Chapter 6 - WHAT WAS INSIDE THE RABBIT
Clara did not let Adrian touch the rabbit.
“Absolutely not.”
“Clara.”
“It is her favorite thing.”
“It may contain evidence.”
“It contains stuffing.”
Rosie hugged it tighter.
“Bunny.”
Adrian crouched.
“I’m not taking Bunny.”
Rosie narrowed her eyes.
“You looked at him.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because he seems suspicious.”
Rosie looked down at the rabbit.
“He’s not.”
Adrian nodded.
“My mistake.”
Matteo turned away, pretending not to smile.
Clara almost did too.
Almost.
Then she noticed the stitching.
Along the rabbit’s back, beneath one floppy ear, a short line of thread was darker than the rest.
Clara touched it.
Her expression changed.
“I didn’t do this.”
Adrian stood.
“Did Daniel sew?”
“No.”
“He repaired his work clothes?”
“With tape.”
That sounded believable.
Rosie watched them.
Clara sat on the edge of the bed.
“Baby, can Mommy look at Bunny?”
Rosie handed him over reluctantly.
“No hurt.”
“No hurt.”
Clara used tiny nail scissors from her travel bag to cut three stitches.
She reached inside.
Her fingers touched something hard.
Everyone froze.
Clara pulled out a small flash drive wrapped in plastic.
She stared at it.
For two years, her daughter had slept with it.
Carried it to grocery stores.
Dragged it through airport security.
Spilled juice on it.
Daniel’s secret had survived inside a stuffed rabbit because nobody thought to search a baby’s toy.
Clara began crying.
Not loudly.
That was worse.
“He knew.”
Adrian stood several feet away.
“He knew something could happen.”
“He bought Rosie this himself.”
She stared at the rabbit.
“I thought he was being sentimental.”
Matteo took out a secure laptop.
“We should not open that here.”
Clara looked at Adrian.
“Why?”
“Because if the drive has been compromised—”
“I want to know what is on it.”
“You will.”
“Now.”
Adrian nodded.
Matteo did not argue.
They disconnected the room from every network they could.
The drive opened.
One folder.
DANIEL.
Inside were photographs.
Invoices.
Videos.
Lists of company names.
Clara understood almost none of it.
Adrian understood too much.
Warehouse 14 had been used to hide financial transfers his father had never told him about.
Payments connected to Gabriel.
Not after Gabriel disappeared.
Before.
Years of them.
Gabriel and Adrian’s father had not simply been enemies.
They had been partners.
Then one brother erased the other.
Daniel had accidentally found copies stored in an electrical-control room after files were moved during renovation.
He photographed them.
There was one audio file.
Adrian pressed play.
Daniel’s voice filled the hotel room.
“If anything happens to me, my name is Daniel Bennett. I’m working Morelli Warehouse Fourteen. I found records I wasn’t supposed to find.”
Clara covered her mouth.
Rosie looked confused.
“Daddy?”
Clara pulled her close.
The recording continued.
“I don’t know exactly what they mean, but one name keeps showing up. Gabriel Morelli.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“And Lorenzo Morelli signed the newer transfers.”
Matteo looked at Adrian.
Daniel continued.
“I told the warehouse manager I found old documents. He said to give them to him. I said I would.”
A pause.
“I lied.”
Clara began shaking.
“If you’re hearing this, I probably didn’t get the chance to decide what to do.”
Another pause.
Then Daniel’s voice softened.
“Clara, if somehow this gets to you…”
She broke.
“I’m sorry.”
Rosie touched her face.
“Mommy.”
Daniel continued.
“You were right. I should have taken the electrician job at the school.”
Clara laughed through tears.
“I’m sorry I complained about peas.”
She pressed her fist to her mouth.
“And Rosie…”
His voice broke on the recording.
“She won’t remember me.”
Clara closed her eyes.
“She will if you tell her.”
Rosie stared at the laptop.
“Daddy talking?”
Clara nodded.
“Yes, baby.”
Daniel’s final words:
“Tell her I loved her before I even knew her.”
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Even Matteo looked toward the wall.
Adrian felt anger spread through him.
Not the explosive kind.
The useful kind.
Clara turned on him.
“Who killed him?”
“We still need proof.”
“That is proof.”
“It proves Daniel feared Lorenzo.”
“Who killed him?”
Adrian stared at the photographs.
“I’m going to find out.”
Clara stood.
“No.”
“What?”
“You keep saying you.”
Her eyes were red.
“My husband. My daughter. My life.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
She stepped closer.
“You men build worlds where secrets become more valuable than people.”
Adrian said nothing.
“Daniel died because he opened a door.”
Her voice shook.
“Rosie could be in danger because she found a button.”
She pointed at him.
“And you still talk like this is a war you own.”
That one landed harder than she knew.
Adrian’s entire adult life had been built around ownership.
Territory.
Loyalty.
Debt.
Silence.
Control.
He looked at Rosie.
Three years old.
Holding a rabbit with a cut seam.
Clara whispered:
“I want out.”
Adrian nodded.
“All right.”
She looked surprised.
“I’ll arrange a new identity if you want.”
“I don’t want your people rebuilding my life.”
“Then money.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I don’t want Morelli money.”
Adrian looked down.
Fair.
Matteo’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Matteo turned the screen toward Adrian.
An image.
Security footage from the Morelli estate.
Bianca was gone.
The room where she had been confined was empty.
A guard lay unconscious in the corridor.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Lorenzo?”
“Still there.”
“So someone came for her.”
Another message arrived.
Estate gate camera.
A dark sedan leaving nineteen minutes earlier.
Matteo zoomed in.
Passenger seat.
Bianca.
Driver.
An older man with silver hair.
Adrian stared.
He had not seen the face since he was twelve.
Not in life.
Only in old photographs.
Gabriel Morelli.
Alive.
Matteo whispered:
“Now we know.”
Adrian looked at Clara.
Then the flash drive.
Gabriel had come personally for Bianca.
He knew Daniel’s evidence still existed.
And now he knew something else.
The widow had survived.
The child had found the recorder.
Adrian stood.
“We move now.”
Clara’s face hardened.
“Where?”
“A place Gabriel cannot reach.”
“You keep saying that.”
“This time I mean somewhere outside Morelli control.”
She stared.
Adrian took out his phone.
“Federal safe house?”
Matteo looked at him sharply.
Clara went still.
Adrian continued:
“Daniel died trying to preserve evidence. I’m not burying it again.”
Matteo understood first.
“You’re turning it over.”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
Adrian looked at the records implicating his own family.
His father.
His cousin.
Possibly himself through companies he had inherited without knowing every secret inside them.
“Yes.”
Matteo lowered his voice.
“You know what that could cost.”
Adrian looked toward Rosie.
She had found another crayon somewhere and was drawing on hotel stationery.
“I’m starting to understand.”
Then Clara’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Adrian said:
“Don’t.”
Clara stared at the screen.
It stopped.
A voicemail appeared.
She played it on speaker.
Bianca’s voice.
Crying.
“Clara, listen to me. Gabriel knows about the rabbit.”
Clara’s face drained.
“He knows Rosie has the drive.”
Bianca sobbed.
“And he says if Adrian gives anything to the government…”
A man spoke in the background.
Calm.
Older.
“Tell my nephew I want what his father stole from me.”
Bianca’s breathing shook.
Then Gabriel’s voice came closer.
“And tell the little girl with the crayons…”
Adrian’s expression became ice.
May you like
“I know she saw more than she should have.”
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