Chapter 9
Vanessa did not scream when the police put handcuffs on her.
That surprised me.
I had seen her scream over flowers delivered in the wrong shade of white.
I had seen her reduce a caterer to tears because the dessert forks were placed above the plates instead of beside them.
But when two detectives entered the library and told her she was being arrested on allegations involving fraudulent filings, unlawful surveillance, and assault, she became perfectly calm.
She held out her hands.
Then she looked at Luca.
“Are you going to let them do this?”
Luca’s face did not move.
“I’m the reason they know what happened to Claire.”
Vanessa looked at me.
I expected hatred.
Instead I saw exhaustion.
For one strange second, she looked older than her father.
Then the detective fastened the cuffs.
Angelo stepped toward his attorney.
“Handle this.”
Vanessa laughed.
The sound stopped everyone.
Her father looked at her.
“What?”
“You’re still doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Giving orders like none of this reaches you.”
Angelo’s eyes hardened.
“Not another word.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Then something inside her seemed to break cleanly instead of cracking.
She turned toward the detectives.
“I want to speak to my own lawyer.”
Angelo’s attorney frowned.
“I represent the family.”
“No.”
“Vanessa—”
“I said my own lawyer.”
Angelo’s face went cold.
She smiled at him.
“That scares you, doesn’t it?”
He said nothing.
She looked at Luca.
“Peter talked to Daniel Reed.”
The room froze.
Luca stepped forward.
“When?”
Angelo snapped, “Vanessa.”
She ignored him.
“Three months ago.”
Luca’s breathing changed.
“How do you know?”
“I heard Peter on the surveillance feed.”
“Where is Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
Angelo laughed without humor.
“She’s lying to save herself.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“No. I lied to save you.”
The detectives exchanged glances.
Luca asked, “What did Peter say?”
Vanessa closed her eyes, remembering.
“He said, ‘If you want the boy protected, come back before the Bellini vote.’”
Matteo’s face changed.
“The boy?”
Vanessa nodded.
“You.”
Luca stared at her.
“What did Daniel say?”
“I could only hear Peter’s side.”
“What else?”
“He said Sarah had been right about the trust. He said the original ledger could destroy Angelo.”
Angelo stepped toward her.
One detective moved between them.
“Sir, back up.”
Angelo’s face darkened.
Vanessa continued.
“Peter arranged a meeting at a motel near Newark Airport. Daniel never showed.”
“Which motel?” Marco asked.
She gave the name.
Marco immediately messaged his team.
Luca looked at Peter’s empty chair.
“He knew Daniel might be alive and said nothing.”
Vanessa’s smile was bitter.
“Peter says whatever protects Peter.”
The detective began walking her toward the door.
Vanessa stopped beside Matteo.
Luca moved instantly.
She raised her cuffed hands.
“I’m not going to touch him.”
Matteo looked at her.
For months she had told him where to stand, what not to say, which photographs should disappear, which memories upset his father.
Now she looked smaller than him somehow.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Matteo said nothing.
Her voice shook.
“I was angry at your mother for being dead and still mattering more than I did.”
Luca’s face tightened.
Vanessa looked at him.
“I know how horrible that sounds.”
“It was worse to live through,” Matteo said.
She flinched.
He continued.
“You made me feel like loving my mom was rude.”
Tears filled Vanessa’s eyes.
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
She lowered her head.
The detectives led her away.
Angelo watched without moving.
When the front door closed, he turned toward Luca.
“She is emotionally unstable.”
I could not believe it.
Neither could Matteo.
“That’s your daughter,” he said.
Angelo looked at him.
“And you’re discussing her like a bad investment.”
Luca’s hand landed gently on Matteo’s shoulder.
Angelo’s expression hardened.
“You have Sarah’s talent for dramatics.”
Luca stepped forward.
“Leave.”
Angelo smiled.
“This is still a business matter.”
“Not in my house.”
“You cannot remove me from the shareholder process.”
“Celia just froze it.”
“For hours, maybe days.”
“For as long as necessary.”
Angelo leaned closer.
“You think a dead woman’s letter changes what your father built?”
Luca stared.
“No. My son changes it.”
Matteo looked at him.
Luca continued.
“This ends with him owning what is his without you, Dominic, Vanessa, or me deciding his future in a back room.”
Angelo’s smile faded.
“You sound idealistic.”
“I sound done.”
The attorneys gathered their bags.
Angelo walked toward the door.
At the threshold he stopped.
Then he looked at me.
I hated that.
“You should be careful, Claire.”
Luca moved before I could answer.
“Do not speak to her.”
Angelo’s eyes stayed on mine.
“Sarah thought truth made people safe too.”
Luca grabbed the door and opened it wider.
“Get out.”
Angelo left.
Marco sent four guards after him to document his departure.
The house became quiet again.
Not peaceful.
Just emptied of one kind of danger.
Celia returned to her laptop.
“We need Matteo’s protector appointment filed before Bellini appeals the restraining order.”
Luca looked at his son.
“You heard her.”
Matteo swallowed.
“Who do I pick?”
“That is your decision.”
“I’m thirteen.”
“You reminded me of that when you wanted into the archive.”
“That was different.”
