Chapter 4
At 11:07 p.m., Luca moved the entire household into lockdown.
Not the kind of lockdown used for celebrity guests or business threats.
This one felt military.
Exterior gates sealed.
Interior doors restricted.
Staff were grouped and verified.
No food or drink entered the library.
Marco assigned two guards to me.
I hated it.
“You don’t need two.”
Luca looked at me.
“You’re on a murder instruction sheet.”
“One is enough.”
“No.”
“I need air.”
“You need to stay alive.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
I folded my arms.
“My father probably thought the same thing.”
Luca’s expression changed.
He dismissed one guard with a nod.
“Stay in the hallway.”
The man left.
Small victory.
Rachel sat with the ledger.
Marco stood over a floor plan.
Vanessa sat on the couch under supervision.
Luca paced.
11:09.
“Why 11:45?” I asked.
Rachel answered.
“To create the appearance Luca died before the trust transfer.”
“But his birthday is 11:52.”
“Yes.”
“If he dies at 11:50, the trust never transfers.”
“Correct.”
“To who then?”
Rachel flipped through the estate documents.
“Interim control goes to trustees selected under Luca’s mother’s pre-transfer provisions.”
“Who?”
She found the page.
Then looked up.
“Three seats.”
“Names?”
“One is me.”
Luca stopped.
“Good.”
“Second was your mother.”
“She’s dead.”
“Her seat passes to the estate attorney.”
“Who is?”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“Paul Bellini.”
Vanessa whispered, “My uncle.”
My stomach dropped.
“And the third?” Luca asked.
Rachel looked at Vanessa.
“Future spouse, if marriage contract executed.”
“We aren’t married.”
“Not yet.”
Vanessa stood.
“I never signed anything.”
Rachel’s eyes sharpened.
“Your engagement agreement has a conditional civil-marriage clause.”
Vanessa froze.
Luca stared.
“What?”
Rachel pulled up a document.
“I warned you about this six months ago.”
“You said it dealt with venue liability.”
“It did. And this.”
Luca took the paper.
His face darkened as he read.
A private civil marriage could be activated by both parties’ signatures and one licensed officiant before the public wedding.
Vanessa shook her head.
“I didn’t sign that.”
Rachel pointed.
“Your signature is already here.”
Vanessa grabbed the page.
“That’s forged.”
Luca looked at her.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
For once, I believed her.
She looked genuinely shocked.
Rachel turned the document.
Luca’s signature was there too.
He stared.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Marco moved closer.
“Then someone plans to make you legally married tonight.”
11:13.
Vanessa sat.
Her face had lost all color.
“Who can activate it?”
Rachel said, “An officiant.”
Vanessa whispered, “My uncle is ordained.”
Paul Bellini.
The estate attorney.
The trustee.
The man who could become both family and legal gatekeeper in one stroke.
Luca’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
“Moretti.”
A man laughed softly.
“Happy birthday, Luca.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Uncle Paul.”
Luca looked at her.
The voice continued.
“You found the box earlier than expected.”
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“Come inside.”
“No.”
“Coward.”
Paul laughed again.
“You always were your mother’s son.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Leave her out of this.”
“She put herself in it.”
Rachel leaned toward the phone.
“Paul, you forged trust documents.”
“Rachel Donnelly. Still loyal.”
“Still licensed.”
“That’s temporary if you mishandle tonight.”
She smiled without humor.
“You should be more worried about your own license.”
Paul ignored her.
“Luca, your father left debts. Your mother hid crimes. Angelo kept the machine alive. You benefit from all of it while pretending the Moretti name is clean.”
“So your solution is murder?”
“My solution is continuity.”
My skin went cold.
Luca’s voice dropped.
“You put Emma on the list.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She has her father’s habits.”
I stood.
“What does that mean?”
Paul heard me.
“Emma.”
His voice softened.
Almost kindly.
“Your father could never leave numbers alone.”
My hands clenched.
“You killed him.”
“I did not drive the car.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Silence.
Luca’s eyes met mine.
Paul said, “Daniel was given options.”
“What options?”
“To stop.”
“He didn’t.”
“No.”
“So what happened?”
Paul sighed.
“You know.”
I felt sick.
Luca moved closer to the phone.
“Where is Thomas?”
Another pause.
Paul disconnected.
Marco immediately traced.
“Burner. Inside five-mile radius.”
11:17.
Luca looked at the wall clock.
“We need the trust transfer triggered early.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Cannot.”
“Why?”
“Your mother specified exact birth time.”
“Change it.”
“Not legally.”
“Then get a judge.”
“At eleven at night?”
“Wake one.”
Rachel already had her phone out.
Marco’s radio came alive.
“Movement, north garden.”
He answered.
“Identify.”
“Male. Black clothing.”
“Hold position.”
A crash sounded somewhere downstairs.
Glass.
Then shouting.
