Chapter 5 - The Video Message
Marco inserted the flash drive into his laptop.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Transactions.
Recordings.
Property documents.
And one video.
Dated three days ago.
Claire clicked it.
A gray-haired man appeared on-screen.
Claire stopped breathing.
“Daniel.”
Emily’s father looked older, exhausted, but unmistakably alive.
“Claire,” the recording began, “if you’re seeing this, then I failed to come home myself.”
She collapsed into the desk chair.
Daniel continued.
“Eleven years ago, Carlo Romano discovered I had copied his records.
Vincent tried to get me out.
Carlo’s men intercepted me first.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“They kept me alive because some of the accounts required my authorization.
Eventually I escaped—but by then Carlo had people everywhere.”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“I stayed away because every time I moved toward Claire, someone followed.”
Claire sobbed silently.
“But Carlo died seven years ago,” Vincent whispered.
Daniel’s recording continued.
“I thought his network died with him.”
A pause.
“I was wrong.”
He displayed a photograph.
Vincent leaned closer.
His blood turned cold.
The picture showed Keane standing beside someone Vincent trusted completely.
Marco.
The room went silent.
Claire slowly looked toward Vincent’s bodyguard.
Marco didn’t move.
Vincent did.
But Marco already had his gun drawn.
“Don’t.”
Vincent stared at the man who had protected him for thirteen years.
Marco’s expression was almost apologetic.
“Carlo built Northstar under another name.
When he died, I inherited it.”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“You?”
“Carlo was my father.”
The words landed like an explosion.
Vincent had never known.
Marco smiled faintly.
“His illegitimate son.”
Claire whispered, “Daniel is alive?”
“For the moment.”
“Where?”
Marco’s eyes shifted toward the window.
“Northstar’s first property.”
Vincent understood.
The abandoned textile warehouse beside the river.
Marco raised the gun.
But Sal moved first.
He struck Marco’s wrist.
The weapon fired into the ceiling.
Vincent drove Marco against the wall.
Within seconds, he was disarmed.
Vincent stared into the face of the man he had trusted with his life.
“You threatened a mother and child for a building?”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“Not the building.”
He nodded toward the flash drive.
“Daniel hid the final evidence inside it years ago.”
Claire looked confused.
May you like
Vincent wasn’t.
“The building contains Carlo’s original ledgers.”
