Chapter 8 - The Man Who Knew EverythingMatteo's GameAdrien watched the footage twice.
Nobody spoke.
Then he looked at Marco.
"Why did you have this?"
"I've been investigating Matteo for eleven months."
"You should have told me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"Three times."
Marco's voice was flat.
"You refused to believe it."
Adrien's jaw tightened.
"Because he raised me."
"And that's why he thinks he can kill you."
Clara looked between them.
"So Marco didn't plant the angel?"
Marco's eyes moved toward her.
"No."
"Then why were you so hostile?"
"Because I knew someone would use you."
Clara frowned.
"Use me for what?"
Marco hesitated.
"To get Adrien emotional."
Adrien looked at him.
"Enough."
Marco continued anyway.
"Matteo expected you to react when the angel was found in her bag."
Adrien's gaze sharpened.
"He expected me to punish her."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he wanted you to distrust her."
Clara suddenly understood.
"He wanted me removed."
Marco nodded.
"Exactly."
Adrien walked toward the window.
"What does he want?"
"The ledger."
"And what's in it?"
"Your father's illegal transactions. Political payoffs. Offshore accounts. Names of every person inside the organization."
Adrien turned.
"That ledger could destroy half the city."
"And the other half."
Silence.
Clara spoke.
"Then why hasn't Matteo taken it?"
Marco looked at her.
"Because nobody knows where it is."
She remembered Elena's letter.
The key.
A person outside the family.
Her father's promise.
A terrible possibility formed.
"Maybe the ledger isn't in the Valente estate."
Adrien stared at her.
"What?"
"Your mother said the key leads to the ledger."
She took out the letter.
"She said a person outside the family would find it."
Adrien frowned.
"You're thinking your father hid it."
"Maybe."
Marco looked at Clara.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Think."
She closed her eyes.
Her father used to say something when she was a child.
A phrase.
She had never understood it.
Christmas always reminds us where people hide the things they cannot bear to lose.
She whispered it.
Adrien heard her.
"Christmas."
He looked at Marco.
"Where does the family spend Christmas?"
Marco answered immediately.
"The chapel."
Clara remembered the Christmas cards.
The silver angel.
The family tree.
Elena loved Christmas.
"Your mother didn't hide the ledger in a bank."
Adrien stared at her.
"She hid it somewhere she knew you'd return every year."
They drove back to the estate before dawn.
The storm had begun to ease.
The chapel stood behind the mansion.
Old stone.
Dark windows.
A bronze door.
Inside, Adrien moved straight toward the altar.
Marco searched the walls.
Clara walked toward the Christmas nativity display.
Something caught her eye.
A tiny wooden shepherd.
She picked it up.
On the bottom was an inscription.
T.W.
Her father's initials.
She looked at Adrien.
Then she saw the crack in the base.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
She opened it.
A location.
A cemetery.
And one sentence.
THE TRUTH IS BURIED WITH THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE.
Adrien stared.
"Gabriel."
Marco whispered,
"Or your father."
Before they could move, the chapel doors locked.
A voice echoed through the speakers.
"You keep looking in the wrong graves."
Adrien raised his gun.
May you like
A slow laugh followed.
Then flames appeared beneath the altar.
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