Chapter 5
The house locked down in under ninety seconds.
Steel shutters covered the west windows.
Security sealed the gates.
The rehearsal guests never made it past the road.
Luca ordered Matteo into the reinforced family room downstairs.
Matteo refused to go without me.
So I went.
My arm burned.
My face throbbed.
And somewhere outside, Dominic’s driver was being loaded into an ambulance with a bullet wound in his shoulder.
He was alive.
Barely.
Vanessa sat across the room under guard.
The woman who had been supposed to become Mrs. Luca Moretti in two days now had no phone, no purse, and no wedding.
Dominic paced near the wall.
Luca stood over the photograph found beneath the injured driver’s hand.
Sarah.
Daniel Reed.
Angelo Bellini.
The date stamp on the back was six days before Sarah died.
Matteo sat beside me.
“Why would Mom meet Vanessa’s dad?”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“We’re going to find out.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“You still think this is about me.”
Luca’s stare hardened.
“You secretly recorded my archive.”
“To find something.”
“You destroyed Sarah’s things.”
“I was angry.”
“You isolated my son.”
“I was wrong.”
That admission surprised everyone.
Even Luca.
Vanessa leaned forward.
“But none of that explains the photograph.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t explain why someone just shot Dominic’s driver.”
“No.”
“And it doesn’t explain Daniel.”
Luca crossed his arms.
“So explain.”
She looked at Dominic.
He shook his head once.
A warning.
Vanessa smiled bitterly.
“You see? That’s what I’ve been living with.”
Dominic snapped, “Do not.”
“Do not what? Tell him?”
“You don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Luca stepped between them.
“Then tell me.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved to Matteo.
Luca said, “He stays.”
She exhaled.
“Bellini Development wasn’t founded by my father.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Luca’s face remained still.
“Who founded it?”
“Your father.”
Matteo frowned.
Luca stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“My father competed with Bellini.”
“Publicly.”
“You expect me to believe he secretly owned Angelo’s company?”
“Not the whole company.”
“What then?”
“The original holding entity.”
Dominic turned away.
Vanessa continued.
“Your father needed off-book construction capacity in the nineties. Union problems. Zoning problems. Cash he didn’t want tied to Moretti Holdings.”
Luca looked at Dominic.
“True?”
Dominic said nothing.
“True?”
“Yes.”
The word dropped heavily.
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“How much did he own?”
“Forty percent at first.”
“At first?”
“He sold pieces.”
“To Angelo?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Dominic rubbed his face.
“Over years.”
“What did Sarah discover?”
“The trust still held shares.”
Matteo looked up.
“My trust?”
Dominic nodded reluctantly.
“Your grandfather placed some of the Bellini interest in a family vehicle years before you were born. Later portions flowed into the trust structure.”
Luca stared.
“So my son owns part of Bellini Development.”
“Indirectly.”
“How much?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
Vanessa did.
“Enough to matter.”
Luca looked at her.
“Numbers.”
“Twenty-two percent through two entities.”
Dominic swore.
“You had no right.”
Vanessa laughed.
“My father has spent fifteen years trying to buy those interests back.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“And the wedding?”
Silence.
Then I understood before Luca did.
Maybe because I had spent my life watching people use relationships like locks.
“If Vanessa married you,” I said quietly, “she could get closer to the trust.”
Everyone looked at me.
Vanessa’s eyes sharpened.
Luca turned.
“Could she?”
Dominic answered.
“Not automatically.”
“But?”
“If something happened to you, guardianship and voting control could become complicated while Matteo is a minor.”
Matteo went pale.
Luca’s face became dangerous.
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
He stared at her.
“No what?”
“I was not marrying you for the trust.”
“Did your father want you to?”
“No.”
“Did he know I was changing my estate plan after the wedding?”
Her face changed.
Luca saw.
“I hadn’t told you that.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What change?”
Luca ignored him.
He stepped toward Vanessa.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t.”
“You reacted.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“Who told you?”
“No one.”
“Vanessa.”
She stood.
Marco shifted.
She raised both hands.
“I heard you on the phone.”
“With my attorney?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Where?”
“Hallway.”
Luca stared.
“My call was in the archive office.”
Her face drained.
The hidden camera.
The microphone.
Everyone understood at once.
Luca’s voice became almost calm.
“You heard through the surveillance feed.”
Vanessa stopped.
That was the answer.
He nodded slowly.
“What else did you hear?”
“Nothing.”
“What else?”
“I said nothing.”
He looked toward Marco.
“Pull every audio file from the drive.”
Vanessa’s composure finally broke.
“No.”
Marco paused.
Luca kept staring at her.
“What is on there?”
“Private conversations.”
“Mine.”
“And mine.”
“In my office.”
