Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside the Family
The leak appeared the next morning.
MORETTI HEIRESS EXPECTED THIS WINTER.
Isabel threw the tablet onto my desk.
“This is exactly why I didn't tell you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“My doctor’s name is online. The clinic. My due date.”
“I'll fix it.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You can't unpublish information.”
“No. But I can find whoever stole it.”
Marcus entered.
“We did.”
I turned.
“Who?”
He placed a file on the desk.
“Salvatore.”
My cousin.
A capo.
And one of the men who had been sitting at the council table when Isabel entered.
“Bring him.”
Twenty minutes later, Salvatore stood before me.
“You stole her records.”
He shrugged.
“Your father needed certainty.”
Vittorio, standing near the window, turned.
“I ordered surveillance. Not this.”
Salvatore smiled.
“Someone had to protect the succession.”
Isabel stepped forward.
“From whom?”
“From uncertainty.”
“You mean from me.”
“You disappeared for six months carrying the next Moretti.”
“My child isn't a corporate asset.”
Salvatore looked at me.
“You hear this? She'll take the girl south and raise her to hate us.”
“Us?” I asked.
“The family.”
I walked toward him.
“You leaked private medical information about my pregnant wife.”
“For the family.”
“No.”
My voice stayed quiet.
“You did it for power.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
Marcus slid another document onto the desk.
“We checked deeper.”
I opened it.
Payments.
Shell companies.
Secret meetings.
Salvatore had been building support among several capos, betting that my lack of an heir would eventually weaken my position.
Isabel's pregnancy had ruined his plan.
“You wanted me childless,” I said.
Salvatore said nothing.
“You spent years encouraging my father to pressure us.”
Still nothing.
Isabel looked at him.
Then at me.
Understanding dawned.
“Alexander…”
I turned toward her.
She whispered, “Those anonymous letters.”
I remembered.
Letters delivered to our home.
Rumors that Isabel was secretly using contraception.
Claims she never wanted children.
I stared at Salvatore.
“You?”
He smiled faintly.
“Sometimes a marriage needs a little pressure.”
I crossed the room.
Marcus stepped between us.
“Alexander.”
I stopped.
Not because Salvatore deserved mercy.
Because Isabel was watching.
I looked at Marcus.
“Remove him from every Moretti company.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You can't exile blood.”
“Watch me.”
“Alexander—”
“Every account. Every property. Every position.”
His face changed.
“You need me.”
“No.”
I looked around the room.
“I needed people I could trust.”
Then I turned toward my father.
“And apparently I had fewer than I thought.”
Vittorio looked older than I had ever seen him.
Salvatore was escorted away.
Isabel remained silent.
Later, she found me alone beside the window.
“You didn't hurt him.”
I looked at her.
“You noticed.”
“The old Alexander would have.”
“The old Alexander lost you.”
She looked down.
“Salvatore manipulated us, but he didn't say those things to me.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“I know.”
“He didn't make you choose your father's approval over me.”
“No.”
“He didn't destroy our marriage.”
“No.”
I stepped closer but didn't touch her.
“I did.”
Her eyes filled.
“And that's why this is so difficult.”
“What is?”
She looked at me.
“I can see you changing.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
May you like
“And I don't know whether I can trust it.”
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