Chapter 4 - THE UNCLE WHO CAME WITHOUT CALLING
4
Matteo Moretti looked like the kind of man who donated hospital wings.
That was Grace's first thought.
Silver hair.
Perfect dark suit.
Warm eyes.
No visible bodyguards.
He stood in the main salon holding a bottle of wine as though he had arrived for Sunday dinner instead of appearing uninvited at a locked estate.
“My nephew.”
He embraced Luca.
Luca did not return the warmth.
“You should have called.”
Matteo smiled.
“Then it wouldn't be a surprise.”
His eyes found Grace.
The smile remained.
But something beneath it changed.
“Ms. Walker.”
Grace did not remember Luca telling him her name.
She noticed Victor notice too.
“Have we met?” Grace asked.
“No.”
“Then you have an excellent memory for people you've never met.”
Matteo chuckled.
“I was told the new cook had caused excitement.”
“Who told you?”
A pause.
Small.
“Staff talks.”
“Staff had their phones collected last night.”
Luca looked at her.
Matteo's smile thinned.
“You are Samuel's daughter.”
Grace's stomach tightened.
There it was.
No pretending.
“You knew my father?”
“Once.”
“Everyone seems to have.”
Matteo studied her face.
“You resemble Lucia.”
Luca moved between them slightly.
“My father told me my mother's name was Helen.”
“Samuel told many necessary lies.”
“Were they necessary?”
Matteo sighed.
“Children often believe truth is automatically kinder.”
“I'm thirty-one.”
“To old men, that's still young.”
Grace disliked him immediately.
Not because Samuel warned her.
Because Matteo spoke as if every answer already belonged to him.
Luca gestured toward a chair.
“Why are you here?”
Matteo sat.
“To protect the family.”
“From Grace?”
“From history.”
Grace remained standing.
“You mean evidence.”
Matteo looked impressed.
“Samuel raised you well.”
“Did you help kill him?”
Victor shifted.
Luca said nothing.
Matteo's expression barely changed.
“No.”
“My mother?”
“No.”
“Gabriel Reyes?”
Victor stared.
Matteo looked toward him.
“Your father made unfortunate choices.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Grace leaned forward.
“Samuel recorded your name.”
That finally affected Matteo.
“How recent?”
Luca smiled without humor.
“You tell me.”
Matteo looked between them.
Then laughed quietly.
“So Samuel is still playing games.”
Grace's heart kicked.
“You know he's alive.”
“I know Samuel has always been difficult to kill.”
Not the same answer.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you want him dead?”
Matteo looked at her for several seconds.
“I wanted him forgotten.”
Grace felt colder.
“That's not much better.”
Matteo turned toward Luca.
“You opened the kennel room.”
Luca's face changed.
“How do you know?”
“Because if Samuel's daughter is here and Titan chose her, that's where he intended you to look.”
Grace understood something important.
Matteo knew the architecture.
Maybe he had always known about the room.
“You knew it existed.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you remove the files?”
“I thought Antonio had.”
Luca stared.
“You knew what my father was doing.”
Matteo looked almost offended.
“Of course.”
Silence.
Luca took one step forward.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“People were disappearing.”
“Yes.”
“Children.”
Matteo's face hardened.
“Do not simplify history.”
Grace laughed once.
“That's usually what people say right before explaining why something horrible was complicated.”
His eyes moved to her.
“Your mother said things like that.”
“Good.”
Matteo leaned back.
“She was brave.”
“You say that like you didn't hunt her.”
“I didn't.”
“Who did?”
Matteo looked at Luca.
“Antonio.”
The room changed.
Luca's father.
Matteo explained that Lucia discovered Shepherd had expanded beyond witnesses.
Antonio used it to move people connected to political and financial schemes.
Lucia copied the registry.
She intended to expose him.
Antonio ordered Gabriel Reyes to bring her home.
Gabriel refused.
Samuel helped her escape.
Matteo claimed he secretly assisted them.
Grace didn't believe him.
“Samuel warned Luca about you.”
“Samuel misunderstood.”
“Convenient.”
“He believed I betrayed Lucia.”
“Did you?”
Matteo's eyes briefly lost warmth.
“I failed her.”
“What does that mean?”
“I knew Antonio was looking for her.”
“And?”
“I did nothing.”
Again.
A family of men who described choices as absences.
Grace had heard enough.
“Where is my father?”
Matteo stood.
“If Samuel sent you here, he intends to force the registry into the open.”
“Good.”
“No.”
For the first time, fear appeared beneath Matteo's composure.
“You don't understand what is in it.”
“Names.”
