Chapter 5 - File Seven
Nico reached the library with thirteen minutes remaining.
Dante followed.
Marcella tried to enter.
Nico blocked the doorway.
“You stay outside.”
“Nico.”
“No.”
“You need me.”
“I needed a sister eleven months ago.”
Marcella recoiled.
Nico closed the door.
Vivia sat beside him.
Rafe inserted the USB.
File Seven requested another password.
The clue appeared immediately.
THE DAY NICO FORGOT.
Nico stared.
“What day did I forget?”
Vivia looked confused.
Rafe frowned.
“Anniversary?”
Nico shook his head.
“I never forgot our anniversary.”
Dante spoke from behind them.
“Maybe it isn't something you forgot to remember.”
Nico looked at him.
Dante continued.
“Maybe it's something you can't remember.”
The room became quiet.
Nico suddenly thought about the weeks before Elena's death.
There had been one night that remained strangely blank.
A charity gala.
He remembered arriving.
He remembered drinking half a glass of wine.
Then nothing until the following morning.
He had awakened in his home office.
Elena had been furious.
Nico had assumed he had simply drunk too much.
It was the only blackout of his life.
“May seventeenth.”
Rafe typed 0517.
Wrong.
Vivia whispered.
“Mommy cried that day.”
Nico looked at her.
“What?”
“She thought I was sleeping.”
Vivia stared at the floor.
“She told you to wake up.”
Nico's chest tightened.
“What else did she say?”
“She said Aunt Marcella put something in your drink.”
Dante closed his eyes.
Nico stared toward the locked door.
Marcella had drugged him.
Rafe typed the complete date.
The file opened.
There were four videos.
One audio recording.
And twelve scanned documents.
Nico opened the first video.
Security footage appeared.
The camera overlooked a private dining room at the Bellandi Foundation gala.
Nico saw himself at the table.
Marcella sat beside him.
Corrado stood behind her.
Marcella glanced around.
Then she removed something from her purse.
She poured powder into Nico's glass.
Dante turned away.
“Jesus.”
Nico did not move.
The video continued.
Ten minutes later, Nico became visibly disoriented.
Corrado placed documents in front of him.
Nico signed.
Rafe leaned toward the screen.
“What did they make you sign?”
Nico opened the scanned documents.
His blood went cold.
Voting proxies.
Medical power of attorney.
Emergency corporate succession orders.
And one document transferring temporary control of Vivia's trust to Marcella if Nico was judged mentally incompetent.
Nico whispered.
“She was preparing to remove me.”
Dante looked toward the door.
“My mother?”
Rafe shook his head.
“Not alone.”
The audio recording began automatically.
Corrado's voice filled the room.
“He signed everything.”
Then Marcella.
“What about Elena?”
Corrado responded.
“She saw too much.”
Marcella's voice became nervous.
“You promised nobody gets hurt.”
Corrado laughed.
“That promise ended when she copied the ledger.”
Then a third voice spoke.
A woman's voice.
Older.
Controlled.
“The wife is temporary.”
“The bloodline is permanent.”
Nico froze.
He knew that voice.
Rafe knew it too.
Dante whispered.
“No.”
Nico replayed the sentence.
The voice was unmistakable.
His mother.
Isabella Bellandi.
A woman who had supposedly suffered a severe stroke four years earlier.
A woman who had been living in a private neurological facility ever since.
A woman doctors claimed could barely form complete sentences.
Yet the recording was only fifteen months old.
Isabella sounded perfectly healthy.
Nico stared at Marcella through the glass door.
She looked away.
He opened the door.
“Where is Mother?”
Marcella said nothing.
Nico walked toward her.
“Where is she?”
“At the clinic.”
“Don't lie to me again.”
Marcella's eyes filled with tears.
“She was never sick.”
Dante stumbled backward.
“What?”
Marcella whispered.
“Mother wanted to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because Father was dead.”
“Because Elena was investigating.”
“Because the council was turning on itself.”
Nico could barely speak.
“You helped our mother fake a stroke?”
Marcella nodded.
“She said it was temporary.”
“She said once Corrado fixed everything, she would return.”
Nico stared.
“Did she order Elena's death?”
Marcella shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Her voice is on the recording.”
“I know.”
“You were there.”
“I left before they discussed Elena.”
Nico laughed bitterly.
“You always leave one minute before the murder happens.”
Marcella slapped him.
The sound shocked everyone.
Nico did not react.
Marcella stared at her own hand.
Then she began crying.
“I loved her too.”
Nico's voice was almost a whisper.
“No.”
“You loved what our family looked like when Elena was alive.”
“That is not the same thing.”
His phone vibrated.
Midnight.
Everyone turned toward the laptop.
A notification appeared.
DEAD-MAN PROTOCOL ACTIVE.
Rafe exhaled.
“At least the evidence is going out.”
Another message appeared.
DELIVERY FAILED.
Then another.
DELIVERY FAILED.
Then another.
Twelve messages appeared.
Every delivery had failed.
Dante whispered.
“How?”
Rafe began typing.
“The server was intercepted.”
Nico looked toward Marcella.
She seemed genuinely surprised.
A final message appeared.
BACKUP RECIPIENT ACCEPTED.
One copy had escaped.
Rafe clicked for details.
The recipient's identity was hidden.
Only a location appeared.
Rome.
Nico's phone rang.
This time he answered immediately.
A man spoke.
“Mr. Bellandi.”
“Who is this?”
“My name is Adrian Voss.”
Nico frowned.
He had never heard the name.
The man continued.
“Your wife believed I was the only member of the council who had not been compromised.”
Marcella grabbed the table.
“Voss?”
Nico looked at her.
“You know him?”
She whispered.
“He was Father's oldest friend.”
Nico returned to the call.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
“What did Elena send you?”
“Enough to prove your father was murdered.”
Nico's heart pounded.
“And my wife?”
Silence.
“Mr. Bellandi.”
“I need you to understand something before we meet.”
“Elena did not die because she found the stolen money.”
“Then why?”
“Because she discovered the identity of the person who controlled Corrado.”
Nico looked at Marcella.
“Who?”
Voss answered.
“Your mother.”
Everyone went still.
Nico's voice became cold.
“Where is Isabella Bellandi?”
Voss hesitated.
Then he gave Nico an address.
Rafe entered it into his phone.
The location appeared.
Dante stared at the screen.
“That isn't a clinic.”
Marcella started shaking.
Nico looked at the map.
The address belonged to Bellandi Villa San Luca.
A family estate abandoned for sixteen years.
Voss spoke one final sentence.
“Go quickly.”
“Your mother has Vivia's original birth certificate.”
Nico frowned.
“Why does that matter?”
May you like
Voss answered.
“Because the certificate you have at home is fake.”
