Chapter 6 - THE AUDIO DRIVE
Luca took the silver flash drive from Eleanor’s trembling hand. The small piece of metal seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. “Thomas,” Luca said without looking away from the drive. “Is this what you gave her?” My brother swallowed hard, nodding rapidly. “Yes, sir. Mrs. Moretti cornered me three days before she died. She said if I gave her the digital logs of the skimming and helped her record a confession from the inside, she would make sure I got immunity when she went to the feds.” “The feds,” Luca repeated, the words tasting like poison in his mouth. His own wife, preparing to dismantle his empire. “She wasn’t trying to ruin you, Luca,” Eleanor interrupted, her voice fiercely protective. “She was trying to save you. She wanted to take down Marcus so you could walk away from this life and be a real father to Grace.” Luca closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. When he opened them, the raw pain was locked away, replaced by the cold, calculating mafia boss he had been trained to be. He walked over to the antique credenza in the hallway where a laptop sat, used for controlling the mansion’s security system. He plugged the flash drive in. Vanessa scrambled backward on the marble floor. “Luca, please! You don’t need to listen to that! It’s manipulated! That kid is a hacker, he faked the audio!” Luca ignored her. He opened the file and clicked play. At first, there was only the sound of static, the rustling of fabric, and the distant hum of traffic. Then, a voice came through the speakers clearly. Catherine’s voice.“You’re stealing from him, Marcus. Three million dollars in the last six months alone.” My breath hitched. Hearing the dead woman’s voice echo through the grand foyer felt like a ghost had stepped into the room. Marcus’s voice answered on the recording, arrogant and dismissed. “Luca’s gone soft, Cath. He’s too busy playing family man to notice the shipments are light. I’m just taking what I’m owed for running the streets while he plays house.”“I’m taking these logs to Luca,” Catherine’s voice fired back. “Tonight.” Then, a third voice entered the recording. It was Vanessa.“You’re not going anywhere, Catherine.” Vanessa on the floor let out a ragged sob, burying her face in her hands. The audio continued. There was the sound of a scuffle. A heavy thud.“Grab the envelope!” Vanessa’s recorded voice shrieked. “Don’t let her get to the study!”“Get off me!” Catherine screamed. Then, a sound that made my blood run cold. The sound of high heels slipping on hardwood. A frantic grasp for a railing. And then Vanessa’s voice, clear and venomous: “Let her fall, Marcus. Let go of her arm!” A horrifying crash echoed through the speakers, followed by dead silence. Luca hit the stop button. He turned slowly. His face was a mask of pure, terrifying void. He walked toward Vanessa. She scrambled backward until her back hit the front door. “Luca... Luca, I was panicking! I didn’t push her, I just told him to let go! He was holding her, and I told him to let go!” “You watched my wife fall, and then you moved into her bedroom,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. “You wore her jewelry. You sat at her dining table. You tried to erase her mother from my daughter's life.” Vanessa sobbed uncontrollably. “I loved you! I did it for us!” Luca raised his gun and pointed it directly at Vanessa’s forehead. “Daddy, no!” Grace screamed. Luca froze. He looked back at his nine-year-old daughter. Grace was crying, hiding her face against my apron. Luca’s hand shook. The mafia boss, the ruthless leader of the Chicago syndicate, lowered his weapon. He couldn’t execute a woman in front of his child. Not again. “Take them outside,” Luca barked to the two massive enforcers who had finally rushed into the foyer from the perimeter gate. “Tie them up in the garage. Keep them alive until the police get here.” The guards hauled Marcus and Vanessa to their feet, dragging them kicking and screaming out the front doors into the rainy Chicago night. When the doors shut, the silence in the mansion was deafening. Luca dropped his gun onto a side table. He ran a hand over his face, looking exhausted, broken, and suddenly much older than thirty-six. He walked over to Eleanor and slowly, hesitantly, dropped to his knees in front of the elderly woman. “Eleanor,” Luca choked out, a single tear escaping his dark eyes. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know.” Eleanor reached out with a trembling hand and gently touched his cheek. “I know you didn’t, sweetheart. I know.” It was a moment of profound relief. The truth was out. The monsters were gone. But as I hugged my brother tightly, thanking God we had survived, I noticed Grace wasn’t looking at her father or her grandmother. Grace was staring at the laptop on the credenza. She walked over to it, her small fingers reaching for the keyboard. “Grace, honey, don’t touch that,” I said gently, stepping toward her. But she had already pressed a button. The audio file resumed playing. We thought the recording had ended after the crash. We thought Catherine had died instantly. But through the speakers, came a weak, agonizing gasp.“Luca...” Catherine’s dying voice whispered through the static. “Luca... the safety deposit... the key...” Then, a heavy set of footsteps approached the microphone. A man’s shoes. A voice spoke, cold and clear, directly into the hidden microphone on Catherine’s body.“I’m sorry, Catherine. But nobody takes my empire from me. Not even you.” The room froze. Because it wasn’t Marcus’s voice. And it wasn’t Vanessa’s. The voice on the recording... was Luca’s.
