Chapter 18 – The Last Moretti Standing
The silence inside the boardroom became suffocating.
Richard Ashcroft had spent twenty-two years denying every accusation.
Now...
He wanted to testify.
Not to save himself.
To expose someone else.
Marco lowered his phone slowly.
"The FBI says Ashcroft refuses to speak until he sees you."
Alessandro didn't respond immediately.
He stood motionless beside the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan.
Below, thousands of people hurried through the streets, completely unaware that one of America's most powerful dynasties was unraveling floor by floor.
Finally, he turned.
"Prepare the helicopter."
One Hour Later
The federal detention center in Lower Manhattan was surrounded by armed agents.
No reporters had been allowed inside.
Ashcroft had demanded absolute secrecy.
As Alessandro, Marco, Judge Whitmore, and two FBI supervisors entered the interrogation room, Richard Ashcroft remained seated, dressed in an orange prison uniform that looked strangely ordinary on a man once worth twelve billion dollars.
His silver hair was neatly combed.
His expression was calm.
Almost amused.
"So..."
he smiled faintly.
"The king finally came."
Alessandro sat opposite him.
"You asked for me."
"I did."
"You wanted to confess."
Ashcroft chuckled.
"No."
"I wanted to correct history."
An FBI recorder clicked on.
Ashcroft folded his hands.
"For twenty-two years..."
"Everyone believed I built this empire of corruption."
He looked directly into Alessandro's eyes.
"I didn't."
"You financed it."
Ashcroft nodded.
"Yes."
"You covered it."
"Yes."
"You ordered murders."
Another pause.
"I approved them."
The room became still.
"But..."
Ashcroft leaned forward.
"...I never made the first decision."
Marco narrowed his eyes.
"Who did?"
Ashcroft smiled sadly.
"The only person who always remained invisible."
Alessandro's voice became colder.
"My uncle Victor?"
"No."
"My brother Luca?"
Ashcroft slowly shook his head.
"No."
Judge Whitmore frowned.
"Then who?"
Ashcroft whispered one name.
"Caterina."
No one reacted.
Because no one recognized it.
"Caterina who?"
Alessandro asked.
Ashcroft looked genuinely surprised.
"He never told you?"
"Told me what?"
Ashcroft leaned back.
"Antonio Moretti had two children."
The room froze.
Alessandro's eyes narrowed.
"That's impossible."
"You were told there was only one."
Ashcroft nodded.
"Because your sister disappeared."
Marco stared.
"Sister?"
Ashcroft continued.
"Caterina Moretti."
"Born three years before you."
"Officially..."
"...she died in a boating accident when she was eight."
He laughed bitterly.
"She never died."
Judge Whitmore opened an old digital archive on her tablet.
Within moments...
A yellowed newspaper clipping appeared.
LOCAL HEIRESS PRESUMED DROWNED.
Date:
Thirty years earlier.
Eight-year-old Caterina Moretti had supposedly fallen into Long Island Sound.
No body had ever been recovered.
The case faded from public memory.
Ashcroft nodded toward the article.
"It was staged."
"By whom?"
"Victor."
The room fell silent again.
"Antonio believed his daughter had died."
"But Victor secretly sent her overseas."
"Why?"
Ashcroft's smile vanished.
"Because she inherited Antonio's mind."
"What does that mean?"
"She saw everything."
Ashcroft explained that even as a child...
Caterina had overheard arguments about money.
Shipping contracts.
Secret accounts.
She had once innocently repeated something during a family dinner.
Antonio laughed.
Victor panicked.
Ashcroft realized then that the little girl remembered everything she heard.
Just like...
Emma.
My heart skipped.
A child.
Telling the truth adults wished to bury.
History was repeating itself.
"So Victor hid her?"
Ashcroft nodded.
"He claimed he was protecting her."
"From whom?"
"From me."
Another pause.
"But years passed."
"Caterina grew up."
"And eventually..."
"...she stopped needing protection."
Alessandro stared at him.
"Where is she now?"
Ashcroft smiled.
"Closer than you've ever imagined."
Before anyone could ask another question...
The interrogation room door burst open.
An FBI analyst hurried inside.
"Director!"
"What is it?"
"We've decrypted the financial servers seized from Ashcroft Capital."
"So?"
"There are hundreds of offshore accounts."
"Who controls them?"
The analyst swallowed.
"Not Richard Ashcroft."
Everyone looked back toward the prisoner.
Ashcroft simply nodded.
"I told you."
"I'm not the one at the top."
The analyst placed a printed organizational chart on the table.
Shell companies.
Trust funds.
Foundations.
Holding corporations.
They all pointed upward.
To one anonymous controller.
The account holder's legal identity had been hidden behind a single codename.
CROWN.
Marco frowned.
"Who is Crown?"
Ashcroft answered quietly.
"The woman who inherited everything."
Judge Whitmore suddenly looked up.
"The fake pregnancy..."
Ashcroft smiled.
"Exactly."
"It was never about marriage."
"It was about time."
"What time?"
"While Alessandro focused on Vanessa..."
"The board meeting transferred voting authority."
"The media distracted the public."
"The markets panicked."
"And Crown quietly purchased millions of Moretti shares through hidden companies."
Marco's face hardened.
"It was a hostile takeover."
Ashcroft nodded.
"The greatest corporate theft in American history."
Alessandro remained strangely calm.
"If Caterina wanted the empire..."
"Why not simply reveal herself?"
Ashcroft's smile faded.
"Because she doesn't want the empire."
"What?"
"She wants revenge."
The room became silent.
"For what?"
Ashcroft looked directly at Alessandro.
"For abandoning her."
"I never knew she existed."
"I know."
Ashcroft's voice softened for the first time.
"She knows that too."
"Then why me?"
"Because revenge doesn't need fairness."
At that exact moment...
Marco's secure phone vibrated violently.
He answered.
His expression changed instantly.
"Sir..."
"What happened?"
"The board."
"What about it?"
"They've just voted."
"Without me?"
Marco nodded.
"They invoked emergency succession powers."
Judge Whitmore stood.
"That's illegal."
Marco continued.
"They've removed you as CEO."
Silence.
"And installed an interim chairwoman."
Alessandro slowly raised his eyes.
"Who?"
Marco stared at the message on his screen.
His voice was almost a whisper.
"The paperwork lists only one name."
He looked at Alessandro.
"The new Chair of Moretti International..."
"...is Caterina Moretti."
The room went completely still.
Before anyone could process the announcement, every television in the detention center automatically switched to a live financial news broadcast.
A woman stepped onto the stage of Moretti International Headquarters.
She wore a black tailored suit.
Her face remained hidden behind the glare of camera flashes.
She approached the podium.
Then slowly removed her sunglasses.
Alessandro's eyes widened.
Not because he recognized her.
Because someone else in the room did.
Judge Whitmore whispered in disbelief:
"...Vanessa?"
The woman smiled calmly into dozens of microphones.
"No."
She looked straight into the cameras broadcasting across the world.
May you like
"My name..."
"...is Caterina Moretti."
