Chapter 2 - Someone Else Was ListeningMarco Santoro did not scare easily.
That fact bothered Lorenzo.
Marco had worked beside him for fourteen years. He had taken bullets, uncovered traitors, walked into rooms filled with armed men, and once calmly finished eating dinner while another family threatened to kill everyone at the table.
Yet now he stood in Lorenzo’s foyer looking genuinely disturbed.
“Whose phone?” Lorenzo asked.
Marco lowered his voice.
“The message came from inside the estate.”
Lorenzo glanced toward Sophia and Lena.
“Staff?”
“We’re checking.”
“Location?”
“West wing.”
Lorenzo’s attention sharpened.
The west wing held guest suites, the private library, his late father’s office, and several rooms that remained unused most of the year.
Valentina stayed in the east wing.
“Someone is coordinating with her?”
“Possibly.”
“Or watching her.”
Marco nodded.
Lorenzo looked down at the message again.
HE CAME HOME EARLY. MOVE THE PLAN FORWARD TONIGHT.
The wording bothered him.
Not cancel.
Not run.
Move the plan forward.
Whatever was supposed to happen during tomorrow’s Miami trip could apparently happen at the mansion tonight.
“Double security at every entrance.”
“Already done.”
“No one tells Valentina about the message.”
“Understood.”
Lorenzo handed back the phone.
“Take Sophia and Lena to the blue guest suite.”
Sophia stiffened.
“Mr. Moretti, I don’t want to cause trouble.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“You didn’t.”
“I should go home.”
“No.”
Fear crossed her face.
“You’re safer here.”
“With respect, sir, after today I’m not sure that’s true.”
Lorenzo could not argue.
His own home had become dangerous enough that a six-year-old child had run through it begging for rescue.
He crouched beside Lena.
The girl was still holding her mother’s hand.
“Would you like to stay in the room with the big television?”
Lena sniffed.
“The one with cartoons?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Sophia.
Her mother gave a hesitant nod.
Lena looked back at Lorenzo.
“Will the pretty lady come?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
The innocent question hit harder than Lorenzo expected.
Because until one hour ago, Valentina had been the woman he trusted most.
Now he could promise nothing based on trust.
Only control.
“Because I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”
Lena considered this.
Then nodded.
Marco assigned two guards to accompany them.
As Sophia passed Lorenzo, she stopped.
“There was something else.”
Lorenzo turned.
“When Miss Ricci was on the phone yesterday,” Sophia whispered, “she said a name.”
Valentina’s door opened behind them.
Everyone looked.
Valentina stood in the doorway.
She had changed clothes.
Gone was the ivory gown.
Now she wore tailored cream trousers and a silk blouse, her hair pulled neatly behind her shoulders.
She looked composed again.
Too composed.
“Are we all having a meeting without me?”
Lorenzo’s expression remained unreadable.
Sophia immediately lowered her gaze.
Valentina smiled.
“Sophia, were you telling Lorenzo more stories?”
Marco stepped between them.
Valentina laughed.
“Please. I’m not going to attack her.”
Lorenzo studied her.
“Go back inside.”
Valentina’s smile disappeared.
“You’re imprisoning me?”
“For the moment.”
“On what authority?”
Lorenzo almost admired the question.
This was his house.
His security.
His family name.
But Valentina understood something important.
If he physically imprisoned her without evidence, she could turn the situation into something else entirely.
So Lorenzo changed tactics.
“You can leave.”
Marco looked at him.
Valentina blinked.
“What?”
“You can walk out.”
She glanced toward the foyer.
“But you won’t.”
“And why wouldn’t I?”
“Because every entrance is covered by cameras, and if you leave five minutes after I discover someone has been sharing my travel schedule with people trying to kill me, you answer the question for me.”
Valentina held his gaze.
Then slowly smiled.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“The Lorenzo Moretti everyone fears.”
Her expression softened.
“I wondered how long it would take before you treated me like everyone else.”
Lorenzo did not respond.
Valentina returned to her room and closed the door.
Only then did Lorenzo turn back to Sophia.
“What name?”
Sophia glanced nervously at the door.
