Chapter 11 - THE SHADOW OVER THE CELEBRATION
The laughter of Leo's tenth birthday party still lingered in the air, but behind the grand oak doors of Rocco Moretti's private study, the mood was chillingly different.
Rocco stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the distant estate gates through the rain. In his hand, he held a secure burner phone that had just buzzed with an encrypted text message from an old intelligence contact in Zurich.
“The Syndicate was only a branch. The root remains untouched in Palermo. Beware the Accountant.”
Sophia, now eighteen and carrying the weight of her legal studies alongside her responsibilities to the estate, knocked softly and stepped into the room. She noticed the tension in Rocco's posture immediately.
"Mr. Moretti? Is everything alright?" Sophia asked, her voice calm and perceptive, just as it had been ten years ago on the night she found Leo in the trash.
Rocco turned around, sliding the phone into his vest pocket. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Sophia. Just ghosts from the past trying to rattle a cage that’s already locked."
"Ghosts don't send encrypted wires to Zurich, sir," Sophia replied smoothly, walking over to his mahogany desk. She placed a folded dossier down next to his lamp. "While organizing the legal archives for the foundation today, I found cross-references to an offshore holding company called Vesper Corp. It was registered under Valentina's maiden name, but the proxy signature authorizing its transfer last week belongs to a man named Dominic Vance—Victor's older brother."
Rocco’s eyes narrowed. He looked from the dossier up to Sophia, a deep sense of pride mixing with dark fury. "You found this just by reviewing archival tax summaries?"
"I learned from the best," Sophia said with a faint, confident smile. "You always taught me that systems leave paper trails, and paper trails don't lie."
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Before Rocco could answer, the mansion's master alarm system suddenly shrieked. Every light in the study flickered and died, plunging the room into a deep, blood-red emergency glow.
A new, deadlier enemy has struck from the shadows! What is Dominic Vance's master plan?
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