The Tape Isabella Left Behind
Chapter 08 - The Tape Isabella Left Behind
They played the tape in the Lake Forest living room because the mansion still had an old VHS player in a cabinet beneath the television.
Matteo sat between Luca and Claire on a sofa that smelled faintly of cedar. Luca did not question Claire’s place there. Matteo had chosen it by sitting close enough that their sleeves touched.
Outside, Carlo waited in another room under guard.
The snow thickened against the windows.
The screen flickered blue.
Then Isabella Moretti appeared.
She was thinner than in Matteo’s photograph. Her hair was wrapped in a scarf. Her eyes, though, were alive with the fierce gentleness Claire had already begun to recognize in the things she left behind.
“Luca,” she said on the tape. “If you are watching this, I was not able to tell you in person.”
Matteo stopped breathing.
Luca’s hand moved toward him, then hesitated.
Matteo grabbed it first.
The video hissed.
“I know you will want to blame yourself,” Isabella continued. “Please don’t do that. You are very good at turning pain into punishment, and our son deserves better from you.”
Luca’s face folded for one second.
Then he controlled it.
Isabella looked off camera, perhaps listening for something in the house.
“Carlo has been moving money through the charity trust. I found transfers disguised as school grants. Some go to shell companies. Some to judges. Some to a residential institute in Switzerland.”
Claire felt Matteo stiffen.
The boarding school.
Isabella continued, “If I confront him openly, he will say illness confused me. If I tell you too soon, you will confront him violently, and he will use that against you.”
Luca closed his eyes.
The woman had known him.
She had known him down to the damage.
“There is more,” Isabella said. “Carlo does not want Matteo removed because he hates him. He wants him removed because Matteo’s maternal shares block any attempt to sell Lake Forest or control the trust after my death.”
Matteo whispered, “I own this house?”
Luca did not answer.
The tape did.
“Matteo, if you ever see this, listen to me.”
The boy’s whole body went still.
“My beautiful boy, do not let anyone make you ashamed of loving what is gone. Memory is not weakness. It is how love refuses to die.”
Claire looked away, blinking hard.
Isabella smiled softly into the camera.
“And Luca—when the time comes for you to marry again, do not choose a woman who competes with a dead one. Choose someone who has room in her heart for a child who remembers.”
The tape crackled.
Her expression changed.
“This is where I must be careful.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Vanessa Bellini came to me yesterday. She said Carlo sent her. She said there were papers I could sign to protect Matteo if my health failed. She was charming. Too charming. I did not sign.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened.
“She is not dangerous because she is cruel,” Isabella said. “She is dangerous because she understands lonely men.”
Matteo looked at his father.
Luca did not look away from the screen.
“I hid copies of everything. The locket will lead you here. Teresa knows part of it. Enzo knows where the second file is. I am sorry I could not carry this longer.”
The image blurred.
Isabella’s voice softened.
“And if someone kind is sitting near my son when this is finally watched… thank you. He pretends he doesn’t need tenderness when he needs it most.”
Matteo made a sound then, a small broken inhale.
Claire reached for him only after he leaned into her.
The tape ended.
No one spoke.
In the silence, Luca looked not like a mafia boss, not like a man wealthy enough to own stone houses and command armed loyalty, but like a husband learning he had mistaken grief for truth.
Finally he said, “Enzo.”
The older man stepped closer.
“Yes, boss.”
“The second file.”
Enzo’s face tightened.
“I was hoping she had told you.”
Luca looked at him.
“Told me what?”
Enzo reached inside his coat and removed a small brass key.
“Isabella gave me this the week before she died. She made me swear not to use it unless Matteo was threatened.”
Matteo stared at the key.
“What does it open?”
Enzo hesitated.
“A safe deposit box in your name.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she said you would burn the world before reading carefully.”
The words should have been insulting.
Instead, Luca looked devastated by how accurate they were.
Enzo added, “There’s something else.”
Claire braced herself.
“In the box,” Enzo said, “Isabella left guardianship recommendations if anything happened to both of you.”
Matteo frowned. “Both?”
Enzo looked at Luca.
“She did not want Carlo near him. And she did not want Vanessa near him either.”
Luca stood.
“We go now.”
Enzo shook his head.
“The bank vault opens at nine.”
Behind them, a phone rang.
Not Luca’s.
Claire’s.
The screen showed an unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Then a text appeared.
TELL LUCA TO COME HOME IF HE WANTS THE BOY’S FILE BEFORE IT BURNS.
Attached was a photograph of the Gold Coast mansion’s library.
May you like
Vanessa stood beside the fireplace.
Holding a black folder.
