Chapter 4 - My Father Had Ordered a Funeral Before He Knew My Brother Was Dead.
The emergency foster home was compromised.
Not by Naomi.
Not by child welfare.
By a contractor.
The county used a transportation vendor for after-hours placements.
One dispatcher had searched Lily’s placement address after seeing her name in system.
Why?
Because he owed money.
Not to us.
To a sports-betting ring connected to Vincent Hale Jr.
There.
Leverage.
Again.
He sold the address for five thousand dollars.
Police arrested him.
He cried during interview.
Said he did not know anyone planned harm.
Only wanted information.
That sentence had excused generations of men.
I did not get to judge from a throne.
Still.
Lily was moved to a confidential therapeutic foster home under enhanced protection.
No location shared with me.
Good.
Naomi asked whether Lily wanted contact.
She did.
Video only.
No background visible.
Good.
“You look mad.”
Lily said.
“I am.”
“At me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Children.
Then:
“Mom says angry people lie.”
“Sometimes.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
There.
Her eyes widened.
Maybe wrong? But honest.
“I have.”
“When?”
“Many times in my life.”
“Are you lying now?”
“No.”
“How do I know?”
That was the question.
“You don’t.”
I said.
Then:
“You can ask Naomi. You can ask Teresa. You can watch what I do.”
Good.
Trust not demanded.
Lily nodded.
Then showed me a drawing.
Yellow house.
Purple door.
One black circle on the roof.
“What is that?”
“Your ring.”
Of course.
Then:
“Mom said black ring means last door.”
There.
“Last door?”
“If every other door is bad.”
My throat tightened.
Not first.
Last.
Anna had never wanted her daughter in my world.
She had wanted me only if every normal system failed.
Important.
I was not chosen because safe.
I was chosen because perhaps I was the least dangerous DeLuca still powerful enough to stop other DeLucas.
That distinction mattered.
Police located Vincent Hale Jr. two days later at a motel near Indianapolis.
Alive.
No shootout.
He surrendered after U.S. marshals surrounded room.
Anna was not there.
His phone contained messages with someone saved as UNCLE.
But Hale Jr.’s biological uncle was dead.
Code.
Messages went back months.
One:
ANNA MOVED THE GIRL AGAIN.
Another:
IF MATTEO CONTACTS, DO NOT TOUCH HIM. WE NEED THE LEDGER.
There.
Matteo alive recently?
Maybe.
The last message dated three weeks ago:
HE’S BACK IN ILLINOIS.
My chest stopped.
My brother may have been alive three weeks ago.
Then:
ANNA HAS COPY.
That likely triggered her disappearance.
Ledger.
What ledger?
Marco remembered.
My father kept a black ledger?
No.
There was a private succession ledger listing off-book ownership, payoffs, hidden stakes, names of officials? Dangerous. Could be incriminating but avoid operational. Story can keep broad. Matteo had evidence of concealed assets and coercive arrangements used to trap people in organization.
I remembered a black book my father kept in safe.
After his death, missing.
We assumed burned? No.
Matteo may have stolen.
The ledger documented obligations.
Not just crimes.
People whose debts family used to control them.
Employees.
Businesses.
Relatives.
It was the architecture of leverage.
If exposed, it could dismantle claims over legitimate assets and support prosecutions.
My father would kill to protect.
Maybe had.
Then Detective Molina produced an old recording found in Vincent Hale Sr.’s archived legal storage after warrant.
Audio from six years ago.
My father.
Hale Sr.
And another man.
Date:
Two days before warehouse fire.
My father said:
“If Matteo walks away with those books, every coward who ever wanted out will think departure is possible.”
My hand shook.
Hale said:
“You want him stopped?”
My father:
“I want him home.”
Then another voice:
“And if he won’t come?”
My father paused.
“Then give Adrian a body before he asks too many questions.”
There.
The room vanished.
My father had ordered a funeral before he knew Matteo was dead.
Not necessarily murder?
He wanted a body.
Maybe staged death.
Wait perhaps plan was to fake Matteo’s death forcibly? Could be to convince Adrian. Maybe body from fire to cover kidnapping. This is darker. Need clarify.
Hale Jr. later claimed his father’s plan was to abduct Matteo, recover ledger, then force him into exile under threat to Anna? But Anna not known yet? She worked hospital after. Hmm.
The warehouse fire may have been arranged? Earlier report says uncertain. Could reveal accelerant intentional? Better not contradict. Could say family planned intercept outside warehouse and use existing dangerous materials? But too operational. Let's keep: they intended to seize Matteo at meeting; fire unexpectedly occurred during struggle, likely accidental. Then they used unidentified victim to fake death once Matteo escaped. Good.