She shook her head.
“Luca, some things were said when people were angry.”
“Who?”
She said nothing.
“Who were you talking to through the system?”
No answer.
Luca looked at the technician.
“Search outgoing connections.”
The man worked quickly.
Vanessa sat.
Her face had gone gray.
Matteo whispered, “Dad.”
Luca turned.
“Yeah?”
“Can I go upstairs?”
Luca crossed the room immediately.
“You okay?”
“No.”
The honesty in that one word hurt.
Luca crouched.
“Rosa can take you.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Can Claire?”
Luca looked at my arm.
Then at me.
“If Claire feels up to it.”
“I do.”
He hesitated.
Not because he did not trust me.
Because there had been a gunshot thirty minutes earlier.
“I’ll send two guards.”
Matteo rolled his eyes weakly.
“Great.”
Luca almost smiled.
Then he touched the back of his son’s head.
“I’ll come up soon.”
“You always say soon.”
Luca froze.
Matteo looked guilty instantly.
“I didn’t mean—”
“No.”
Luca stood.
“You’re right.”
He glanced at the photograph.
At Vanessa.
At Dominic.
Then made a decision.
“Ten minutes.”
Dominic stared.
“Luca, this is important.”
“My son is more important.”
He looked at Marco.
“Nothing moves for ten minutes.”
Then he came upstairs with us.
We sat in Matteo’s room.
The room Vanessa had planned to take from him.
Sarah’s things were missing from the shelves.
But one photograph remained beside the bed.
Sarah holding seven-year-old Matteo on a beach.
Luca picked it up.
“She loved that trip.”
Matteo stared at the floor.
“Vanessa said you hated this picture.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“No.”
“She said because Mom looked sick.”
“No.”
Luca sat beside him.
“I hate that she was sick. I don’t hate seeing her.”
Matteo’s voice cracked.
“I don’t know what I’m allowed to remember anymore.”
Luca’s face broke.
He pulled Matteo close.
“All of it.”
“What?”
“All of it. Good, bad, ugly, funny. You’re allowed all of it.”
Matteo cried.
Luca held him.
I stood near the door.
Then Luca looked at me.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“Sit.”
I hesitated.
“There’s a chair.”
“I’m fine.”
“That sentence is still banned.”
Matteo laughed through tears.
I sat.
Luca looked at my cheek.
“Did Vanessa ever tell you not to tell me she hurt you?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
I glanced at Matteo.
“Dad,” he said. “Don’t make her answer now.”
Luca looked at him.
That surprised him.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
It surprised me too.
A knock came.
Marco entered.
“Sorry.”
Luca stood.
“What?”
“We traced the surveillance feed.”
“To where?”
“Three destinations.”
“One was Vanessa’s phone.”
She no longer had it.
“One was a cloud account registered to Bellini Development.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“And the third?”
Marco hesitated.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“It’s inside the house.”
Luca stared.
“Where?”
“Device is still connected.”
“What room?”
Marco checked his screen.
Then looked at Matteo.
His expression changed.
Luca noticed.
“Say it.”
“The third-floor nursery suite.”
Matteo went pale.
The room Vanessa had planned for him.
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“Someone’s there?”
“Maybe a relay device.”
“Maybe?”
“The signal is active. It’s transmitting right now.”
Security moved instantly.
Luca told Matteo to stay with me.
He left with Marco.
Two guards remained outside the door.
For five minutes we heard nothing.
Then Matteo whispered, “Do you think someone was watching me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
I took his hand.
“But your dad is going to find out.”
A loud thud echoed from the third floor.
Then shouting.
One guard outside our room spoke into his radio.
“What happened?”
Static.
Then:
“We’ve got someone!”
Footsteps thundered upstairs.
Luca’s voice carried down the stairwell.
“Don’t let him move!”
Matteo and I stared at each other.
Minutes later, Luca returned.
His face was white with anger.
Blood stained one knuckle.
Not his.
Matteo stood.
“Who was it?”
Luca looked at his son.
Then at me.
He held up a small electronic transmitter.
“We found the relay.”
“And?”
“We found the man maintaining it.”
“Who?”
Luca’s eyes moved toward the hallway.
Security dragged someone past the doorway.
A familiar face.
I knew him.
Everyone in the house did.
Peter Hale.
Luca’s personal assistant.
The man who had managed his schedule for eight years.
The man who had approved every wedding vendor.
The man who told Luca when Matteo was busy.
And told Matteo when Luca was unavailable.
Peter looked at me as security pulled him away.
Then he smiled.
“Too late,” he said.
Luca grabbed the doorframe.
“Too late for what?”
Peter laughed.
“For the wedding.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“It’s cancelled.”
Peter shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
His smile widened.
“I mean the other one.”
