand tightened around the pistol.
Luca continued.
“You have the card. I have the only witness who knows what happened the night Gabriel died.”
Rosa lifted her head.
Her lip was bleeding, but her eyes were defiant.
“Do not come!” she shouted.
Luca struck the chair beside her.
The sound echoed through the television.
“You will return to the mansion with Emma,” he said. “No guards inside. No police. No clever plans.”
Mama pulled me against her.
“No.”
Alejandro ignored her.
“What do you want?”
“The truth revealed in front of everyone.”
“What truth?”
Luca smiled.
“That Gabriel Moretti is alive.”
The screen went black.
Mama staggered backward.
Alejandro stared at the empty television.
Lucia sank into a chair.
Matteo began laughing.
And I remembered the handwriting on the EpiPen.
FOR GABRIEL’S DAUGHTER.
Not in memory of Gabriel.
Not for the child he left behind.
May you like
For Gabriel’s daughter—as though the person who wrote it expected him to return.
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