“Adrian.”
Marco’s expression changed instantly.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You know it.”
Marco hesitated.
“Maybe.”
“Talk.”
“Adrian Russo.”
Lorenzo knew the name.
Everyone did.
Russo belonged to an old family that had once been closely tied to the Morettis.
The relationship ended fifteen years earlier after a financial dispute between Lorenzo’s father and Adrian’s uncle.
Adrian himself disappeared from family circles years ago.
“Where is he?”
“No confirmed address.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means officially Adrian Russo lives in Switzerland.”
“And unofficially?”
Marco pulled out his phone.
“We’ve had rumors he returned to Florida six months ago.”
Six months.
Lorenzo looked toward Valentina’s door.
Exactly when she began pressing him harder about marriage.
Exactly when unusual problems started appearing in his businesses.
Exactly when his mountain-road accident had occurred.
“Find him.”
Marco nodded.
Sophia spoke quietly.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes?”
“There was another thing she said.”
Lorenzo waited.
“She asked Adrian whether the papers would still be valid if something happened before the wedding.”
Lorenzo felt his stomach tighten.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said anything else?”
Sophia closed her eyes, remembering.
“She said, ‘The signature is enough. He doesn’t have to live until the ceremony.’”
Silence.
Marco swore under his breath.
Lorenzo did not move.
Three weeks earlier, Valentina had brought him several documents.
Estate planning.
Insurance changes.
Property transfers scheduled to activate after marriage.
His attorneys had reviewed them.
Or he thought they had.
One document included a signature he barely remembered giving.
He had been exhausted.
Valentina had kissed him and laughed when he complained.
“It’s just paperwork, amore.”
Lorenzo’s heartbeat became heavy.
“Marco.”
“Yes.”
“Get Daniel Weiss here.”
His attorney.
“Now?”
“Now.”
Marco made the call.
Lorenzo turned toward Sophia.
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
Sophia shook her head.
“That’s everything I heard.”
Lorenzo believed her.
Mostly because she looked like someone who desperately wished she knew nothing at all.
He let the guards escort her away.
Then he walked into his office.
Marco followed.
Once the door closed, Lorenzo finally allowed some of the fury to surface.
He slammed both hands onto his desk.
“Six months.”
Marco said nothing.
“She has been beside me every day.”
“You couldn’t know.”
“I should have.”
“Why?”
“Because people don’t get close to me accidentally.”
Marco leaned against the desk.
“You loved her.”
Lorenzo laughed without humor.
“That sounds remarkably stupid when you say it aloud.”
“It’s not.”
“In my world it is.”
Marco gave him a long look.
“Your father used to say that.”
Lorenzo looked away.
That ended the conversation.
Forty minutes later Daniel Weiss arrived.
The attorney looked annoyed until he saw Lorenzo’s expression.
Then his complaints disappeared.
Lorenzo explained only the necessary details.
Daniel immediately opened his laptop.
“I need copies of everything Valentina asked you to sign.”
“I thought your office reviewed them.”
“We reviewed the prenuptial agreement.”
“And the trust amendment?”
Daniel frowned.
“What trust amendment?”
Lorenzo felt cold.
“The document she brought me three weeks ago.”
“I didn’t send a trust amendment.”
Marco and Lorenzo exchanged glances.
Daniel continued.
“Do you have a copy?”
“Check my private files.”
Marco crossed to a secure cabinet.
It required Lorenzo’s fingerprint.
Inside were folders containing contracts, insurance policies, personal records.
The amendment was there.
Daniel read the first page.
His face changed.
“Lorenzo.”
“What?”
“This is professionally drafted.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning whoever prepared this knew exactly what they were doing.”
He flipped pages.
“If this takes effect, Valentina becomes acting controller of the Moretti Family Trust if you are incapacitated.”
“Incapacitated.”
“Yes.”
“Not dead.”
Daniel looked up.
“No.”
Marco swore.
Lorenzo understood immediately.
Death created investigations.
Incapacity created control.
A coma.
A severe accident.
A poisoning.
Anything that left him alive but unable to manage his affairs.
