Chapter 10: The Wrong Carter
Chapter 10: The Wrong Carter
The room fell into absolute silence.
Gabriel's recorded voice echoed through the hidden chamber.
"We killed the wrong Carter."
Amelia felt every muscle in her body go numb.
"What... does that mean?"
No one answered.
The recording continued.
"I suppose," Gabriel said almost conversationally, "there's no reason to keep pretending anymore."
His voice was calm.
Measured.
The voice of a man explaining legal paperwork rather than murder.
"The accident at Hawthorne Construction was never meant for Daniel Carter."
Alessandro slowly clenched his fists.
Marco's jaw tightened.
Amelia couldn't force herself to breathe.
Gabriel continued.
"The original target..."
"...was Evelyn Carter."
Amelia's eyes widened.
"My mother?"
"Unfortunately," Gabriel said with a soft sigh, "people make mistakes."
"Evelyn disappeared before we could finish the job."
"So Vincent ordered us to eliminate anyone carrying her evidence."
"Years later..."
"...Daniel Carter found it instead."
The words struck Amelia like physical blows.
Daniel hadn't simply been in the wrong place.
He had inherited a war that had begun decades before he met her.
Another file automatically appeared on the computer screen.
Marco quickly opened it.
A family tree.
At the top:
Evelyn Carter
Below it:
Amelia Carter
Daniel Carter (Marriage)
Emma Carter
Red circles surrounded all four names.
Across the top someone had written:
SURVEILLANCE PRIORITY
Marco whispered,
"They tracked your entire family."
Amelia remembered strange things she had ignored.
The unfamiliar sedan parked outside their apartment.
Phone calls that disconnected whenever she answered.
The man who once photographed Emma at a playground before disappearing.
She had dismissed every incident as coincidence.
Now...
None of it had been coincidence.
Gabriel's recording resumed.
"Daniel came dangerously close."
"He found financial transfers."
"He found Hawthorne."
"He almost found Lily."
"So..."
"We removed him."
The words were spoken without emotion.
Without guilt.
Without hesitation.
Emma stirred slightly in Amelia's arms.
Still half asleep, she whispered,
"Mommy..."
Amelia hugged her tighter.
Tears streamed silently down her face.
She finally knew.
Daniel hadn't died because of an industrial accident.
He had been murdered.
Alessandro walked toward the computer.
Every word hardened his resolve.
"My father."
"Amelia's mother."
"Daniel."
"They've spent twenty-five years eliminating witnesses."
Marco nodded.
"And now they've come here to finish the job."
A deafening explosion shook the mansion.
The walls trembled violently.
Dust rained from the stone ceiling.
The emergency lights flickered again.
One security officer burst into the hidden chamber.
Blood covered his sleeve.
"They're inside the east wing!"
"We've lost five men!"
"They're using military equipment."
Marco immediately took command.
"Seal every corridor leading to the nursery."
"Protect the children."
"No matter what."
The guard nodded and disappeared.
Lily quietly tugged on Alessandro's jacket.
"Mister Alessandro..."
She pointed toward another corner of the hidden chamber.
"Grandpa always gets scared after loud noises."
"He hides over there."
Everyone looked.
Behind an old wooden cabinet was another concealed door.
Smaller.
Almost invisible.
Marco examined it.
"It's another passage."
Thomas looked astonished.
"Enzo designed escape routes throughout the mansion."
"I thought they were destroyed."
Marco pushed the hidden panel open.
A narrow tunnel stretched into darkness.
Fresh footprints covered the dusty floor.
Very fresh.
Someone had used it recently.
Then Marco noticed something lying just inside the passage.
A leather briefcase.
He carried it into the chamber.
The lock had already been broken.
Inside were legal documents.
Dozens of them.
Every page carried Gabriel Rossi's signature.
Alessandro flipped through them rapidly.
His expression darkened.
"They've rewritten everything."
The documents declared Lily legally deceased.
Vanessa's unborn child listed as the sole future heir.
Trust amendments.
Inheritance transfers.
Corporate voting rights.
Everything had already been prepared.
All they needed...
Was Alessandro's signature.
Thomas suddenly froze.
"Wait..."
He pointed toward one page.
"This date."
"What about it?"
"It was signed..."
"...two weeks before the engagement announcement."
Marco stared at the document.
"They knew Alessandro would propose before he did."
Silence.
Someone inside Alessandro's closest circle had been feeding information to Vincent for years.
His travel schedule.
Business meetings.
Private conversations.
Even his proposal.
Nothing had ever been secret.
Just then...
A ringtone echoed through the chamber.
Everyone reached for a weapon.
The sound wasn't coming from a person.
It came from the briefcase.
Marco carefully opened a hidden compartment.
Inside lay a satellite phone.
Still ringing.
Caller ID displayed only one word.
GABRIEL
Marco looked at Alessandro.
"He knows we're here."
Alessandro picked up the phone.
He answered without speaking.
For several seconds...
Neither side said a word.
Then Gabriel chuckled softly.
"I wondered how long it would take you to find Enzo's room."
Alessandro's voice became ice.
"Where are you?"
"Close."
"Very close."
"You've always underestimated how many doors this mansion has."
Alessandro tightened his grip on the phone.
"You murdered my father."
A brief silence followed.
Then Gabriel replied,
"No."
"I simply drafted the paperwork afterward."
Before Alessandro could respond...
Another familiar voice came onto the line.
Slow.
Confident.
Mocking.
Vincent Moretti.
"My dear nephew..."
"I hope you've already met your little sister."
Alessandro's breathing stopped.
Vincent laughed.
"Oh..."
"You still believe Isabella only had one child?"
The line went silent.
Every person in the hidden chamber stared at Alessandro.
Because if Vincent was telling the truth...
Then somewhere...
May you like
There was another surviving child of Isabella Moretti.
And someone had been hiding that secret for nearly seventeen years.
