CHAPTER 3 The File Before His Birth #2
“Car accident.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Accident?”
Luca continued reading.
“Single vehicle. No witnesses.”
Sofia felt the room tilt.
Dante caught her elbow.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“I said I’m fine.”
He did not remove his hand immediately.
Their eyes met.
For one second, she saw concern.
Not the Don.
Dante.
Then Luca spoke.
“There’s another physician listed in these records.”
Dante released her.
“Who?”
“Dr. Elias Voss.”
Sofia frowned.
“I don’t know that name.”
Dante did.
She saw it immediately.
“You know him.”
His face had gone cold.
“Dante?”
He did not answer.
Luca looked equally disturbed.
“What?”
Sofia demanded.
Dante took the page.
“Elias Voss was my father’s doctor.”
“So?”
“He disappeared four years ago.”
“Before your father died?”
“Yes.”
Sofia stared.
“How did your father die?”
The silence gave her the answer before he spoke.
“Officially?”
Dante asked.
She swallowed.
“Officially.”
“Heart failure.”
“And unofficially?”
Dante looked toward the file.
“I’ve never believed it.”
Her skin prickled.
Luca pulled another folder.
“Boss.”
“What now?”
“This gets worse.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Go on.”
Luca placed a photograph on the table.
Three men.
Carlo Bellini.
Dr. Elias Voss.
And a third man.
Sofia’s blood froze.
“No.”
Dante looked at her.
“You know him?”
She could barely speak.
“That’s him.”
“Who?”
“The man from the night before the wedding.”
Dante picked up the photograph.
The third man was older, perhaps sixty. Silver hair. Expensive suit. A black ring on his right hand.
The symbol.
Sofia pointed.
“That ring.”
Dante looked closer.
Luca turned the photograph over.
A name was written on the back.
**GAbrIEL VESCARI**
Dante’s face changed.
Sofia saw recognition.
“Who is he?”
Dante remained silent for several seconds.
Then said, “A dead man.”
She stared.
“What?”
“Gabriel Vescari died twelve years ago.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I attended the funeral.”
Sofia looked at the photograph.
The date stamp was four years old.
“How can someone dead for twelve years be standing beside my father four years ago?”
Dante’s expression became grim.
“Good question.”
Luca began searching through the cabinet.
Sofia remained fixed on the photograph.
Gabriel Vescari.
The man who had threatened Dante’s life.
The man connected to her father.
The man supposedly dead.
The man whose organization had apparently been selecting marriages and projecting children.
“What was he?”
Sofia asked.
Dante did not answer immediately.
She turned.
“What was Gabriel Vescari?”
His eyes met hers.
“Head of one of the oldest criminal organizations in the country.”
She swallowed.
“Worse than the Morettis?”
Dante almost smiled.
Not from humor.
“Different.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“He didn’t build an empire through streets, ports, or casinos.”
“Then how?”
“People.”
Sofia frowned.
Dante continued.
“Judges. Doctors. bankers. politicians. Families.”
Her eyes moved toward the files.
“Marriages.”
“Yes.”
A chill went through her.
“He arranged families?”
“He arranged influence.”
“How?”
“By connecting bloodlines, money, leverage, secrets.”
Sofia stared.
“That sounds insane.”
“It was.”
“Was?”
“Vescari’s organization disappeared after his death.”
“Apparently not.”
“No.”
Dante looked at the photograph.
“Apparently not.”
Luca found another envelope.
“Here.”
He opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Handwritten.
No signature.
Dante read it first.
His expression hardened.
“What does it say?”
He handed it to Sofia.
She read.
**The Bellini girl must proceed as planned. M-04 remains the strongest viable line. Delay is unacceptable. The union must be secured before succession fractures. If the girl resists, Carlo is authorized to apply pressure. The firstborn is priority.**
Sofia stopped.
Firstborn.
Matteo.
Her fingers trembled.
Dante took the letter from her before she tore it accidentally.
“He was never just my son to them.”
Her voice broke.
Dante looked at her.
“No.”
“He was an objective.”
“Yes.”
She wrapped her arms around herself.
Dante moved closer.
“Sofia.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I ran to protect him without even knowing this.”
“Yes.”
“What if they always knew where I was?”
Dante said nothing.
The photographs answered.
Her stomach dropped.
“They could have taken him.”
“They didn’t.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It should.”
She stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because if they wanted Matteo dead, he would be dead.”
The bluntness shocked her.
Dante saw it.
He regretted the phrasing but not the logic.
“They kept watching.”
He continued.
“That means they want something else.”
“From him?”
“Possibly.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Sofia laughed once, hollow.
“Fantastic.”
Dante’s eyes darkened.
“I will find out.”
She looked at him.
“How?”
“The way I find out everything.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It should be.”
“Your methods usually involve blood.”
“Only when necessary.”
“That sentence is exactly why I ran.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Before either could continue, Luca pulled another document.
“Wait.”
He stared at the page.
Dante turned.
“What?”
“This is a payment record.”
“To whom?”
“Keller. Voss. Carlo.”
Sofia moved closer.
“And?”
Luca continued.
“Several other names.”
He ran a finger down the page.
Then stopped.
His face changed.
Dante noticed.
“What?”
Luca looked at him.
“One Moretti.”
Silence.
Dante’s body went still.
“Name.”
Luca hesitated.
“Luca.”
“Enzo Moretti.”
Sofia looked at Dante.
“Who is Enzo?”
Dante did not answer.
His face had transformed.
The room seemed suddenly colder.
“Dante.”
She moved closer.
“Who is Enzo?”
“My uncle.”
“Your father’s brother?”
“Yes.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
Luca spoke carefully.
“He’s been out of the country for years.”
Dante stared at the payment record.
“How much?”
“Two million over six years.”
“For what?”
“No description.”
Dante laughed softly.
Dangerously.
Of course.
Family.
It was always family.
Sofia recognized the look on his face.
“You’re going after him.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t even know what he did.”
“I know he accepted money.”
“That isn’t proof of this.”
“No.”
Dante folded the paper once.
“But it is enough to ask questions.”
Sofia knew what “asking questions” meant when Dante said it.
She stepped in front of him.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Move.”
“You’re not leaving.”
“I am.”
“We just found out someone may have been planning our child before he existed and your first instinct is to start a war?”
“My first instinct is to protect him.”
“By disappearing?”
The word hit him.
Sofia saw it.
“You have guards,” she continued.
“You have Luca. You have an entire army outside. But Matteo doesn’t know any of them.”
Dante’s expression shifted.
“He knows you.”
She swallowed.
“And he barely knows you.”
That one hurt too.
But this time she did not take it back.
Dante looked toward the ceiling as if he could see through it to where Matteo slept.
Sofia lowered her voice.
“You said you won’t lose another day.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“Then don’t.”
Silence.
Luca wisely turned away.
Dante stared at Sofia.
She was right.
He hated that.
“What do you suggest?”
The question surprised her.
Dante Moretti asking instead of ordering.
She took a second to recover.
“You stay here tonight.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“I live here.”
“You know what I mean.”
“And Enzo?”
“Luca can bring him to you.”
Luca glanced over.
Dante looked at him.
“Can you?”
“Yes.”
“Alive.”
Luca almost smiled.
“I assumed.”
Sofia exhaled.
Dante gave her a look.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You think I kill everyone.”
“I think you consider it more often than normal people.”
“Normal people are inefficient.”