Chapter 9 - The Other Moretti
His name was Luca Moretti.
Dante had no brother.
At least that was what Alessandro told him.
Luca claimed they were twins.
Born minutes apart.
One publicly acknowledged.
One removed from the family before his first birthday.
“Why?” Dante asked.
“Meridian.”
Of course.
Everything returned to Meridian.
Salvatore Vale had designed the trust with an unusual provision: control transferred differently if the Moretti heir had multiple biological sons.
Alessandro feared division.
So he erased one.
Luca.
“Who raised you?”
“Lucia.”
Dante’s supposedly dead aunt.
The same woman whose body, according to Elaine, eventually occupied my mother’s coffin.
My head hurt.
“You’re the person using Dante’s credentials?”
Luca nodded.
“For seven years.”
“Why?”
“To recover what our father stole.”
Dante stepped closer.
“By stealing from me?”
“By preventing you from becoming him.”
Grant shifted between them.
Luca smiled.
“Still hiding behind guards?”
Dante answered quietly.
“I’m standing in front of him.”
That ended the provocation.
Owen produced the original Meridian charter.
The trust did not belong to Moretti Global.
Moretti Global belonged partly to the trust.
Forty-nine percent Vale interest.
Forty-nine percent Moretti.
Two percent independent stewardship.
That two percent carried tie-breaking authority.
“Who owns it?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
Then Owen looked at Elaine.
My mother went pale.
“Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca laughed.
“She knows.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“The stewardship share belonged to Lucia Moretti.”
Dante stared.
“Lucia is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Who inherited it?”
Elaine looked at me.
Not Dante.
Me.
“No.”
“Cara—”
“No.”
Lucia had no children.
So why would I inherit?
Elaine finally told me.
Lucia Moretti wasn’t merely Dante’s aunt.
She was my grandmother.
The room became silent.
“My grandfather was Salvatore Vale.”
“Yes.”
“And my grandmother was Lucia Moretti?”
“Yes.”
Their relationship had created me at the intersection of both families.
My mother, Elaine, was their daughter.
That meant I wasn’t simply a Vale heir.
I was also Moretti blood.
Dante sat down slowly.
I looked at him.
“We’re not—”
“No.”
Elaine almost laughed despite everything.
“You and Dante are distant enough that this isn’t what your face suggests.”
“I wasn’t suggesting anything.”
Owen smiled.
“Sure.”
I wanted to throw something at him.
Instead, Luca returned us to the important question.
If Lucia’s two percent had passed to Elaine, then Elaine controlled the deciding vote.
Unless she was legally dead.
She was.
“Then who inherited it?”
My mother looked at me.
I already knew.
“Me.”
“Correct.”
Suddenly I understood Vanessa’s plan.
She didn’t merely need me near Dante.
She needed my signature.
Or my death.
Then Bellini’s lights shut off.
Grant shouted.
Glass shattered.
Someone grabbed me.
I fought.
A needle touched my neck but missed as I twisted.
Dante slammed into whoever held me.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Owen was gone.
So was the Meridian charter.
On the table remained one phone.
It rang.
Vanessa.
Dante answered.
She laughed.
“Now you finally know what the waitress is worth.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Where’s Daniel?”
“With Owen.”
“And the charter?”
“With me.”
“What do you want?”
“Cara.”
I froze.
Vanessa continued:
“Bring her to the Moretti estate tomorrow at noon.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s one document only she can sign.”
“And if she refuses?”
May you like
Vanessa laughed softly.
“Then I tell her who actually killed her mother.”
