Chapter 6 - THE NAME ON THE HOSPITAL LEDGER
Dante did not speak for the rest of the drive.
Not when we reached the safe house.
Not while I removed Ethan’s bullet.
Not even when I told him his stitches had partially reopened because he decided carrying a grown man through gunfire was medically sensible.
He sat in the kitchen afterward.
Still.
Dangerously still.
“Morelli,” I said.
He looked up.
“Could it be another family?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that?”
“No.”
Neither did I.
Nico brought old corporate filings.
Meridian Clinical Services had been incorporated twenty-six years earlier.
Original investor:
MORELLI HOLDINGS LLC
Dante’s father.
Salvatore Morelli.
Dante stared at the document.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“Did he own hospitals?”
“No.”
“Apparently he owned part of a company that supplied them.”
Nico kept searching.
The investment was transferred eight years later.
Buyer identity hidden behind a trust.
Dante stood.
“My uncle.”
Nico stopped typing.
“Boss.”
“Call Gabriel.”
Gabriel Morelli was Salvatore’s younger brother.
Dante’s uncle.
The man who had helped raise him.
The man currently overseeing most of the organization’s legitimate businesses.
He answered immediately.
“Dante.”
“Come to the house.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
Gabriel arrived forty minutes later.
Silver hair.
Expensive navy suit.
Warm smile.
He kissed Dante on both cheeks.
Then saw me.
“So this is the doctor.”
I disliked him instantly.
Maybe that was unfair.
Maybe not.
Dante placed the incorporation document on the table.
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
“Where did you find that?”
There.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Dante saw it too.
“You knew.”
Gabriel sat.
“Your father invested early.”
“In counterfeit pharmaceuticals?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
Gabriel sighed.
“Meridian began legitimate.”
“And later?”
“Calder changed it.”
“Who sold him control?”
Gabriel looked at the papers.
“Your father.”
Dante stared.
“Why?”
“He needed money.”
“For what?”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You think the empire appeared because your father worked hard?”
Nico stiffened.
Dante remained calm.
Gabriel continued.
“He borrowed. Invested. Bought influence.”
“Using Meridian?”
“Partly.”
“And when they started laundering?”
“That came later.”
“How much later?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Dante’s face changed.
“You knew about Sofia.”
Gabriel stood.
“No.”
“You knew Meridian had problems.”
“Everybody knew Calder cut corners.”
“My sister died.”
“I loved Sofia.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Gabriel’s voice rose.
“Because you were already tearing this city apart looking for someone to punish!”
Silence.
Dante looked at his uncle.
“What did you know?”
Gabriel rubbed his face.
“I knew Meridian had distributed questionable medications.”
“When?”
“Before Sofia’s surgery?”
Another silence.
That was answer enough.
Dante walked toward him.
I stepped between them.
Not because Gabriel deserved protection.
Because Dante deserved not to become the easiest version of himself.
He looked at me.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“No.”
His breathing slowed.
He stepped back.
Gabriel watched us.
Something calculating entered his eyes.
I noticed.
So did Nico.
Gabriel picked up his coat.
“You think this woman makes you better?”
Dante’s face hardened.
“She makes me think.”
“Worse.”
Gabriel left.
Nico waited until the door closed.
“He lied.”
“Yes,” Dante said.
“About what?”
“Everything after ‘your father invested.’”
We searched deeper.
By midnight, we found the transfer.
Meridian had never actually been sold.
Control moved into a trust.
Trustee:
Gabriel Morelli.
I sat back.
Dante looked almost unsurprised.
“He owns it.”
“Forty-one percent,” Nico said.
“Calder owns thirty-nine.”
“And the rest?”
Nico clicked.
His face changed.
“Twenty percent belongs to the Morelli Family Irrevocable Trust.”
“Beneficiary?”
Nico looked at Dante.
“You.”
The room went silent.
Dante laughed once.
No humor.
“My name funded the company that killed my sister.”
“No,” I said.
“Legally—”
“Not legally.”
I looked at him.
“Actually.”
He stared.
“You were a beneficiary. You weren’t operating it.”
“You think that matters?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because intent matters.”
His jaw tightened.
“So does blindness.”
That, I couldn’t argue.
Nico’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Gabriel just left the city.”
Dante went still.
“Where?”
“Private plane.”
“To?”
“Montreal.”
Coward.
Then another alert appeared.
Nico stared.
“What?”
He turned the laptop.
A transfer.
Thirty million dollars.
Moved from Meridian into an offshore account.
Authorized thirty minutes earlier.
Gabriel.
“He’s cleaning out the company,” I said.
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“He’s cleaning out evidence.”
Then my own phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
My burned apartment.
Taken from across the street.
Another photograph.
Me entering Dante’s estate.
Another.
Me and Dante outside the church.
Then a message.
YOUR LICENSE WAS THE WARNING.
A second message came.
THE FIRE WAS THE SECOND.
Then the third.
THERE WILL NOT BE A THIRD.
Dante took the phone from my hand.
His entire body went still.
I had seen his anger before.
This was different.
Colder.
“What are you going to do?”
He looked at Nico.
“Find Gabriel.”
I stepped closer.
“And then?”
Dante looked at me.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Finally:
May you like
“I haven’t decided.”
That frightened me more than if he had.
