Chapter 4: What the Brother Came to Collect
Dante Moretti was found at twenty minutes past seven that evening.
Not hiding.
Not fleeing.
He was sitting in the estate's wine cellar, in the leather chair their father had kept there for thirty years, with a glass of red in his hand and the lights turned low.
Lorenzo came down the stone steps alone.
Dante looked up.
He didn't look surprised.
"I wondered how long it would take," Dante said.
Lorenzo pulled a wooden chair from the wall, turned it around, and sat.
"You sent the message," Lorenzo said.
"From my study."
"Yes."
"You also sent the messages to my phone.
The anonymous ones."
Dante set his glass down on the barrel beside him.
"Also yes."
"Why?"
"Because I needed you to ask the right questions before Valentina's attorney arrived and made everything harder to untangle." Dante looked at his hands.
"I was trying to help you."
"By sending anonymous messages from a locked room and then disappearing?"
"I panicked." Dante said it plainly, without decoration.
"I found out this morning how far it had gone.
I didn't know how to walk up to you and say what I needed to say."
"Try now."
Dante was quiet for a moment.
"I introduced Valentina to you.
I arranged for her to be at the Ferraro dinner.
I told her what you were like, what you valued, what kind of woman you would trust." He picked up the glass again.
"I did all of that deliberately."
The wine cellar was very still.
"Why?" Lorenzo said.
"Because she asked me to.
And because I was angry at you." Dante turned the glass in his hand.
"Father changed the will eight months before he d*ed.
You know that.
You got everything.
The estate, the holdings, the seat on the board.
I got a percentage and a title that means nothing." He looked up.
"I was angry for a long time."
"So you found someone to marry me and then k*ll me."
"No." Dante's voice sharpened.
"I introduced you to a woman I thought was ambitious but harmless.
I thought she wanted your name and your money through marriage.
A divorce in three years, a settlement, and everyone moves on." He leaned forward.
"I did not know about Caruso.
I did not know about the mountain road.
When I found out what she had actually arranged, I was—"
He stopped.
"You were what?" Lorenzo said.
"Sick." The word came out quietly.
"I was sick, Lorenzo.
You're my brother."
"You arranged the introduction."
"I know."
"You gave her access to me."
"I know."
"A man d*ed on that road.
My driver.
He had a family."
Dante put the glass down and did not pick it up again.
"I know," he said.
"I've known for three months.
I've been trying to find a way to tell you that didn't end with me in a cell."
"And the anonymous messages?"
"I found Valentina's second phone two days ago.
In the lining of a bag she left in the guest room last month." Dante reached into his jacket and placed a small black phone on the barrel.
"She doesn't know I have it."
Lorenzo looked at the phone.
He didn't touch it yet.
"What's on it?"
"Messages to someone she calls R.
I don't know who R is.
But the last message, sent four days ago, says the wedding needs to happen on schedule or the second arrangement gets activated." Dante's voice was steady but thin.
"I don't know what the second arrangement is."
Lorenzo picked up the phone.
The screen was locked.
"Do you know the code?"
"Her birthday.
She's not as careful as she thinks."
Lorenzo entered the numbers.
The messages opened.
He read in silence for two minutes.
Marco appeared at the top of the cellar stairs.
"Boss.
We found something in the east wing."
Lorenzo looked up from the phone.
"What?"
"Valentina's room.
Behind the panel in the wardrobe." Marco's expression was careful.
"Documents.
Signed documents."
"What kind?"
Marco came down three steps.
"Property transfer agreements.
Pre-signed.
Dated for the week after the wedding." He paused.
"They transfer the estate, the northern holdings, and the Moretti family trust to a holding company registered in Malta."
Lorenzo stood.
"Who owns the holding company?"
Marco held his gaze.
"On paper, no one traceable.
But the registered agent's address matches a law firm that has represented one client in Italy for the past eleven years."
Dante looked between them.
"Who?" he said.
Marco answered.
"A man named Ricci.
Valentina's father."
The wine cellar went silent.
Lorenzo looked at his brother.
Dante's face had gone the color of the stone wall behind him.
"I didn't know," Dante said.
"Lorenzo, I swear to you, I didn't know any of this."
Lorenzo studied him for a long moment.
Then he looked at the phone in his hand.
"The second arrangement," he said quietly.
"If the wedding doesn't happen on schedule."
He scrolled back through the messages.
Found the one he was looking for.
Read it.
His jaw tightened.
He turned the phone so Marco could see.
Marco read it.
His hand moved to his radio.
May you like
"I need two men outside Sophia Bellini's room," he said into it.
"Right now."
