Chapter 8 - The Hotel Beneath MontrealThe abandoned hotel had once been beautiful.
Adrian thought she had not heard correctly.
Then he saw her face.
“Ethan?”
Daniel shouted again from outside.
“Your brother is alive, Lily.”
She ran toward the door.
Adrian caught her.
“No.”
“If he’s alive—”
“Daniel wants you outside.”
“What if he’s telling the truth?”
“Then running into gunfire won’t help Ethan.”
Lily fought his grip.
“Let me go!”
“No.”
“Adrian!”
He held her shoulders.
“Think.”
The word hit.
She stopped.
Outside, Daniel continued.
“You want proof?”
A phone slid beneath the front door.
Marco picked it up carefully.
Video played automatically.
A man sat tied to a chair in a concrete room.
Thin.
Bruised.
Bearded.
But unmistakable.
Ethan Carter.
Lily made a broken sound.
“Oh my God.”
Ethan lifted his head.
“Lily.”
She covered her mouth.
The video ended.
Daniel shouted.
“Come outside with the original drive, and I tell you where he is.”
Adrian looked at Marco.
“This is staged.”
“Could be live.”
“Could be old.”
Lily grabbed the phone.
Timestamp.
Twenty-two minutes earlier.
Her hope became agony.
“He’s alive.”
Adrian’s mind moved quickly.
Why fake Ethan’s death?
Because a dead accountant closed questions.
An imprisoned accountant could continue decrypting accounts.
Daniel needed him.
Which meant Ethan remained valuable.
Which meant they had leverage.
Adrian opened the front door slightly.
“Daniel!”
Gunfire stopped.
“Finally.”
“What do you want?”
Daniel laughed.
“You already know.”
“The drive is copied.”
“I need the encryption key Ethan embedded in the original.”
Adrian looked at Marco.
Marco nodded slowly.
Possible.
“Send Ethan out.”
“No.”
“Then no deal.”
“You don’t control this.”
“I control whether you get the drive.”
Silence.
Daniel changed tactics.
“Lily?”
She stepped forward.
Adrian shook his head.
She ignored him.
“What do you want from me?”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Come talk.”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You called yourself Ryan.”
“I had reasons.”
“You left me pregnant.”
A pause.
“I didn’t know.”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“You blocked me.”
“I was ordered to disappear.”
“By whom?”
Another pause.
Then Daniel said, “My father.”
Adrian froze.
Daniel’s father, Vincent Moretti, had died twelve years earlier.
Or supposedly had.
Adrian stepped outside onto the porch.
“You’re lying.”
Daniel emerged near the vineyard gate.
Gun lowered.
Snow gathered on his coat.
“My father is alive too.”
Marco whispered, “What the hell?”
Adrian stared.
Vincent Moretti had supposedly died during surgery after a stroke.
Adrian had attended the funeral.
Seen the coffin.
But not the body.
Closed casket.
His father had insisted.
Suddenly the past felt rotten.
“Where?” Adrian asked.
Daniel smiled.
“Montreal.”
Isabella.
The aunt.
The transactions.
The old conspiracy.
Adrian understood.
“Your father is Belladonna.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Daniel looked toward Lily.
“My mother.”
Adrian felt his stomach drop.
Daniel’s mother, Helena, had died when Daniel was six.
Or that was what everyone believed.
“Enough lies.”
“They aren’t lies.”
Daniel sounded almost desperate now.
“Our parents built this war before we were old enough to understand it.”
“Then release Ethan.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because my father has him.”
“And you?”
Daniel looked down.
“For the first time in my life, I’m trying to get out.”
Lily stared.
“You kidnapped Noah.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I arranged for Victor to take you.”
“You arranged for someone to point a gun at our baby!”
“I didn’t know he’d bring Noah.”
“You knew enough.”
“Yes.”
His voice cracked.
“I knew enough.”
No forgiveness came.
But something else appeared in Lily’s expression.
Recognition.
Daniel wasn’t winning.
He was drowning.
Adrian saw it too.
“Come inside.”
Marco stared.
