Chapter 6 - The Grainy Truth
No one dared to breathe as the butler, with trembling hands, wheeled the auxiliary monitor forward and connected the vintage VCR unit.
Victor took a step backward toward the dining room exit, but two private security guards—loyal Moretti men who had stood guard for Luca’s father—stepped in front of the double doors, crossing their arms. Victor was trapped.
Luca picked up the dusty cassette. He carefully blew the grey powder from the plastic casing, inspecting the handwritten label one more time.
"October 12... 11:43 P.M... Do not let them erase this," Luca read softly, his grim tone settling over the grand room like a suffocating shroud.
Sophie clung tightly to Luca's side, watching with wide, innocent eyes as her father pushed the tape into the slot. The machine clicked. The whirring of magnetic tape spinning inside plastic filled the room.
The wide screen flickered to life with static, followed by a timecode stamped in bright green digital letters at the bottom corner:
*OCT 12 — 11:41:02 PM.*
It was a wide angle of the estate's private underground garage. The rain outside was barely visible through the drain vents, but the lighting over Alessandra’s cherry-red sedan was crystal clear.
At 11:42 PM, a figure in a heavy trench coat entered the frame, carrying a professional mechanics' kit. The figure walked directly to the driver’s side front wheel of Alessandra's car, knelt down, and pulled out an industrial hydraulic hose cutter.
As the figure stood up and wiped grease from his forehead under the bright halogen light, he turned toward the camera.
The dining room gasped in collective horror.
On the screen was Victor Hale, eight years younger, wearing the distinct gold signet ring given only to senior trustees of the Moretti family.
And standing right behind him, holding the flashlight and checking the security monitors, was Marco.
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👉 How would Victor and Marco react when their cold-blooded betrayal played out before the entire dynasty?
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