Chapter 4: The Man in the Video
Alessandro returned moments later.
The shooter had escaped.
I stood in the darkness holding the phone against my chest.
“What did you find?” he asked.
I stepped away from him.
“Sofia?”
I played the video.
Daniel’s warning filled the warehouse.
Then Alessandro’s face appeared behind him.
Alessandro watched without blinking.
“That was not me.”
“It looks exactly like you.”
“I never met your husband.”
“Someone is lying.”
“Yes.”
His voice remained calm, but I saw anger beneath it.
“The question is whether Daniel made this recording or someone created it to turn you against me.”
He took the phone carefully.
“The image quality is poor. The sound may have been edited.”
“Or you knew Daniel.”
“I did not.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
That answer frightened me more than a denial would have.
We returned to the mansion before dawn.
Marco was waiting inside the security office.
When Alessandro showed him the video, Marco’s face drained of color.
“That is not Alessandro,” he said.
“How can you be certain?” I asked.
“Because Alessandro was in Milan on the date embedded in the file.”
“Dates can be altered.”
Marco pointed to the man’s left hand in the video.
“The man is wearing his watch on the right wrist.”
Alessandro looked at me.
“I wear mine on the left.”
The difference was almost invisible.
Someone had chosen a man who looked like Alessandro, dressed him like Alessandro, and filmed him in poor light.
“Who could impersonate you?” I asked.
Alessandro did not answer immediately.
Marco did.
“Matteo Moretti.”
Alessandro’s cousin.
The only son of Vittorio Moretti, Alessandro’s uncle.
Matteo and Alessandro had looked almost identical when they were younger. After Antonio Moretti’s death, Matteo moved to Europe and disappeared from public life.
“Why would Matteo be with Daniel?” I asked.
Marco lowered his voice.
“Because Daniel was investigating Vittorio.”
The office door opened.
An older man entered without waiting for permission.
Silver hair.
Tailored navy suit.
A gold lion ring on his right hand.
Vittorio Moretti smiled at Alessandro.
“Your guards tried to stop me.”
Alessandro moved between Vittorio and me.
“What do you want?”
“To prevent you from destroying this family over the accusation of a housekeeper.”
Vittorio looked at me as if I were an insect beneath a glass.
“Mrs. Bennett, your husband was not an innocent man.”
I stepped toward him.
“You knew Daniel?”
“I knew what he was selling.”
“What was he selling?”
“Evidence.”
The room became silent.
Vittorio placed a leather folder on Alessandro’s desk.
Inside were bank statements showing payments of two hundred thousand dollars made to an account in Daniel’s name.
The money came from Charles Cole.
Vanessa’s father.
Vittorio smiled.
“Daniel Bennett was blackmailing the Cole family.”
I stared at the numbers.
Then I noticed the account creation date.
It had been opened four months after Daniel died.
Someone was not merely hiding the truth.
May you like
Someone had been rebuilding my husband’s entire life.
And they had only just begun.
