Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO SOLD THE SECRET
Vincent Moretti was not difficult to find.
He owned a private security office above a shuttered restaurant in River
North. The building had no sign, no reception desk, and two cameras
pointed toward the street. It was the kind of place that existed to make
people believe it did not exist.
Dante arrived with Marco and two investigators from the state’s
attorney’s office.
He had insisted that the meeting be handled legally. He wanted Moretti
questioned, not dragged into a basement. He wanted evidence that could
be used in court, not another secret that would follow his family.
Moretti was waiting in a glass office when they entered.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and wore a gray suit that looked
expensive without being flashy. The scar through his eyebrow gave his
face a permanent expression of suspicion.
“Dante Russo,” he said. “I wondered when you’d come.”
“Then you knew I was looking.”
“I assumed.”
Dante sat across from him.
“Why were you outside my wife’s obstetrician’s office?”
Moretti leaned back.
“Business.”
“What business involves following a pregnant woman?”
“Ask your girlfriend.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend.”
Moretti smiled faintly. “That distinction may matter to you now.”
Dante placed a copy of the payment records on the desk.
“Vanessa’s family paid your company through a shell corporation. The
invoice says medical records review and surveillance. Explain.”
Moretti looked at the documents.
“I was hired to conduct a risk assessment.”
“Of Emily?”
“Of your household.”
“Did you access her medical records?”
“I didn’t.”
“Did you try?”
Moretti did not answer.
One of the investigators slid a second document across the desk. It was
a request for the clinic’s appointment schedule, submitted under a false
authorization.
Moretti glanced at it.
“That wasn’t my signature.”
“But your company letterhead is on the request,” the investigator
replied.
Dante watched him carefully.
“Who asked you to do it?”
“Vanessa.”
“Why?”
“She said you were considering divorce and wanted to know whether Emily
was receiving treatment that could affect custody.”
Dante’s expression tightened.
“Did she tell you about the twins?”
Moretti shrugged.
“I knew she was pregnant. I didn’t know there were two.”
“Did you know she was being forced to work in the house?”
“No.”
“Did you know she had been denied transportation to the hospital?”
Moretti looked away.
Dante leaned forward.
“You knew enough to take photographs of her leaving a doctor’s office.
You knew enough to help prepare a false custody claim. Don’t tell me you
knew nothing.”
Moretti’s jaw flexed.
“I was paid to provide information. I don’t control what clients do with
it.”
“You chose to take the money.”
“That’s not a crime.”
“Forgery and unlawful access to medical information may be.”
The investigator interrupted before Dante could continue.
“Mr.Moretti, we need you to answer the questions formally. You are not
under arrest at this time, but we are preserving these records.”
Moretti looked at Dante.
“You’ve changed.”
“No,” Dante said. “I finally know what matters.”
The questioning lasted two hours. Moretti admitted that Vanessa had
hired him to monitor Emily and had asked him to obtain copies of her
appointment records. He claimed he refused to access the actual medical
file, but the investigators found a payment to a clinic employee who had
been suspended the previous week.
Moretti also identified Peter Lang as the attorney who had prepared the
custody papers.
When Dante left the building, Marco walked beside him.
“Do you believe him?”
“I believe he knows more than he said.”
“What now?”
“We let the investigators do their work.”
Marco looked surprised. “You don’t want to handle this yourself?”
“I’ve handled enough things myself. That’s how Emily ended up alone.”
Back at the hospital, Emily had been moved to a quieter room.
Mrs.Alvarez sat beside her, reading a magazine. The blue cardigan lay
across Emily’s lap, and the music box rested on the bedside table.
Dante knocked.
Emily looked up.
“Did you find him?”
“Yes. Moretti admitted Vanessa hired him to watch you.”
Emily’s fingers tightened on the cardigan.
“Why?”
“She wanted information for the custody papers.”
Emily stared at the blanket.
“So she really meant to take them.”
“She tried to create a record that you were unfit. The documents were
forged.”
“Would she have succeeded?”
“I don’t know. But she shouldn’t have been able to put you through that
fear.”
Emily was quiet.
Then she asked, “Did you know she was jealous of me?”
Dante looked at her.
