Chapter 10 - We Moved the Babies—and Set a Trap
Thursday morning, I made an announcement.
Moretti Holdings received it first.
Then the press.
Due to a family medical emergency, I would address my future with the company Friday at noon.
I did not say I was resigning.
I let everyone assume it.
Within twenty minutes, financial reporters were speculating.
Within an hour, the board was calling.
I answered none of them.
Leon needed to believe he was winning.
Meanwhile, the triplets were moved.
Not to Lake Geneva.
Not to the clinic.
Not to another Moretti property.
They went to Dr. Gable's sister's home under federal protection arranged through an old legal contact.
No Moretti security vehicles.
No regular staff.
No predictable route.
Sophie and Elena went too.
Sophie refused at first.
“Are you coming?”
“Later.”
“You promise?”
I looked at the four-year-old girl who had somehow become the person most capable of making me answer honestly.
“Yes.”
She studied me.
“Real promise?”
“Real promise.”
She held out her little finger.
I stared at it.
Marco coughed to hide a laugh.
I linked my little finger with Sophie's.
“Real promise.”
She accepted that.
Before leaving, she handed me Poppy.
“Why?”
“So you can hear secrets.”
“I think you need her.”
Sophie shook her head.
“You need her more.”
I took the doll.
Marco waited until the car left.
“Never thought I'd see Adrien Moretti carrying a button-eyed doll.”
“Say another word and you're fired.”
“Yes, boss.”
He was smiling.
Good.
We needed something human before what came next.
The estate was prepared as bait.
We restored the nursery exactly as before.
Three empty bassinets.
Blankets arranged to look occupied from a hidden distance.
Nannies moving occasionally.
Lights.
Noise machines.
Even recorded infant sounds played at low volume.
If Leon monitored the house, he would believe the children remained inside.
At 8:00 p.m., I sat alone in my office.
Poppy on the desk.
I felt ridiculous.
Then I noticed something.
The mismatched brown button eye had a tiny crack.
Inside, something metallic reflected.
I turned the doll.
Elena had said Poppy contained a tracker.
But this looked different.
I called Ethan.
He examined it.
“This isn't the tracker.”
“What is it?”
“A passive radio tag.”
“Who installed it?”
“Could be manufacturer.”
“Handmade doll.”
“Then somebody added it.”
“Sophie said Leon touched the doll.”
Ethan nodded.
“He may have planted it.”
“Can it transmit?”
“Only when activated nearby.”
“So Leon could use Poppy to confirm Sophie's location.”
“Yes.”
I stared at the doll.
Then smiled.
“Can we make it lie?”
Ethan smiled too.
“Oh, absolutely.”
By ten, Poppy's signal indicated Sophie was inside the nursery.
Leon would think the little girl who ruined his plan had returned.
Cruel bait?
Perhaps.
But Sophie was twenty miles away and completely safe.
At 11:18, the first signal appeared.
Someone activated the tag.
From within three hundred feet of the estate.
Marco whispered through a wired earpiece.
“North grounds.”
We waited.
11:27.
Closer.
11:31.
Inside the old service tunnel.
Leon had returned.
Exactly as we hoped.
He entered the hidden passage behind the east staircase.
Security teams tracked him through sensors we installed that afternoon.
One man.
Alone.
He reached the wall behind the nursery.
Stopped.
Then entered.
I watched from a concealed camera.
Leon Varga looked ordinary.
That struck me.
No dramatic scar.
No monstrous expression.
Just a forty-year-old man in dark clothes.
He approached Theo's crib.
Pulled back the blanket.
Found pillows.
His face changed.
Then the lights came on.
I stood in the doorway.
“Looking for someone?”
Leon froze.
Marco and four officers appeared behind him.
No weapons pointed unless necessary.
Leon smiled slowly.
“Adrien.”
“You've spent a lot of time in my house.”
“Your father did too.”
“This was his house.”
Leon laughed.
“That was always his answer.”
“Where are the remaining devices?”
“Do you really think this ends because you caught me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Where are they?”
He looked at the empty bassinets.
“You moved them.”
“Yes.”
“Smart.”
“Because of Sophie.”
His smile disappeared.
That pleased me.
“She hears well.”
“She sees well too.”
“Children notice what adults dismiss.”
“That's why you underestimated her.”
“No.”
Leon looked at me.
“That's why I chose her.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“You think her presence was an accident?”
Elena's babysitter cancellation.
Sophie coming to work.
Had Leon arranged that too?
“How?”
“She had to hear the devices.”
“Why?”
“So you'd find them.”
Marco looked at me.
The trap inside the trap.
“You wanted us to discover them.”
“Eventually.”
“Why?”
“So you would open Vittorio's archive.”
Silence.
That was brilliant.
Leon couldn't access my father's sealed files because Dario and I held separate keys.
So he created a crisis that pushed us toward the past.
“You wanted the hospital records.”
“I wanted you to read them.”
“Why?”
“So you'd understand who your father was.”
“I already knew.”
“No.”
For the first time, Leon's calm cracked.
“You knew the edited version.”
He stepped forward.
Marco moved.
I raised a hand.
Leon continued.
“My father found Vittorio's hidden accounts. He tried to expose them. Your father planted records making Samuel look like the thief.”
“I know.”
“You know nothing.”
“I know he died in prison.”
Leon smiled bitterly.
“He didn't.”
Evelyn had been wrong.
Everyone had.
“What?”
“My father survived.”
My heart shifted.
“Where is he?”
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
“For tomorrow.”
“Where?”
Leon looked toward the clock.
11:42 p.m.
Eighteen minutes until Friday.
“He wants to meet the Moretti who inherited everything.”
“Why involve my children?”
Leon's expression changed.
For the first time, shame flickered.
“That wasn't his plan.”
“Whose was it?”
“Mine.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio loved nothing. I needed leverage against a man who did.”
“Three infants.”
“I never intended permanent harm.”
I stepped closer.
“You terrified them.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened them.”
“Yes.”
“If you expect me to understand because my father hurt yours, you're mistaken.”
Leon looked down.
“I know.”
That answer stopped me.
No justification.
No excuse.
Just acknowledgment.
“Where is Samuel?”
Leon said nothing.
Marco stepped closer.
“You're surrounded.”
Leon looked at him.
“You think this house is the battlefield?”
Then he looked at me.
“The final device isn't here.”
My blood went cold.
“Where?”
“Where the Moretti empire publicly began.”
Dario, listening remotely, spoke through my earpiece.
“The Founders Building.”
Moretti Holdings headquarters.
Leon smiled.
“At noon tomorrow, Adrien's going to stand in front of cameras.”
He turned toward me.
“And the whole world is going to hear what Vittorio Moretti did.”
“That doesn't require a device near my children.”
“No.”
His smile vanished.
“The last device isn't for the children.”
“Then what's it for?”
Leon looked directly at me.
“Your father's vault.”
And suddenly the target became clear.
My headquarters contained a private vault holding original corporate documents dating back forty years.
Evidence.
Money trails.
Signatures.
Proof of crimes committed by dead men—and possibly living ones.
Leon never wanted the company.
He wanted the truth inside it.
May you like
And tomorrow at noon, while the entire world watched me announce my resignation, someone else planned to open that vault.
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