Chapter 6 - The Name From the Past
Lorenzo Bellini had been dead for four years.
At least, that was what every official record said.
He had once worked for my father.
Then he betrayed him.
He disappeared after a violent dispute over control of the docks.
I had spent years believing he was gone.
Vittorio told me otherwise.
“He survived.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw him six months ago.”
I stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“Because I was afraid.”
“You should have been afraid enough to tell me.”
Vittorio looked down.
“He contacted me.”
“Why?”
“He wanted access to your shipping routes.”
“And you refused?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't he kill you?”
Vittorio looked at me.
“Because he wanted me to help him.”
“With what?”
“Your wife.”
The room went silent.
Mia was asleep against the sofa.
I lowered my voice.
“What did Lorenzo want from Elena?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I swear I'm not.”
I believed him this time.
Because fear had changed his face.
This was no longer fear of me.
It was fear of Lorenzo.
Vittorio explained that six months earlier, Lorenzo had approached him at an abandoned warehouse.
He said he had information about Elena.
He claimed she had discovered something about my father's old business.
Something buried in the docks.
Something that could destroy my organization.
Vittorio refused to help.
Then Lorenzo threatened him.
He knew where Vittorio's mother lived.
So Vittorio kept silent.
I hated him for that.
But I understood why he had been afraid.
“What was Elena looking for?”
Vittorio shook his head.
“Something called the Winter Ledger.”
The name hit me.
The USB folder.
WINTER.
I looked at Gabriel.
“Search the old company archives.”
He did.
A document appeared.
Winter Ledger.
Created seventeen years earlier.
My father's name was attached.
I had never heard of it.
Neither had Vittorio.
The ledger wasn't financial.
It was a list of names.
People who had been paid.
People who had betrayed us.
People who had disappeared.
And one name appeared three times.
Elena's father.
I stared at the screen.
Vittorio whispered:
“Boss…”
I didn't answer.
Because the truth was beginning to form.
Elena hadn't stumbled into this mystery.
She had inherited it.
May you like
And someone had kidnapped her because she was finally close to uncovering what her father had died trying to expose.
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