“I knew she wanted my attention. I didn’t understand how far she was
willing to go.”
“You liked having someone waiting for you.”
He did not deny it.
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
“Did you love me?”
The question was so quiet he almost missed it.
He sat down.
“Yes. But I didn’t act like it. I let my pride and selfishness become
more important than the marriage I promised you.”
Emily looked at him for a long time.
“Sometimes I think I was married to a man who only loved the idea of
having a wife.”
Dante felt the truth of it.
“I don’t expect you to believe me because I say I loved you.”
“Good.”
“I know I have to show you something different.”
She nodded once.
The nurse entered to check Emily’s blood pressure. Dante stood and moved
out of the way. He had learned to recognize that his presence could make
the room feel crowded.
When the nurse left, Emily asked Mrs.Alvarez to bring her a glass of
water. Dante offered to get it, but Emily shook her head.
“Let her. I want to talk to you alone.”
Mrs.Alvarez stepped into the hall.
Emily looked at Dante.
“There’s something else I haven’t told you.”
He waited.
“Vanessa said she had spoken to your father before he died. She told me
he had left instructions that the first child born to you would be
raised by the Russo family, and that I would have no say if the marriage
ended.”
Dante frowned.
“My father never left such instructions.”
“She showed me a document.”
“What document?”
“A letter with his signature. It said that if you were unavailable, the
family council could choose a guardian for the children.”
Dante went still.
“Did you keep it?”
Emily nodded toward the small drawer.
Inside was a photocopy of a letter on old Russo family stationery. The
signature looked like his father’s.
Dante read it carefully.
His father had died two years earlier. The letter was dated four months
before his death. It appeared to name a family trust as the final
authority over any future children.
But the language was wrong.
His father had been formal, almost old-fashioned. This letter used legal
phrasing he would never have written. It also referred to a family
council that had been dissolved years before.
“It’s fake,” Dante said.
Emily looked relieved and frightened at the same time.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He photographed the letter.
“I’m going to have it examined.”
“Dante, I don’t want to be part of some family war.”
“You aren’t. You and the babies are the reason I need to stop it.”
She looked at him.
“Then don’t make the war bigger than us.”
He folded the photocopy.
“I won’t.”
That evening, Robert called with another discovery. Peter Lang had
submitted a preliminary guardianship petition to a private family court
mediator, but it had not yet been filed. The application included the
forged divorce papers, the fabricated psychological report, and the fake
letter from Dante’s father.
The petition was designed to move quickly after the birth.
Dante listened without interrupting.
“Can we stop it?”
“Yes. We can notify the mediator that the documents are disputed and
provide the forensic findings. The state can also investigate the
attempted fraud.”
“Do it.”
“There’s another issue. The trust named in the letter still exists as a
dormant entity. Its administrator is your uncle, Carlo Russo.”
Dante’s face changed.
“Carlo has nothing to do with my children.”
“He may have been contacted.”
“Find out.”
When the call ended, Dante looked through the glass panel into Emily’s
room. She was asleep, one hand resting on her stomach.
For years, he had thought his enemies would come for his money, his
territory, or his life.
He had never imagined someone would use his unborn children as leverage.
Now he knew the danger had reached beyond Vanessa.
And he intended to end it without turning Emily’s life into another
battlefield.
Before the meeting ended, the investigator asked Moretti whether he had
ever seen Emily in person. Moretti admitted he had watched her leave the
clinic and once followed the car to the mansion. He said he had not
approached her because Vanessa instructed him to remain discreet.
“Did you ever report that she appeared unwell?” the investigator asked.
Moretti shook his head.
Dante looked at him. “You saw a pregnant woman struggling to walk and
decided it wasn’t your concern.”
Moretti’s jaw tightened. “I was paid to observe.”
“That answer explains the payment. It doesn’t excuse the choice.”
The investigator ended the interview and reminded everyone that further
contact would be handled through official channels.
Dante left with a copy of the statement. He felt no satisfaction.
Moretti had not been the only person who looked away. The staff had been
frightened, the lawyer had been paid, and Dante himself had been absent.
May you like
The plan had worked because too many people had decided that someone
else’s suffering was not their responsibility.
