Chapter 10 - The Traitor Beside My Chair
Marco went still.
I noticed.
Luca noticed too.
“Elena, take Eli inside the vehicle.”
She obeyed.
Hannah went with them.
Then I looked at Marco.
“Who?”
He didn't answer.
My stomach sank.
“Marco.”
His eyes lowered.
“Me.”
The world became very quiet.
Silas Bennett was Marco Bell's father.
My right-hand man.
The person I trusted most.
I laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because betrayal had become absurd.
“You knew?”
“Not when I joined you.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I thought he was dead.”
Everyone in my life apparently suffered from the same disease.
Marco explained.
His mother raised him under another surname.
He discovered Silas was his father after finding sealed records.
When he confronted Silas, Silas tried recruiting him.
Marco refused.
“Did you ever give him information about me?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
At least that answer was honest.
Luca stepped between us.
“Dante, think.”
“I am thinking.”
Silas knew our security.
My routes.
My safe house.
Information Marco possessed.
But Silas also built my intelligence systems.
He could have accessed them without Marco.
Then my phone rang.
Silas.
I answered.
“Have you figured it out?”
“You mean Marco?”
Silence.
Then a disappointed laugh.
“Luca ruins everything.”
Marco stared at the phone.
“Father.”
First time I heard him say it.
Silas's voice changed.
“Son.”
Marco looked sick.
“Leave the boy alone.”
“You chose Dante over blood.”
“You were never blood.”
That hurt Silas.
Good.
Then Silas revealed his final demand.
The archive for Eli.
But Eli was already with us.
Silas didn't know.
We had an advantage.
I looked toward the vehicle.
Then Silas said:
“You think you rescued him.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Check his coat.”
I ran.
Eli looked frightened as I searched the blue parka.
Inside the lining was a small device.
Not explosive.
Transmitter.
Microphone.
Silas had heard everything.
Including Elena's rescue.
Including Marco's confession.
Then the transmitter spoke.
“Thank you.”
Silas.
“You just reunited every person I needed.”
Why?
Hannah had archive access.
Elena knew old account numbers.
Marco carried Silas's bloodline authentication.
I carried Moretti authorization.
Eli connected the DNA records.
Together, we could unlock something Silas couldn't access alone.
“What?”
Silas answered:
“The Covenant.”
My father had created a contingency system after learning about the illegal adoption network.
A hidden fund.
Billions.
Not crime money.
Emergency assets intended for victims and families compromised by Silas's network.
To prevent one person stealing it, Vittorio divided authorization among multiple biological lines.
Silas wanted the money.
But I still didn't understand why Eli mattered.
Then Elena whispered:
“Because Vittorio named him.”
My father had secretly designated my son as final beneficiary.
If the Moretti organization collapsed, the Covenant transferred to Eli when he turned eighteen.
Silas had spent nine years trying to alter that.
He couldn't.
Unless Eli died.
My blood went cold.
Silas laughed through the transmitter.
“You keep assuming I need the boy alive.”
I ripped the device from his coat.
Then Goliath started barking toward the road.
A vehicle approached.
Not ours.
Elena grabbed Eli.
Marco reached inside his coat.
The vehicle stopped.
A woman stepped out.
I recognized her.
My aunt Sofia Moretti.
My father's younger sister.
She had been living in Sicily for twenty years.
She looked at Eli.
Then at me.
“Dante.”
“What are you doing here?”
She ignored the question.
“Silas lied about the Covenant.”
“How?”
Her face tightened.
“The money isn't for Eli.”
“Then who?”
She looked directly at Hannah.
“The Covenant was created for Isabella's descendants.”
Hannah.
Not Eli.
Then Sofia added:
“And Isabella isn't dead.”
Another supposedly dead person.
Of course.
“Where is she?”
Sofia looked toward the mountains.
“Silas has her.”
And suddenly we understood why he had returned to West Virginia.
Not for me.
May you like
Not even for Eli.
He had come to retrieve the one woman who could destroy his entire claim.
