Chapter 18 - Three MinutesDaniel grabbed Lily.
“Everyone out!”
Alessandro stopped him.
“Wait.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That thing is not what you think.”
The timer appeared again.
03:00.
02:59.
02:58.
Mr. Snow backed away.
Luca looked terrified.
Victor whispered:
“He lied.”
Alessandro turned.
“Who?”
Victor looked at Snow.
“All of us were disposable.”
Snow pulled a device from his pocket.
The ballroom doors slammed shut.
“Now,” Snow said, “you will learn why your father feared the cake.”
Alessandro stared at the table.
The cake split open.
Not exploding.
Opening.
A hidden compartment appeared.
Inside was a recording device.
And a small envelope.
Daniel recognized it.
“No.”
“What?”
“That was supposed to be destroyed.”
Alessandro opened it.
Inside was a letter from Antonio.
It explained the final truth.
The Moretti fortune had been protected by a secret condition.
No heir could inherit unless they proved they could identify the traitor.
Antonio had created the birthday scenario as a final test.
But he had also left one final safeguard.
If the family gathered and the child spoke the correct words, the entire empire would be transferred away from every adult in the room.
To Emilia.
The adults had spent decades fighting for power.
The child had been the one person who could take it from all of them.
Alessandro looked at Lily.
“What are the words?”
Lily looked at the cake.
Then at Daniel.
Then at Gabriel.
She whispered:
“Check that cake.”
Alessandro froze.
“What?”
“That is the test.”
The timer stopped.
02:13.
The doors unlocked.
Snow's face collapsed.
“No.”
Alessandro looked toward him.
“You needed the cake.”
Snow shook his head.
“You needed to open it yourselves.”
“Why?”
“Because the ledger is encrypted.”
Alessandro understood.
The cake contained the key.
Daniel looked at the old clock.
“It's a trap.”
Luca said:
“Everything tonight was a trap.”
Alessandro smiled without humor.
“Then let's spring the last one.”
He opened the final compartment.
A small photograph lay inside.
It showed everyone who had gathered that night.
But the photograph had been taken twenty years earlier.
Everyone was there.
Even the people who claimed they had never met.
And in the center stood one missing man.
Victor looked at it.
His face went white.
“That's impossible.”
Alessandro stared.
“Who is that?”
Victor whispered:
“The man who trained us.”
The photograph shifted.
A name appeared.
ANTONIO MORETTI.
Then a second name appeared beneath it.
ALASTAIR MORETTI.
The grandfather.
Then a third.
EMILIA MORETTI.
Lily.
The final heir.
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And below her name:
SUCCESSOR CONFIRMED.