“Governors. Judges. Police commissioners. Federal agents. Businessmen. Families who built new lives under false identities.”
Grace paused.
“Victims.”
“Some.”
“And others?”
“People who paid to disappear after crimes.”
That complicated everything.
The registry could expose victims and criminals together.
Witnesses living under new names.
Children who had no idea their parents' identities were fabricated.
People whose entire adult lives depended on buried documents.
“If released carelessly,” Matteo said, “you won't just destroy guilty men.”
Luca said, “That's why Samuel kept it hidden.”
Matteo nodded.
“But Samuel has changed.”
“How do you know?”
Matteo looked toward Grace.
“Because twelve years of running changes people.”
Grace wanted to defend her father.
She couldn't.
She didn't know the man Samuel had become.
Matteo walked toward the window.
“Three months ago, somebody started accessing old Shepherd accounts.”
Luca frowned.
“What accounts?”
“Emergency funds.”
“Samuel?”
“I assumed.”
“How much?”
“Nearly eight million.”
Grace stared.
“My father?”
“Perhaps.”
“What for?”
“We don't know.”
“Stop saying we.”
Matteo turned.
“You carry Moretti blood whether you like it or not.”
“I carry my father's name.”
“Walker is not your blood.”
Grace's expression hardened.
“No. It's better. He chose it.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Then an alarm sounded.
One short tone.
Victor touched his earpiece.
“What?”
His face changed.
“West perimeter breach.”
Luca drew his attention toward the window.
“Where?”
“The kennels.”
They ran.
Smoke was rising by the time they reached the old building.
Someone had entered through a maintenance access road and thrown an incendiary device through a window.
Fire spread across the upper floor.
The hidden room lay beneath.
“Files!” Grace shouted.
Victor's men moved.
Luca grabbed her.
“No.”
“Samuel's records—”
“Are not worth your life.”
Titan barked violently.
Then he pulled free from his handler and ran into smoke.
“Titan!”
Grace went after him.
Luca swore and followed.
The old kennel filled with thick gray air.
Grace covered her mouth.
Titan disappeared toward the back.
He wasn't headed for the stairs.
He stopped beside a wall.
Scratched.
Grace pushed aside a wooden storage cabinet.
Behind it was a narrow compartment.
Inside lay a metal case.
Titan barked.
Luca grabbed it.
“Out.”
They escaped seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
Fire crews controlled the blaze.
Most of the underground room survived.
But whoever attacked had not been trying simply to destroy evidence.
Victor opened the metal case Titan found.
Inside was one object.
An old microcassette recorder.
A label:
FOR GRACE — ONLY AFTER MATTEO ARRIVES.
Everyone slowly turned toward Matteo.
His face changed.
Samuel had known he would come.
Grace pressed play.
Her father's voice filled the courtyard.
“Gracie.”
She almost broke at the nickname.
“If you're hearing this, Matteo is standing somewhere nearby telling you he failed your mother.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
Samuel continued.
“He didn't fail her.”
Pause.
“He sold her.”
Victor stared.
Luca turned toward his uncle.
Grace's entire body went cold.
Samuel's recording continued.
“Antonio offered Matteo control of the legitimate Moretti companies if Matteo gave him Lucia's location.”
Luca stepped toward Matteo.
“Is that true?”
Matteo said nothing.
“Is it true?”
“Yes.”
Grace couldn't move.
Matteo looked at her.
“I didn't know Antonio intended to kill her.”
“You gave him her location.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Albany.”
Grace's childhood.
Matteo had led Antonio to Samuel, Lucia, and Grace.
Grace's voice shook.
“My mother died when I was seven.”
Matteo looked down.
“Yes.”
“Was it an aneurysm?”
Silence.
“Was it?”
“No.”
The world narrowed.
“How did she die?”
Matteo looked toward Luca.
Then back at Grace.
“Your mother was poisoned.”
Grace forgot how to breathe.
“And Samuel knew?”
“He knew afterward.”
“Who did it?”
Matteo's lips parted.
A gunshot cracked from somewhere beyond the courtyard.
Victor threw Grace to the ground.
A second shot shattered marble.
Guards returned fire toward the trees.
Matteo collapsed.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Grace crawled toward him.
“Who poisoned her?”
Matteo struggled to breathe.
Luca pressed his hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Matteo looked at Grace.
His voice came as a whisper.
“It wasn't Antonio.”
Grace leaned closer.
“Who?”
Matteo tried again.
“The man who helped Samuel disappear.”
May you like
Then his eyes closed.
And for the first time, Grace realized the person who saved her father might also have murdered her mother.
