Chapter 12 - THE BASEMENT ARCHIVE
We reached St. Vincent before midnight.
I left Sophie at my father’s house with a licensed neonatal nurse Amelia trusted.
It was the first time I had been separated from her.
Every instinct told me to turn around.
But if I didn’t end this, Sophie would grow up inside the same shadow that had shaped my entire life.
Hospital security had Richard trapped in the basement archive.
He had entered using an old executive access card.
When Luka and I arrived, Richard was standing beside an open cabinet.
Paper files covered the floor.
He looked smaller than he had the night before.
Older.
Cornered.
“Mara.”
I stopped several feet away.
“Were you in my mother’s car?”
His face changed.
Luka watched him carefully.
Richard sat down.
“Yes.”
The truth was almost disappointingly quiet.
“Why?”
“Elise asked to meet.”
“You mean my mother.”
“Yes.”
“What did she want?”
“To negotiate.”
“With you?”
“She had evidence.”
“Of your theft?”
“Of more than that.”
Luka stepped forward.
“What more?”
Richard looked at him.
“Your father.”
Luka’s jaw tightened.
“What about him?”
“Marco wasn’t innocent.”
“Neither were you.”
“No.”
Richard looked exhausted.
“But Daniel’s files made your father look cleaner than he was.”
I interrupted.
“My mother.”
Richard looked at me again.
“She offered me the original M-17 witness ledger.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Protection for you.”
My chest tightened.
“She was protecting me.”
“Always.”
“What happened in the car?”
“We argued.”
“Did you hurt her?”
Richard stared at the floor.
“No.”
“Then whose blood was on the glass?”
“Mine.”
He raised his left hand.
A thin white scar crossed his palm.
“She pulled a knife.”
I almost laughed.
“My mother?”
“She was terrified.”
“Of you.”
“Yes.”
The admission stunned me.
“Then what happened?”
“She drove away.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“You expect me to believe you just climbed out and let her go?”
“I didn’t order the crash.”
Luka stepped closer.
“But you paid Samuel Keene.”
Richard’s face broke.
“I paid him to frighten her.”
I felt sick.
“To frighten her?”
“To force her off the road so we could recover the ledger.”
“You sent a truck after my mother.”
“I never told him to hit her.”
“You put him there.”
Richard’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
The silence afterward was unbearable.
Then he looked at me.
“The accident destroyed everything I was trying to protect.”
“Your money?”
“My son.”
Ethan had entered behind us.
Richard saw him.
For the first time, I saw love on Richard Cole’s face.
Twisted.
Possessive.
Real.
“You knew Marco was my father,” Ethan said.
Richard nodded.
“How long?”
“Since before you were born.”
Ethan looked devastated.
“Why did you raise me?”
Richard stood.
“Because Catherine was my wife.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Because you were mine.”
“You hated my biological father.”
“Yes.”
“So you stole his son?”
Richard’s face hardened.
“I raised you.”
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you from becoming a Moretti.”
Luka’s eyes turned cold.
“And what exactly does that mean?”
Richard looked between both men.
Then he laughed bitterly.
“It means none of you understand why M-17 was created.”
I pointed toward the archive.
“My mother was the witness.”
“No.”
Richard shook his head.
“Elise was Witness M-17.”
He looked directly at Luka.
“But M-17 was also the code name for an account.”
“What account?”
May you like
Richard smiled without humor.
“The account holding proof that half of Moretti Holdings never belonged to the Morettis at all.”
