Chapter 19 - The Last Member
The kill list contained twelve names.
Claire. Nathan. Marcus. Thomas. Torres.
And seven people connected to the investigation.
At the bottom was a signature.
V.M.
Nathan stared at it.
“Vincent Moretti.”
Claire shook her head. “Your father is dead.”
Thomas looked sick.
Marcus whispered, “What if he isn’t?”
Nathan snapped, “We buried him.”
Claire gave him a dark look.
“So did I.”
No one spoke.
Torres ordered an immediate exhumation of Vincent Moretti’s grave.
By noon, the forensic team had an answer.
The remains were not Vincent’s.
They belonged to a man named Peter Holloway, a former Moretti Holdings employee who vanished eleven years earlier.
Marcus sat down hard.
“Our father faked his death.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“He always said death was the cleanest exit.”
Nathan looked at him. “You knew that phrase?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know he planned this?”
“No.”
Claire’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Nathan reached for it.
She answered first.
“Hello?”
A familiar older man’s voice replied.
“Claire.”
She had heard it in old family videos.
Vincent Moretti.
Alive.
“You’ve made a terrible mess,” he said.
Claire put the call on speaker.
Nathan’s face emptied of emotion.
“Dad.”
Vincent laughed softly.
“My stubborn boy.”
Marcus stepped closer. “Where are you?”
“Somewhere safe.”
Torres gestured for technicians to trace the call.
Vincent continued. “Raymond was useful. Pike was loyal. Thomas was sentimental. All of you disappointed me in different ways.”
Claire said, “You ordered Nicholas killed.”
“I ordered a correction.”
Nathan’s jaw clenched.
Vincent said, “But you have something I need.”
“The archive?”
“No.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“You.”
She went still.
Vincent continued. “The final account requires Claire’s biometric authorization. Thomas made sure of that years ago.”
Thomas looked stunned.
Claire whispered, “What final account?”
Vincent laughed once.
“The one holding two hundred and forty million dollars.”
Then the trace technician raised a hand.
May you like
They had the location.
Vincent was calling from inside Moretti Holdings headquarters.
