Chapter 5 - THE BELLINI FILES
The Bellini warehouse stood along the Hudson.
It looked abandoned.
It wasn't.
We entered just after midnight.
The first floor contained shipping containers.
The second contained offices.
The third contained something else.
A private archive.
Hundreds of files.
Bank records.
Photographs.
Passports.
Medical records.
People's lives reduced to paper.
Grace stood beside me.
“This is insane.”
“No.”
I opened a drawer.
“This is organized.”
Inside was a file marked MORETTI.
Another marked ROSSI.
Then another.
BENNETT.
Grace stared at it.
Her hands trembled.
I opened it.
Her entire life was documented.
Every school.
Every hospital.
Every address.
Every job.
Someone had been watching her since childhood.
Then I found my own file.
It contained photographs of me and Vanessa.
But beneath them was something worse.
A wedding contract.
Not between me and Vanessa.
Between Vanessa and my father.
Signed twenty-five years earlier.
My father had promised Vanessa's family something.
Control of my inheritance.
If I died without an heir.
I stared at the document.
Grace read it.
“She was waiting for you to die.”
I nodded.
“And now Michael changes everything.”
The door behind us closed.
We turned.
Vanessa stood there.
Alone.
No guards.
No weapon visible.
She looked exhausted.
“Dominic.”
I raised my gun.
“Don't.”
She smiled sadly.
“I knew you'd find this place.”
“How?”
“Because I wanted you to.”
Grace stepped forward.
“You killed my father.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“No.”
“You ordered it.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Your father.”
I froze.
“You said the files were fake.”
“I said I didn't kill him.”
“Who did?”
“Your father ordered Anthony's death because Anthony discovered the Black Network.”
Grace's eyes filled with tears.
“Then why were you involved?”
“Because I was trying to take control of it.”
“You're a monster.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Maybe.”
Then she looked at me.
“But I'm not the worst one.”
She pulled out a photograph.
It showed my father.
Standing beside a man I recognized.
Marco.
My security chief.
I looked toward the door.
Marco was gone.
My stomach dropped.
“Where is he?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Exactly where he needs to be.”
A gunshot exploded behind us.
Grace screamed.
The bullet struck the wall beside my head.
We ran.
Marco stood at the end of the hallway.
His weapon raised.
“You should have stayed in the hospital.”
I stared at him.
“You betrayed me.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“I betrayed the man you thought you were.”
More gunmen appeared.
Grace grabbed my arm.
“Dominic!”
We ran through a side door.
Down the stairs.
Into the loading area.
A truck blocked the exit.
We were trapped.
Then Michael's voice came through my phone.
“Uncle Dominic?”
I answered.
“Michael?”
“I'm scared.”
“Where are you?”
A man's voice replaced his.
“Come alone.”
My blood froze.
“Who is this?”
The voice laughed.
“Your father.”
The phone went dead.
Grace stared at me.
“Your father is alive.”
I looked at the warehouse.
For twenty-five years, I had believed my father was dead.
May you like
Now I knew he wasn't.
And he had my nephew.