Celia smiled.
“You need someone independent. Financially literate. No Bellini interest. No Moretti operating role.”
Matteo looked at Luca.
“Can I choose you?”
“No,” Celia said before Luca could answer.
“Why?”
“Conflict.”
Matteo sighed.
“Can I choose Claire?”
I nearly choked.
“No,” I said.
Celia looked at me thoughtfully.
“Also not financially qualified.”
“Thank you.”
Matteo looked disappointed.
Luca almost smiled.
Then Celia became serious.
“There is one obvious candidate if he is alive.”
“Daniel Reed,” Matteo said.
“Yes.”
“But we don’t know where he is.”
“Then appoint an interim protector.”
“Who?”
Celia looked toward the library doors.
Rosa stood there holding Matteo’s envelope from the archive box.
“You have not read this,” she said.
Matteo stared.
The envelope carried Sarah’s handwriting.
MATTEO — WHEN HE IS OLD ENOUGH.
His face went pale.
“Am I old enough?”
Rosa looked at Luca.
Luca did not answer for him.
Matteo picked up the envelope.
His fingers shook.
Then he opened it.
The letter was shorter than Luca’s.
He read silently at first.
Tears came almost immediately.
Luca moved closer but did not touch him until Matteo reached out.
Then Luca put one arm around his shoulders.
Matteo read aloud.
“My beautiful boy, if your father gives you this too early, remind him I always said patience was not his best quality.”
Luca laughed softly through tears.
Matteo continued.
“If I am not there when you read this, you are allowed to be angry. You are allowed to be sad. You are even allowed to be angry at me.”
He stopped.
I looked away because watching a child receive permission to grieve from a dead mother felt too private.
Then Matteo kept reading.
“Do not let anyone tell you that protecting family means obeying family. Sometimes loving people means asking the question they most want you to avoid.”
Celia stopped typing.
Even Marco looked down.
Matteo’s voice shook.
“And if anyone ever tries to make you choose between remembering me and loving someone new in your father’s life, choose neither. There should be room for both.”
Vanessa’s absence filled the sentence.
So did mine.
I hated that I noticed.
Luca noticed too.
His eyes met mine across Matteo’s head.
I looked away first.
The last paragraph was practical.
Sarah named three people she trusted.
Daniel Reed.
Celia Brooks.
And Rosa Conti.
Matteo looked up.
“Mom knew you?” he asked Celia.
Celia’s expression changed.
“Yes.”
Luca stared at her.
“What?”
Celia exhaled.
“Sarah consulted me once about the trust.”
“You never told me.”
“Attorney-client privilege survived her death in ways I was not free to ignore.”
“You knew about Bellini?”
“I knew she was worried about related-party transactions. I did not know the extent.”
Matteo looked at the names again.
Then at Rosa.
“Can Rosa be interim protector?”
Celia blinked.
“She has no financial training.”
Rosa folded her arms.
“I balanced this household’s books for twenty years before you people discovered spreadsheets.”
Matteo smiled.
Celia laughed.
“That may qualify as a threat.”
Luca said, “She knows the family and has no ownership interest.”
Celia considered it.
“For a temporary appointment pending court approval, maybe.”
Matteo looked at Rosa.
“Will you?”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“For you? Yes.”
At 6:42 a.m., Celia filed the appointment.
At 7:03, the court acknowledged receipt.
At 7:18, Bellini’s lawyers filed an objection.
At 7:31, the judge ordered the merger vote suspended until further notice.
At 7:46, Marco received a call from the hospital.
Dominic’s driver was awake.
He had seen the shooter.
And he recognized him.
Luca took the phone.
“Who?”
Marco listened.
His face changed.
“Not Angelo.”
“Then who?”
Marco looked toward the front hall where Peter had been taken away hours earlier.
“Peter Hale.”
I stared.
“That’s impossible. Peter was here.”
Marco shook his head.
“Not when the first shot was fired. He disappeared from the third floor for seventeen minutes.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“Why would Peter shoot Dominic’s driver?”
Marco listened to another update.
Then slowly lowered the phone.
“Because the driver was not delivering Dominic tonight.”
“What was he delivering?”
“A man.”
Luca stopped breathing.
Marco looked at Matteo.
“The driver says he picked him up near Newark Airport.”
“Who?” Matteo asked.
Marco’s answer changed everything.
“Daniel Reed.”
The room went silent.
Marco continued.
“The driver says Daniel survived the shooting. He ran before security arrived.”
Luca stared at the shattered west side of the house.
“So Daniel was here.”
“Yes.”
“And now he’s gone again.”
Marco nodded.
Matteo gripped his mother’s letter.
Then my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
I almost ignored it.
Nobody called me at seven in the morning except the staffing office.
But the number was blocked.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice whispered:
“Claire, do not tell Luca I called.”
My blood went cold.
“I don’t know who this is.”
“Yes, you do.”
A pause.
Then:
“Sarah trusted me.”
I looked at Luca.
He was watching my face.
The man on the phone said one more thing.
“If Matteo is standing near you, get him away from the windows.”
I stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“Because Peter Hale wasn’t working for Angelo.”
May you like
The line crackled.
“He was working for Dominic.”
