Chapter 3 - The Secret Ledger of the Council
The heavy oak doors of the Moretti estate’s private boardroom remained locked from the inside for three consecutive days.
Outside, the elite of Europe’s criminal underworld sat stranded in their hotels, their phones buzzing incessantly as rumors of Luca Moretti’s miraculous recovery spread like wildfire. The underworld didn't panic easily, but the resurrection of the most ruthless tactician in modern history sent shockwaves through every syndicate from Marseille to Sicily.
Inside the boardroom, the atmosphere was thick with cigar smoke and tension.
Dr. Arthur Vance sat strapped to a steel chair at the head of the mahogany table, shivering violently as he tapped away at a decentralized laptop terminal. Standing behind him were Luca’s two most trusted loyalists: Marcus Vance, head of tactical operations, and Lorenzo, the master of intelligence.
At the far end of the table sat Luca. He was dressed in a charcoal-tailored three-piece suit, his posture completely straight, his legs fully functional as he paced slowly around the room, examining the decrypted financial records flooding onto the main projection screen.
"It’s all here, Boss," Lorenzo reported, tapping a stack of printed banking statements. "Valentina didn't act alone. She couldn't have. The synthetic paralyzing agent—a custom neurotoxin designed to mimic permanent spinal cord damage without leaving trace elements in standard autopsies—cost millions to synthesize. It was funded through an offshore shell corporation registered in Zurich."
Luca stopped pacing. He stared at the corporate name glowing in bright green letters on the screen: Vanguard Holdings.
"My uncle," Luca murmured, his voice cold as ice. "Federico Moretti."
"Not just your uncle," Dr. Vance whimpered from his chair, wiping sweat from his brow. "Federico and Valentina were partners from day one. The night of the supposed 'neurological accident' twelve years ago... Federico had me inject you with the initial concentrated dose while you were unconscious after that warehouse explosion. They staged the medical reports before you even woke up."
Marcus stepped forward, placing a heavy leather-bound ledger onto the table. "We raided Valentina’s private safe in the east wing this morning. We found her personal diary, complete with signed agreements from three regional council bosses who agreed to back her takeover once your health naturally failed."
Luca opened the ledger. The pages were filled with neat, meticulous handwriting detailing how they had planned to declare him mentally unfit by the end of the year, institutionalize him permanently, and divide the Moretti shipping ports among themselves.
He closed the ledger slowly.
"They thought I was sleeping," Luca said softly, running his fingers across the polished wood of the table. "They thought twelve years in a chair had turned my mind as soft as my muscles."
He looked up at Marcus. "Where is Federico right now?"
"He’s hosting an emergency council summit in Geneva tonight," Marcus replied, his lips curving into a sharp, dangerous smile. "He called it to 'stabilize the panicked markets' after news of your recovery broke. He’s planning to declare you medically unstable and seize emergency control of the syndicate."
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Luca buttoned his suit jacket, picked up his leather gloves from the table, and walked toward the grand oak doors.
"Then let's go give my dear uncle a surprise he'll never forget."
