Chapter 9 - The Father Behind the MurderI replayed the recording three times.
Alessandro's voice was unmistakable. He sounded tired, frightened, and more serious than I had ever heard him.
He explained that our father had secretly authorized the network of informants years before his death. Salvatore later expanded it into an organization that controlled officials, rival businesses, and parts of the criminal world.
But our father had wanted out.
He had discovered that Salvatore was arranging murders under the family's name and selling information to foreign crime syndicates.
Alessandro found evidence that our father had tried to shut the operation down.
Then he found something worse.
Our father had survived the first attempt on his life.
He had disappeared for several months, then returned under a false identity.
According to Alessandro, the man buried in our family cemetery might not have been our father at all.
I stopped the recording.
Maria watched me carefully.
“Do you believe it?”
“I don't know what I believe anymore.”
I had visited my father's grave every year on his birthday. I had spoken to him when I made decisions, imagined what he would think of my choices, and spent years trying to become the kind of man he might have respected.
Now I was being told that the body in his grave might belong to someone else.
I called my private physician, who had access to old family medical records.
Within two hours, he found a document indicating that our father had received treatment at a clinic in Switzerland six months after his supposed death.
The patient had used the name Edward Crane.
The medical records included a photograph.
It was my father.
Older. Thinner. Alive.
I felt the room tilt.
“Where is he?”
The physician searched the archived information.
“The records stop four years ago.”
Four years.
Someone had been alive for decades while I mourned him.
Someone had watched me build an empire in his absence.
Someone had allowed his sons to destroy each other.
I contacted every reliable source I had in Europe. By midnight, we had a recent lead: a private residence near Toronto registered under the name Edward Crane.
The same city Richard had mentioned.
The same city where Salvatore had supposedly hidden.
I decided to go.
Maria grabbed my arm.
“You can't leave the children here.”
“Vincent will protect them.”
“Vincent may not be the person you think he is.”
I looked toward the living room, where Gabriel was teaching Lily how to draw a motorcycle.
“Then I'll leave enough protection to withstand an army.”
Before dawn, I boarded a private aircraft with Vincent and two trusted men.
During the flight, Vincent remained unusually quiet.
Finally, he spoke.
“There's something I should have told you.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“The watch. Three weeks ago, when I returned it to your office, I found it inside Matteo's car.”
My expression hardened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to understand why he'd taken it. I checked the watch and discovered a hidden compartment.”
He handed me a tiny memory card.
“Your brother had concealed something inside it.”
I took the card.
“What?”
“An encrypted file. I haven't opened it yet.”
I connected it to a secure laptop.
A video appeared on the screen.
Alessandro was sitting in a dark room, speaking directly to the camera.
“If this recording has been found, someone has finally discovered the truth. Dominic, listen carefully. Matteo is not your enemy.”
I froze.
Alessandro continued.
“The man who ordered my death was our father. Salvatore helped him hide the truth, but Salvatore was only protecting himself. The person you need to fear is the man who taught us that family loyalty mattered more than justice.”
The video ended.
I stared at the screen.
For years, I had imagined confronting Salvatore about my brother's death.
Now I had to confront the possibility that the person responsible had been the man whose approval I had spent my childhood seeking.
Vincent placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Boss, whatever happens, you won't face him alone.”
I looked at the memory card.
For the first time, I believed Vincent.
May you like
But I was beginning to understand that loyalty had a terrible price.
And before this war ended, someone I loved would pay it.
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