“Boss?”
Daniel laughed.
“You’ll shoot me.”
“If I wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be standing there.”
That sounded sufficiently Adrian-like to be believable.
Daniel approached alone.
His men remained outside.
Teresa pointed the shotgun at him.
“I never liked you.”
Daniel blinked.
“Hello, Teresa.”
“Don’t hello me.”
Inside, Daniel told them everything.
His father Vincent had spent decades resenting Adrian’s father.
Vincent believed the Moretti empire should have belonged to him.
He partnered secretly with Victor Crane.
Helena Moretti—Daniel’s mother—helped manage offshore finances under the Belladonna identity.
When Helena supposedly died, she actually disappeared to Europe.
Vincent followed years later using his staged death.
But one thing changed everything.
“Sofia.”
Adrian’s voice became ice.
Daniel looked miserable.
“My father ordered the bombing.”
Lily reached for Adrian.
He didn’t notice.
“He wanted your father dead.”
“Why was Sofia in the car?”
“She wasn’t supposed to be.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Daniel continued.
“Your father learned the truth afterward.”
“And protected Vincent?”
“Vincent threatened to expose decades of illegal operations that would have destroyed every Moretti family member, including you.”
“I would have accepted prison.”
“You were twenty.”
“That was my decision!”
The room shook with his voice.
Noah woke crying.
Adrian stopped immediately.
Lily went to him.
Daniel watched.
Something complicated passed across his face.
“My father told me Sofia’s death was an accident.”
“An accident?”
Adrian stepped toward him.
“You don’t get to call it that.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at Noah.
“I do now.”
Lily turned.
“You knew about him before tonight?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Three weeks.”
Her expression hardened.
“How?”
“Ethan told me.”
“Ethan knew you were Ryan?”
“He figured it out.”
“And he confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“My father took him.”
“Why tell me he was dead?”
“To keep you away.”
She slapped him.
Hard.
Daniel accepted it.
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I know.”
“You watched me grieve.”
“I know.”
“You left your own child hungry.”
That broke something.
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know you were struggling.”
“You never checked!”
“No.”
“You don’t get to cry.”
He nodded.
“You’re right.”
Adrian watched him.
Daniel had betrayed him.
Endangered Lily.
Endangered Noah.
But Adrian recognized the look in his cousin’s eyes.
Shame.
Real shame.
It did not erase consequences.
But it could sometimes produce cooperation.
“Where is Ethan?”
“An old hotel in Montreal.”
“Owned by Isabella?”
“Yes.”
“Vincent?”
“There.”
“Helena?”
“There.”
“And my aunt?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Isabella isn’t helping them willingly.”
Adrian narrowed his eyes.
“She’s been their prisoner for years.”
Lily sat with Noah.
“What do they need Ethan for?”
“The offshore network has almost four hundred million dollars left.”
Marco whistled.
“Ethan locked the accounts.”
“And they need the original drive.”
Daniel nodded.
Adrian looked toward the snow.
“Then we give it to them.”
Marco frowned.
“We do?”
“A duplicate.”
Daniel shook his head.
“They’ll detect it.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Not if Ethan helps us.”
“How do we reach him?”
Daniel removed a small device from his jacket.
“Service tunnel beneath the hotel.”
Marco stared.
“You came here planning to help?”
“I came planning to steal the drive.”
“And?”
Daniel looked at Noah.
“Then I saw my son.”
Silence.
Lily’s expression remained guarded.
“Don’t call him that.”
Daniel’s face fell.
“You haven’t earned it.”
He nodded.
“No.”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
“You want a chance to earn anything?”
“Yes.”
“Then help us bring Ethan home.”
Daniel nodded.
Adrian stepped closer.
“And if you betray us again, being family won’t save you.”
“I know.”
They left for Montreal before dawn.
But Daniel had not told them everything.
He sat alone in the second SUV, staring at a hidden message on his phone.
From Vincent.
Bring Moretti and the woman.
Or Ethan dies before sunrise.
May you like
Daniel closed his eyes.
Then deleted the message.
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