"I'd rather stand."
"All right."
He shifted painfully.
"Vincent says your father was Marco Vale."
"That's correct."
"How long has he been dead?"
"Eleven years."
"Do you know what he did for my family?"
"According to the official story, he managed financial accounts."
"And what do you believe?"
Elena looked at him.
"I believe he knew something that frightened powerful people."
Luca watched her carefully.
"Why?"
She took out the envelope.
"Because someone left this for me tonight."
He reached for it.
Elena hesitated.
Then she placed it on the bedside table.
Luca read the sentence.
THE DAUGHTER OF MARCO VALE IS STILL ALIVE.
His jaw tightened.
"Where did you find this?"
"Near the private dining entrance."
"Did you see who left it?"
"A man in a gray suit."
"Describe him."
"Forties. Dark hair. Scar near the ear. Expensive watch."
Luca looked at Vincent.
"Get the security footage."
"Already requested."
Luca returned his attention to Elena.
"Did you tell anyone?"
"Your uncle."
His expression hardened.
"What?"
"He asked to see it."
"Did you give it to him?"
"No."
Luca slowly exhaled.
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because if my uncle knew you had that envelope, he would already be asking you to leave the city."
Elena stood straighter.
"What is happening?"
Luca looked toward the door.
Then back at her.
"Your father did not die in a car accident."
The words struck harder than she expected.
For eleven years, she had carried the image of a police officer standing in her childhood kitchen.
A wet coat.
A serious expression.
A sentence that had ended her life as she knew it.
Your father was involved in an accident.
We are sorry.
She remembered the funeral.
The closed coffin.
Her mother's silence.
The months that followed.
And the fact that nobody had ever allowed her to see the body.
She had asked once.
Her mother had slapped her.
Not because Elena had been disrespectful.
Because her mother had been terrified.
"How do you know?" she whispered.
Luca did not answer immediately.
"My father told me."
"Your father knew mine?"
"They were closer than brothers."
Elena looked at him.
"Then why was I told he was a criminal?"
"Because someone needed the world to believe he had stolen money and disappeared."
"Who?"
Luca's gaze remained fixed on hers.
"Salvatore."
***
Marco Vale had entered the Moretti household when he was twenty-three.
He was not born into the family.
He had no criminal history, no powerful relatives, and no interest in becoming a gangster.
He was a mathematics graduate who had been hired to organize the accounts of a small shipping company.
The company belonged to Antonio Moretti.
Antonio was Luca's father.
At the time, the Moretti family controlled several shipping operations and a network of warehouses along the coast.
Their business was complicated.
Their books were worse.
Marco was the first man who could explain every missing payment, every hidden account, and every unexplained transfer.
Antonio trusted him.
Then he became his friend.
Eventually, Marco became the person Antonio trusted with his life.
He was invited to family dinners.
He attended birthdays.
He carried Luca on his shoulders when the boy was too small to reach the kitchen counter.
Luca remembered him as a tall man with gentle eyes who always smelled faintly of coffee.
Marco had never raised his voice.
He had once told Luca that a man who needed to shout to be obeyed had already lost control.
When Luca was twelve, Marco taught him how to play chess.
When he was thirteen, Marco showed him how to repair an old radio.
And when Luca's mother died, Marco sat with him in the garden until sunrise.
He was family.
Then he discovered the accounts.
A series of payments had been moving through companies registered under false names.
At first, Marco believed they were unauthorized transactions.
Then he found the pattern.
The money was being used to finance attacks against rival families, corrupt officials, and private security operations.
But the transfers were not authorized by Antonio.
They were being approved by someone inside the organization.
Someone with access to the highest levels.
Salvatore Moretti.
Marco confronted him privately.
Salvatore denied everything.
Two days later, Antonio was killed in an ambush.
The official investigation blamed a rival organization.
Marco knew better.
He found evidence that the route had been leaked from inside the family.
He brought it to Antonio's widow.
But she was already dead by then.
And Salvatore had begun taking control.
Marco understood that he had become dangerous.
He tried to take Elena and her mother away.
He never made it home.
The police reported a fatal accident on a mountain road.
His car had gone over a barrier.
The vehicle was burned.
The body was too damaged for identification.
The case was closed.
Elena was told her father had died.
But Marco had survived.
He had been rescued by a man who owed Antonio Moretti a debt.
He disappeared before Salvatore could find him.
And for eleven years, he remained hidden.
***
Back in the hospital room, Elena struggled to breathe normally.
"Why didn't he come back?"
Luca looked at her.
"Because he believed your life depended on his disappearance."
"That isn't an answer."