Chapter 13 – The Ghost in the Surveillance Room
The gunshot echoed through the mansion.
Then came another sound.
Not an explosion.
Not screaming.
Footsteps.
Fast.
Someone was running.
The emergency lights bathed the hallway in an eerie crimson glow, casting long shadows across the marble floor. Guests instinctively backed against the walls while Alessandro tightened his grip around Emma with one arm.
The other reached inside his jacket.
When it emerged, a black pistol rested calmly in his hand.
No panic.
No hesitation.
Only preparation.
"Marco."
The security chief answered immediately through his earpiece.
"I'm heading to the surveillance room."
"Alive," Alessandro ordered.
"If possible."
"Understood."
Within seconds, half a dozen guards disappeared down the staircase.
The mansion transformed from a celebration into a fortress.
I reached toward Emma.
"Sir... let me take her."
Alessandro looked down.
Emma, still sleepy, had wrapped both tiny arms around his neck.
"No..."
she mumbled.
"I like it here."
Despite everything happening around us...
Several people smiled.
It was impossible not to.
The most feared businessman in New York had somehow become the safest place a frightened little girl could imagine.
Alessandro gently brushed a curl away from her forehead.
"She's burning up."
I nodded.
"Her fever has gotten worse."
He turned to one of the house physicians, who had been attending the party.
"Dr. Harris."
The elderly doctor stepped forward.
"Please examine her."
While the doctor checked Emma's temperature, Alessandro never once took his eyes off the dark staircase.
Something else was occupying his mind.
Not Vanessa.
Not the fake pregnancy.
The surveillance room.
Someone had risked everything to reach it.
Which meant there was something far more valuable than a silicone pregnancy belly hidden inside.
Five minutes later, Marco's voice crackled through the radio.
"Sir."
"Report."
"We have one intruder."
"Alive?"
"Barely."
"What happened?"
A pause.
"He wasn't trying to escape."
Another pause.
"He was trying to destroy the servers."
The hallway became silent again.
"Did he succeed?"
"No."
Marco's voice carried something unexpected.
"Because someone got to him first."
Alessandro's expression hardened.
"What do you mean?"
"He'd already been shot before we arrived."
A chill ran down my spine.
Someone had sent a man to destroy the evidence...
Then silenced him before he could talk.
"Secure everything," Alessandro ordered.
"I'm coming down."
He finally handed Emma back to me.
She frowned.
"You're leaving?"
He gave the smallest smile.
"I'll be back."
She studied him with complete seriousness.
"The bad people lie."
"I know."
"They lied to my daddy too."
The words struck me like ice.
I had never told Emma how Daniel died.
She barely remembered him.
Yet somehow...
She still spoke about him as though he were nearby.
Alessandro looked at me.
"Did she know?"
I shook my head.
"No."
He didn't ask another question.
The surveillance room lay beneath the west wing of the mansion.
By the time we arrived, police officers were already surrounding the area.
The intruder lay unconscious on the floor.
A bullet had grazed his shoulder.
Nearby stood six massive server racks.
Most remained intact.
One had been splashed with gasoline.
Whoever attacked hadn't had enough time to ignite it.
Marco pointed toward the unconscious man.
"He entered using an employee access card."
"Whose?"
Marco handed over a plastic badge.
I stared.
My breath caught.
The photograph on the badge belonged to...
Daniel Carter.
My husband.
Dead for three years.
"No..."
I whispered.
"That's impossible."
Marco nodded grimly.
"The card was authentic."
"It was issued by Moretti Construction."
Alessandro slowly examined it.
"This card should have been deactivated years ago."
"It was."
Marco looked puzzled.
"Someone reactivated it yesterday."
The room fell silent.
Someone inside the company still had administrator privileges.
Someone powerful.
One of the technicians called out.
"Sir!"
"We recovered part of the deleted archive."
Alessandro walked over.
A damaged folder appeared on the monitor.
Its title froze everyone.
PROJECT HARBOR
My heart stopped.
Harbor.
Daniel had died inspecting the Harbor redevelopment site.
The same project he'd insisted wasn't safe.
The technician clicked the folder.
Hundreds of engineering reports appeared.
Inspection photographs.
Emails.
Financial statements.
Then...
One document opened automatically.
FINAL STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT
At the bottom of the last page...
Signed in blue ink.
Daniel Carter
I couldn't breathe.
"They told me..."
My voice trembled.
"They told me he never finished the report."
Marco looked at me.
"He did."
Another document appeared.
An email.
From Daniel.
Sent three days before his death.
The foundation is unstable.
If construction continues, people will die.
I refuse to approve fraudulent safety certificates.
Attached beneath...
Thirty-seven internal recipients.
Executives.
Lawyers.
Consultants.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Adrian Pierce.
The same man from Vanessa's hotel videos.
"Daniel discovered the fraud," Marco said quietly.
"He tried to stop it."
Another email appeared.
No sender.
Only one sentence.
Sign the approval... or your family pays the price.
My knees gave way.
I collapsed into a nearby chair.
For three years...
I'd believed my husband died because of bad luck.
Instead...
He had been murdered.
Suddenly another technician gasped.
"Sir..."
"There's one more video."
The file was corrupted.
Only fragments remained.
Static flickered across the screen.
Then...
Daniel appeared.
He looked exhausted.
Bruised.
As though he hadn't slept for days.
He looked directly into the camera.
"If anyone finds this..."
His voice crackled through the damaged recording.
"...they'll probably kill me."
The room became completely still.
"I've copied everything."
He held up a small black hard drive.
"If something happens to me..."
"...don't trust the police."
"They've already been paid."
Static.
The picture jumped.
Then Daniel said one sentence that made Alessandro slowly lift his head.
"If you're watching this..."
"...Mr. Moretti..."
"...your father's murder..."
"...wasn't about revenge."
The recording froze.
Every screen went black.
No one moved.
Not even Marco.
Alessandro stared at the blank monitor.
His father's assassination had built the Moretti Empire.
It had happened twenty years earlier.
Officially...
The killers were dead.
The case was closed.
Yet Daniel's final message suggested everything everyone believed...
...was a lie.
Marco spoke first.
"Sir..."
Alessandro interrupted quietly.
"My father's murder."
He looked toward the shattered server rack.
"And Daniel Carter's death."
Another pause.
"They're connected."
No one argued.
Because everyone in the room knew...
The fake pregnancy had never been the real story.
It had only been the distraction.
The true conspiracy had been hiding beneath the Moretti Empire for decades.
And somewhere inside the mansion...
The person orchestrating all of it was still free.
As the realization settled over everyone, Marco's earpiece crackled again.
His face drained of color.
"Sir..."
"What now?"
Marco swallowed.
"The intruder..."
"...he just regained consciousness."
"What did he say?"
Marco looked directly at Alessandro.
"He only managed four words..."
Before dying.
May you like
Marco repeated them slowly.
'Don't trust your brother.'
