Chapter 6 - the microchip in the wool
Enzo picked up Marco's silver shears from the floor. With extreme care, he snipped a single thread along the seam of the stuffed lamb's ear.
He reached two fingers deep inside the cotton filling, pulling out a tiny, silver micro-flash drive no larger than a fingernail.
Adelina stared at the drive in complete shock, wiping tears from her eyes. "What is that? Where did that come from?"
"This toy... where did Sophia get it?" Enzo asked, his voice dead serious.
"Matteo bought it for her," Adelina whispered, her voice trembling. "Two years ago... the day before his fatal car accident. He gave it to her at the park and told her never to lose it. I thought it was just a father's gift..."
Enzo handed the flash drive to Dr. Hayes, who had just entered the room with a laptop kit. "Plug it in, Nicholas. Encrypted air-gap system."
Dr. Hayes inserted the tiny drive into his specialized computer. The screen flashed through several lines of security code before opening a folder containing hundreds of scanned financial ledgers and audio recordings.
Dr. Hayes skimmed the files, his face turning pale. "Enzo... these are the real financial records of the Castellano syndicate from three years ago. Matteo Rossi didn't just work in accounting—he discovered that someone was stealing tens of millions from your private offshore accounts and laundering it through Swiss banks."
"Who was laundering the money?" Enzo demanded, his voice a low, terrifying rumble.
Dr. Hayes opened an audio file on the drive. A voice filled the quiet bedroom—Matteo Rossi's voice, recorded two years ago.
"If anyone is listening to this," Matteo's recorded voice stammered nervously, "my name is Matteo Rossi. I found the hidden sub-ledger. The person stealing from Enzo Castellano isn't an external rival. It is his own half-brother, Julian Castellano. Julian knows I found out. He threatened to kill my wife Adelina and my daughter Sophia if I spoke. I hid this drive inside Sophia's toy. If I die... please get this to Enzo..."
The audio recording cut off into static.
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Adelina fell to her knees, weeping uncontrollably as the truth hit her like a thunderbolt. "Matteo didn't die in an accident... Julian murdered him because he tried to protect us!"
Enzo stood frozen in the middle of the room. His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. His own half-brother, Julian—the man who sat beside him at every family council meeting—had murdered a loyal worker, threatened a innocent woman and child, and was now trying to poison Enzo to take control of the entire empire.