My father’s line “give Adrian a body” could mean if Matteo cannot be brought back, create death story. Not necessarily actual body by murder; use fire victim mis-ID.
I listened again.
No tears.
No denial.
Marco sat beside me.
“Adrian.”
I raised hand.
Not now.
I remembered coffin.
My mother.
My father putting ring on my finger after he got sick:
You are the one left.
He had manufactured my inheritance by erasing Matteo.
Then police found more.
Dental record used to identify body had been altered.
Dr. Salvi’s office received cash from Hale law firm.
The corpse was actually Daniel Price, a warehouse temp worker whose family believed he had fled after theft accusation.
There.
Another family lost even the truth of who they buried.
I felt sick.
Daniel Price’s surviving sister was notified privately before public correction.
Good.
This was not only DeLuca tragedy.
A stranger’s body had been used as a prop in ours.
His sister, Marlene Price, wanted one thing:
“Give me my brother’s grave back.”
The cemetery records would be corrected.
DNA exhumation confirmation through court.
No secret.
Good.
I paid nothing directly.
The estate and legal process handled costs due to our family fraud after court order. Good.
Then question:
Who was UNCLE in Hale Jr.’s phone?
Not my father.
Dead.
Could be another elder:
Salvatore DeLuca, my father’s cousin, “Uncle Sal” to us though not actual uncle.
He had retired to Arizona.
Seventy-one.
Still financially tied.
The voice on old audio could be him.
Detective compared? Need legal. Voice analyst not definitive. Hale Jr. confessed? He identified.
“UNCLE” was Salvatore.
There.
Salvatore had helped my father manage Matteo disappearance.
After Antonio died, Salvatore remained silent.
Why surface now?
Because Matteo returned to Illinois looking for ledger? Or Anna had copy.
Salvatore feared exposure would reopen old crimes and strip assets.
He recruited Hale Jr. to watch Anna and locate Matteo.
Did he abduct Anna?
Hale Jr. claimed no.
He said Anna realized she was watched and fled voluntarily.
Then someone else intercepted.
Who?
He did not know.
That was plausible but maybe evasive.
Airport service corridor.
Anna may have used employee access? She had past medical admin, not airport.
Could have arranged decoy and left in service vehicle with Matteo.
Maybe mother not kidnapped at all. User opening says disappeared. Twist: Anna staged disappearance to protect Lily and meet Matteo, but then things went wrong. Let's move that later.
At this point, police found airport footage from freight exit:
Anna entering a van voluntarily.
Driver face obscured.
Van registered to a medical supply company.
Company owner:
Dr. Elise Morgan.
Name meant nothing.
But Marco knew.
“She treated Matteo.”
“How?”
“After the fire?”
“Maybe.”
Police checked.
Elise Morgan had worked at St. Vincent burn unit six years ago.
There.
She may have been doctor who transferred John Doe.
Now living in Wisconsin.
Van crossed state line north.
Anna may be alive.
Matteo too.
I wanted to go.
Of course.
I did not.
Detective Molina said:
“We are coordinating with Wisconsin.”
I nodded.
Then:
“Tell me when you can.”
Good.
No convoy.
No black-ring rescue.
That night, Teresa found me in kitchen.
Orange untouched.
Same place story began.
She looked at ring.
“Take it off.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Your father gave it to you.”
“Yes.”
“He lied.”
“Yes.”
“Then why wear it?”
My hand closed.
Because Lily recognized it.
Because Matteo used it as signal.
Because identity.
Because anger.
“I promised Lily.”
Teresa nodded.
“Then keep it until she no longer needs proof.”
There.
Good.
Not forever.
The ring had been my father’s symbol of authority.
Now it was a child’s verification token.
That was almost funny.
Then Teresa said:
“What happens if Matteo is alive?”
I looked at rain.
“I don’t know.”
“Does he take over?”
The question disgusted me.
“No.”
Good.
“Does he want to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then ask him before you build a future around his return.”
There.
Everyone had apparently learned to speak to me like this.
Probably deserved.
Three days later, Detective Molina called.
They found Dr. Elise Morgan’s cabin in Wisconsin.
Door open.
Van outside.
Blood on floor.
No bodies.
And carved into kitchen table with a knife:
BLACK RING IS NOT SAFE ANYMORE.
My stomach went cold.
This time, I knew the message was not from Matteo.
May you like
Because he had never believed the ring itself was safe.
He believed I might be.
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