“How much?”
Daniel looked at the documents.
“Potentially hundreds of millions in liquid assets and temporary authority over several companies.”
Lorenzo’s anger changed into something colder.
“This was supposed to happen tomorrow.”
Marco nodded.
“The Miami trip.”
Daniel glanced between them.
“What Miami trip?”
Lorenzo ignored the question.
“Can the document be canceled?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
“I’ll need—”
“Do it.”
Daniel nodded.
His phone vibrated.
He checked it.
Then froze.
“What?”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“My office just emailed me.”
“About?”
“The document.”
Lorenzo waited.
Daniel looked genuinely confused.
“They received another copy this morning.”
“From whom?”
“Your assistant.”
“My assistant?”
Daniel turned the screen.
The email appeared to have been sent from Lorenzo’s private office account.
It instructed Daniel’s firm to finalize activation of the trust amendment at midnight.
Lorenzo had sent no such message.
Marco took the phone.
“The west wing.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“What?”
“The signal from the anonymous message and the device used to access your office email.”
Marco’s eyes hardened.
“Same location.”
Lorenzo stood.
“Show me.”
They moved through the mansion with four security men behind them.
The west wing was silent.
Room by room, they searched.
Guest bedroom.
Empty.
Library.
Empty.
Old dining salon.
Empty.
Finally Marco stopped outside Lorenzo’s late father’s office.
The door was locked.
Lorenzo frowned.
No one used that room.
Not even him.
He unlocked it.
Dust floated in the sunlight.
The enormous wooden desk remained exactly where his father had left it.
Marco walked slowly toward the bookcase.
A small light blinked behind several old leather volumes.
He pulled the books away.
A compact electronic device sat against the wall.
“Signal relay.”
Lorenzo stared at it.
“Someone installed that in my father’s office?”
Marco nodded.
One of the guards called from behind the desk.
“Boss.”
They moved around.
A panel in the wooden floor had been lifted.
Beneath it was a black duffel bag.
Marco opened it carefully.
Inside were multiple phones.
Cash.
A handgun.
Copies of Lorenzo’s schedule.
And photographs.
Dozens.
Valentina entering restaurants.
Lorenzo leaving meetings.
Sophia walking Lena to school.
Lena playing outside the staff residence.
Lorenzo lifted one photograph.
It had been taken through the estate gates.
Someone had written across the bottom in black ink.
THE WOMAN IS USEFUL. THE CHILD IS LEVERAGE.
Lorenzo’s jaw hardened.
Marco reached deeper into the bag.
He pulled out another photograph.
This one showed Lorenzo and Valentina together.
A red X had been drawn over Lorenzo’s face.
But not Valentina’s.
Daniel whispered, “My God.”
Marco found a small notebook.
Most pages contained numbers and coded notes.
Then he reached the final page.
Only three lines were written there.
7:15 — SOUTH GATE
PLAN B — DINNER
IF BOTH FAIL, USE THE BRIDE.
Lorenzo stared at the words.
Use the bride.
Not protect the bride.
Not contact the bride.
Use her.
He looked toward Marco.
“You think Valentina is part of this?”
Marco slowly closed the notebook.
“I think she believes she is.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone may be planning to betray her too.”
Lorenzo heard footsteps in the hallway.
One of the guards appeared.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Miss Ricci is gone.”
Lorenzo turned sharply.
“You said every exit was covered.”
“They are.”
“Then how did she leave?”
“She didn’t leave the estate.”
Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed.
The guard swallowed.
“She disappeared inside the house.”
At that exact moment, somewhere beneath them, a heavy metallic sound echoed through the floor.
Marco froze.
“What was that?”
Lorenzo knew.
His father had built parts of the estate long before modern plans existed.
Including old underground passages.
One connected the west wing to a private vehicle tunnel outside the walls.
A passage almost nobody knew existed.
Almost.
Lorenzo looked at the open panel in his father’s floor.
Then at the hidden bag.
Valentina had not vanished.
May you like
She had been given an escape route.
And if Lorenzo was right, whoever waited at the other end might not be planning to rescue her.
Related Stories
