Chapter 6 - THE HIDDEN POCKET
The crowd gasped and parted instantly, stepping away from the man standing near the ice sculpture.
Carmine Moretti. Richard’s younger brother. My uncle.
He was sixty-five, leaning heavily on a silver-tipped cane, dressed in a sharp, pinstriped suit. He had always been the quiet shadow to my father’s roaring sun. The man who handled the logistics, the accountants, the dirty work that kept the Moretti empire clean.
He didn't look surprised. He didn't look afraid.
He just looked annoyed.
“You always talk too much, Vanessa,” Carmine sighed, his voice raspy from decades of cigars. He tapped his cane against the marble floor. Clack. Clack.
Richard stared at his brother. The phone slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a dull thud.
“Carmine?” Richard whispered. The betrayal in that single word was agonizing. “My own blood?”
Carmine walked slowly toward the center of the room. “Don't be dramatic, Ricky. It’s bad for the heart.”
He stopped a few feet from Vanessa, not looking at her, but keeping his eyes fixed on my father.
“You were losing your mind over this girl,” Carmine said, gesturing vaguely toward me. “You wanted to bring a grease-monkey mechanic into the family? Give him a seat at the table? Give him stock in the company we built?”
“He was family!” Richard bellowed.
“He was a nobody!” Carmine snapped back, his calm facade cracking. “I spent forty years cleaning up the blood and the dirt to build the Moretti name! I wasn't going to let you hand half of it to a girl who ran away and a mechanic who couldn't read a balance sheet!”
Answer one: Carmine orchestrated Liam’s murder to protect the company shares.
Open two: But why is Vanessa involved? Why is she blackmailing Julian instead of just taking the money from Carmine?
“So you killed him,” I said. My voice didn't sound like my own. It was cold, hollow, dead. “You took my daughter’s father because of stock options.”
Carmine finally looked at me. His eyes were void of any empathy. “It was business, Sophia. It’s always been business. If Julian had been half the man his father was, I wouldn't have had to step in. But Julian is weak.”
Carmine turned back to Richard.
“So I made a contingency plan,” Carmine explained, gesturing to Vanessa. “I found a girl with enough ambition and zero morals. I brought her into the company. I had her orchestrate the hit. I had her trap your idiot son. Because when Julian inevitably failed, Vanessa would be his wife. And she would control his voting rights on the board.”
Vanessa smirked, linking her arm through Carmine’s.
“And since you are my biological father, Uncle Carmine,” Vanessa purred, dropping the final, devastating bomb, “that means the Moretti empire stays exactly where it belongs. With us.”
A collective shockwave hit the room.
My stomach heaved. Vanessa was Carmine’s illegitimate daughter. She was Julian’s cousin.
Julian wretched, turning away and vomiting onto the marble floor.
Richard staggered backward, pressing a hand to his chest. His breathing grew shallow.
“Dad!” I screamed, rushing forward, pulling Ava with me.
I caught my father before he hit the ground, easing him onto a chair. His face was gray.
“Get a doctor!” Victor yelled, stepping protectively in front of us, shielding us from Carmine and Vanessa.
“No doctors,” Carmine commanded, raising his cane. The three security guards at the doors hesitated, looking between Richard and Carmine. Carmine had always paid their salaries.
“It’s over, Ricky,” Carmine said softly, looking down at his dying brother. “You had a good run. But the board answers to me now. Vanessa and Julian will marry tomorrow, securing his shares. Sophia is cut out of the trust for abandoning the family. I win.”
Carmine reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy gold family ring—the one our grandfather had brought from Italy. He slid it onto his finger, a sickening coronation.
I felt tears streaming down my face as I held my father’s cold, trembling hand.
“I’m so sorry, Dad,” I wept. “I’m so sorry I left.”
Richard squeezed my hand. His breathing was labored, his eyes squeezed shut in pain.
But then, the trembling stopped.
Richard opened his eyes. They weren't clouded with pain anymore. They were sharp, clear, and burning with hellfire.
He sat up perfectly straight.
The gray color left his face, replaced by a terrifying, calm flush of adrenaline.
He calmly reached inside his tuxedo jacket and unbuttoned the lining, revealing a hidden, zippered pocket.
“You think I didn't know you were stealing from me, Carmine?” Richard asked, his voice steady and lethal.
May you like
He pulled out a folded, yellowed piece of paper and held it up.
“You control the board, brother. But you forgot who controls the vault.”
