Chapter 3 - THE SAINT WITHOUT A FACE
Sebastian remembered the argument.
Three years earlier.
Adrian had entered his office without knocking, thrown a black medallion onto the desk, and said:
“Dad lied about everything.”
Sebastian had been preparing for a negotiation that could decide whether twenty men went home alive.
He told Adrian to leave.
Adrian refused.
He spoke about an old chamber.
Five seats.
A missing Moretti branch.
Sebastian called him drunk.
Adrian called him their father’s obedient son.
Sebastian hit him.
Not hard enough to injure.
Hard enough to end the conversation.
Adrian never mentioned it again.
Until now, Sebastian had filed the memory under younger-brother arrogance.
That was easier than admitting Adrian might have been asking for help.
The western chapel stood beyond the main gardens.
Nobody worshiped there anymore.
Vines covered half the stone.
The saint carved above the entrance had lost its face to weather.
Sebastian stopped beneath it.
Five cuts had been made across the statue’s chest.
Same symbol.
Helena remained at the house.
Sebastian brought Anthony Bell, his oldest bodyguard.
Clara came because she had found the key in Chad’s pocket.
Sebastian had wanted to refuse.
She simply asked:
“How many people have hidden things from you because you decided who was allowed in the room?”
He let her come.
The iron key opened a narrow door behind the altar.
Stone stairs descended.
Anthony switched on a flashlight.
“What is this?”
Sebastian shook his head.
“My father told me the chapel had no basement.”
Clara almost laughed.
“Apparently honesty wasn’t the family religion.”
Below waited a circular room.
Five high-backed wooden chairs surrounded a black stone table.
No documents.
No gold.
No weapons.
Only personal objects.
A child’s shoe.
A broken watch.
A wedding ring.
A silver rosary.
A black saint medallion.
Sebastian approached.
Each chair bore a symbol.
Wolf.
Crown.
Knife.
Bell.
Empty circle.
The fifth chair had no symbol carved into the back.
Only scratches where something had been removed.
Anthony examined the table.
“Something happened here recently.”
Sebastian looked.
Dust covered most surfaces.
Not one section.
Someone had wiped the fifth chair.
Clara noticed a candle stub.
“Fresh?”
Anthony touched the wax.
“Months. Not decades.”
Sebastian’s pulse changed.
Adrian had been here.
Maybe others.
He found something beneath the stone table.
Five shallow grooves.
One contained dried blood.
Old enough to be dark.
Not ancient.
Clara stepped back.
Sebastian searched farther.
Behind the fifth chair was a small iron box.
The key opened it.
Inside was Adrian’s wristwatch.
Sebastian recognized the scratch across the face.
He had given it to Adrian when he turned thirty.
The family claimed the watch disappeared with him.
Sebastian lifted it.
Anthony frowned.
“If this was here…”
“Then someone placed it after Adrian disappeared.”
Clara looked toward the fifth chair.
“Or Adrian did.”
Sebastian turned the watch.
The back had been scratched with a single phrase:
ASK WHO SAT IN MY CHAIR.
Sebastian went still.
Clara read it.
“His chair?”
Anthony looked around.
“Which one?”
Sebastian knew.
The empty circle.
Adrian had once drawn the same symbol on a napkin during their argument.
“The fifth.”
He approached.
Beneath the chair was another object.
A small wooden toy wolf.
Leo had one almost identical in his bedroom.
Adrian carved them himself.
Sebastian picked it up.
One side had been blackened.
Carved beneath:
LEO DOES NOT INHERIT MY WAR.
Sebastian closed his eyes.
His brother had anticipated danger.
Not power.
Not succession.
Danger.
Clara whispered:
“Then why are Helena and Chad trying to remove him?”
“Maybe because they think Adrian wanted the opposite.”
Anthony examined the fifth chair.
“There’s something inside.”
He lifted the seat.
A narrow compartment opened.
A cassette recorder lay inside.
Old machine.
New tape.
Sebastian pressed play.
Static.
Then Adrian’s voice.
Sebastian stopped breathing.
“If you’re hearing this, I failed.”
Clara looked at him.
The tape continued.
“Sebastian, if it’s you, listen before you get angry.”
A bitter laugh.
“I know. Impossible request.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
Then Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Leo is not the heir.”
“He is the lock.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“The fifth seat was created to prevent one Moretti branch from controlling every other branch.”
“My father learned how to control it anyway.”
“After he died, someone took his seat.”
A pause.
“Someone you trust.”
Sebastian looked at Anthony.
Anthony looked back without offense.
The tape continued:
“If I disappear, do not blame Helena first.”
Clara inhaled.
“Do not blame Chad.”
Another pause.
“Ask who was sitting in your council room when they told you I betrayed you.”
The tape clicked off.
Sebastian remained still.
Fourteen months earlier, five men had been inside the council room when Adrian was condemned.
Sebastian.
Helena.
Chad.
And two senior advisers.
May you like
One of them had been dead for six months.
The other had been sitting beside Sebastian less than an hour before Leo screamed.
