Chapter 3 - The Poison in the Water
The room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees the moment Nico saw the photograph on Emma’s phone.
Emma’s hand shook so violently that the device slipped from her fingers, clattering against the polished table.
She lunged for it, her knuckles white, her breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps.
"They were inside his room," she whispered, her voice fracturing.
"They stood over him while he was sleeping."
Nico did not hesitate.
He pulled his personal phone from his breast pocket and tapped speed dial for Moretti Corporate Security.
"Marcus, this is Nico."
"I need an immediate private security detail dispatched to Saint Jude Rehabilitation Center in Cleveland, Ohio."
"Room 314, Daniel Reed."
"Armed perimeter, two men inside the room, nobody enters without direct clearance from me or Emma Reed."
"Authorize whatever rate they demand and bill it to my private executive account."
Nico ended the call and looked at Emma.
"Marcus is the former head of the Chicago tactical unit."
"He will have four men in that room within twenty-five minutes."
Emma stared at him, her chest heaving, the icy exterior completely shattered by maternal terror.
"How did they find him?"
"I moved him to Cleveland under my mother’s maiden name."
"Only three people knew which medical facility he was admitted to."
Michael Moretti stood up, smoothing his jacket with exaggerated nonchalance.
"This is an obvious extortion stunt."
"Probably manufactured by some disgruntled creditor your father owed money to before he fled town."
Emma rounded on Michael like a wounded wolf, her hazel eyes blazing with pure hatred.
"My father didn't owe money to anyone, you miserable coward!"
"He spent every cent of his pension paying off the legal debts your fabricated audit created!"
"Emma, look at me," Nico commanded, stepping between Emma and his uncle.
His voice was steady, grounding, and authoritative.
"We are going to find out who took that photograph."
"And we are going to find out why they are terrified of those archives."
The transaction attorney for Arden Ridge cleared his throat nervously from the end of the table.
"Mister Moretti, Miss Reed... there is another development."
Emma turned, wiping a stray tear from her cheek before her professional mask could crumble further.
"What happened, David?"
The lawyer turned his laptop toward them, displaying an incoming legal notice with an urgent time-stamp.
"Robert Hayes has formally revoked his share sale agreement."
Nico frowned.
"Hayes? He owns seven percent of the Class B voting stock."
"He signed the Arden Ridge purchase agreement three days ago," Emma said, her voice tightening.
"He cannot legally withdraw without facing specific performance damages."
"He can if he invokes the duress and personal safety exemption clause," the attorney explained grimly.
He opened an attachment on his screen.
It was a frantic, handwritten email from Robert Hayes sent less than twenty minutes earlier.
I cannot proceed with this transaction.
They sent pictures of my daughter leaving her elementary school in Oak Park.
Take your money and leave my family out of your war.
Nico felt a surge of cold fury ignite in his chest.
Robert Hayes was a decent, quiet investor who had supported Moretti Hospitality since Nico's grandfather started the business.
Whoever was running this operation was not just fighting a corporate takeover.
They were using organized terror to preserve their secrets.
With Hayes’s withdrawal, Arden Ridge’s economic interest plunged from fifty-two percent down to forty-five percent.
The hostile takeover had technically collapsed before the ink could dry.
Michael let out an audible sigh of relief, a thin, triumphant smirk curling the edges of his lips.
"Well, that settles the corporate governance question, doesn't it?"
"Miss Reed no longer holds a controlling economic interest."
"She has no statutory right to inspect our internal archives or demand executive audits."
"Security should escort her and her legal team off the premises immediately."
Michael looked at Nico, expecting his nephew to seize the lifeline and preserve the family empire.
Nico looked at Michael for five long seconds.
The silence stretched until Michael’s smirk began to falter under his nephew’s icy stare.
"Did you threaten Robert Hayes, Uncle Michael?"
Michael’s eyes widened in genuine shock.
"Are you insane?"
"I have been sitting in this boardroom with you for the last two hours!"
"You had forty-five minutes before I arrived," Nico said coldly.
"And you have maintained personal contacts with every private investigator in the tri-state area."
"Nico, this is absurd!" Michael stammered, his face turning red.
"I built this company with your father!"
"I protected this family while you were running around Europe pretending to be an artist!"
Nico ignored him and turned to the Arden Ridge attorney.
"File an executive exemption."
"As Chief Executive Officer and holder of the primary super-voting Class A shares, I am granting Arden Ridge Capital immediate observer status."
"I am personally authorizing full access to all historical financial records, digital backups, and physical vaults."
Emma stared at him, stunned into utter silence.
She had lost her legal leverage forty seconds ago, yet Nico had handed it right back to her on a silver platter.
"Nico..." she murmured, her voice trembling slightly.
"Why?"
Nico looked down at the photograph of Daniel Reed lying vulnerable in his hospital bed.
"Because my father always told me that a Moretti never hides behind the suffering of an innocent man."
"If someone in this building destroyed your father's life, they will answer for it."
"Whether they share my last name or not."
Nico walked to the door and pulled it open, gesturing for his chief of staff waiting in the hallway.
"Have the car brought around to the private executive entrance."
"Miss Reed and I are going to the Cicero archive facility ourselves."
Michael lunged forward, grabbing Nico by the arm.
"You cannot go out there with her!"
"You have a quarterly investor call in three hours!"
"Cancel it," Nico snapped, ripping his arm free from his uncle's grip with violent force.
"Tell the market that the CEO is conducting an unscheduled internal asset verification."
"And Michael?"
Michael froze, his chest heaving with nervous energy.
"Do not leave this building."
"If I find out you placed a single phone call to Cleveland or Oak Park, I will have corporate security lock you in the holding suite until the federal authorities arrive."
Nico turned to Emma, extending his hand.
"Let's go find the truth, Emma."
Emma looked at his outstretched hand for a moment.
The memory of his cold, silent indifference ten years ago flashed through her mind like a lightning strike.
Yet looking into his eyes now, she saw no deception.
She saw a man whose world was cracking down the center, desperate to know which side of the fault line he stood on.
Emma bypassed his hand, picking up her leather dossier and walking past him toward the elevator.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Nico."
"The truth usually burns down the house that hides it."
As they stepped into the private executive elevator, the digital chime sounded, and the heavy brass doors slid shut.
Nico’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
It was a text message from an unregistered burner number.
He unlocked the screen, shielding it from Emma's view.
May you like
The message contained three coordinates and a single sentence:
THE BOY WITH THE ONYX RING ALREADY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED IN 2016.