Marco ran.
Luca reached inside his jacket.
I saw the gun for the first time.
Vanessa backed away.
“Jesus.”
Luca looked at me.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“Thomas is here because of me too.”
“Exactly.”
He moved toward the door.
I followed.
His hand caught mine.
Not rough.
Firm.
“Please.”
That stopped me more than an order.
His blue eyes were hard.
But underneath the anger was fear.
For me.
I hated that I liked knowing it.
“Stay with Rachel.”
I nodded.
He left with Marco.
For three minutes, the library was silent except for Rachel’s phone calls.
Vanessa sat across from me.
Finally she said, “I didn’t know they would kill you.”
I looked at her.
“You thought hurting me was enough?”
She flinched.
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
“I had more to lose.”
The sentence came out before she could stop it.
I stared.
She heard herself.
Her face changed.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it is.”
I looked at my torn dress.
“My face.”
My hands.
“My side.”
“You thought you had more to lose because you had more money.”
“No.”
“Because you were marrying Luca.”
“I loved him.”
“You loved access to him.”
She stood.
“That is not fair.”
“Neither was the service counter.”
Her mouth closed.
Rachel looked up from her phone.
“You both need to—”
The lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Vanessa gasped.
I stood.
Pain ripped through my knee.
Rachel turned on her phone flashlight.
“Backup should kick in.”
It didn’t.
From the hall, a guard shouted.
Then a thud.
The library door opened.
A silhouette.
Rachel lifted her light.
Thomas Vale.
Chef jacket gone.
Black sweater.
Gloves.
A syringe in his hand.
Vanessa screamed.
Thomas moved toward me.
Not Luca.
Me.
I grabbed the nearest thing.
A heavy glass paperweight.
He lunged.
I threw it.
It struck his shoulder.
The syringe flew.
Rachel hit the panic button under the desk.
Nothing.
Power dead.
Thomas grabbed my wrist.
Pain exploded through the cut in my palm.
“Your father should have taught you to mind your business.”
I drove my knee upward.
Bad leg.
Terrible idea.
Pain nearly dropped me.
But he loosened his grip.
Vanessa did something I never expected.
She picked up a brass lamp and smashed it across Thomas’s back.
He stumbled.
“Run!”
I stared at her.
“Emma!”
We ran.
Rachel opened the side archive door.
The three of us pushed into the dark corridor.
Behind us Thomas recovered.
Footsteps.
Fast.
Vanessa’s shoes slipped.
I grabbed her arm.
For one absurd second, the woman who had bruised me earlier was leaning on me for survival.
We reached the service stairs.
Locked.
Rachel swore.
Thomas rounded the corner.
Then another shape hit him from the side.
Luca.
The impact drove both men into the wall.
Marco appeared behind them.
Thomas reached for something.
Luca punched him once.
Twice.
Marco pinned him.
Security lights flickered back on.
Luca turned toward me.
His eyes went immediately to my wrist.
Blood.
“Did he inject you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Vanessa.
She was holding the broken lamp.
“She helped.”
Luca stared.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know.”
He said nothing.
Marco searched Thomas.
“Phone.”
He opened it.
“There’s a timer running.”
Luca looked over.
“What timer?”
Marco held up the screen.
00:31:44.
COUNTDOWN TO TRANSFER.
Below it:
CIVIL CERTIFICATE STATUS — PENDING WITNESS.
Rachel went pale.
“Someone already filed the marriage certificate.”
Vanessa whispered, “No.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“Who is the witness?”
Marco scrolled.
Then stopped.
He looked at me.
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
He turned the phone.
WITNESS: EMMA HART.
My signature appeared beneath it.
Perfect.
Except I had never signed anything.
Rachel’s voice went cold.
“They’re not just trying to kill Luca.”
She looked at the forged certificate.
“They’re building a legal story where Emma witnessed the marriage before he died.”
Luca stared at my forged signature.
“And when Emma dies too?”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“No witness left to dispute it.”
The countdown continued.
00:30:59.
Rachel made me photograph the forged witness signature beside my real one. The comparison was terrifying. Same long E. Same narrow H. Even the small upward hook at the end of Hart.
“Where did they get this?” I asked.
Marco answered without hesitation. “Employment forms.”
I felt sick.
Three years of payroll documents, medical forms, delivery receipts, staff acknowledgments. I had signed hundreds of pages inside the Moretti household.
Luca looked at the forged certificate. “From now on, no staff records leave human resources without dual authorization.”
Rachel gave him a tired look. “Good policy. Eight hours late.”
He accepted that without argument.
I noticed.
Earlier that evening, Luca had believed control meant knowing everything inside his house. Now he was discovering how much control could be faked by paperwork that looked ordinary enough nobody questioned it.
May you like
Midnight was getting closer.
And now we knew exactly why both of us were supposed to be dead before it arrived.
