Chapter 4 - The Inheritance Hidden Inside Lily’s Papers

Helena did not sit.

She placed the metal case on Alessandro’s desk and looked at Emma for several seconds.

“You have Claire’s eyes.”

Emma hated how much that hurt.

“You knew my mother?”

“For eleven months.”

“Then you knew me.”

“You were a baby.”

“That is not an answer.”

Helena accepted the anger.

“No. It isn’t.”

Luca stepped between emotion and business the way he always did.

“What does Emma’s existence prove?”

Helena unlocked the case.

Inside were copies of contracts, trust documents and one old partnership agreement.

“Daniel Reed owned twenty-four percent of Moretti Construction and thirty-one percent of Pier Nine Logistics.”

Matteo whistled softly.

Luca did not.

“Those shares were never on our current books.”

“Because after Daniel died, Vittorio produced documents showing he had purchased them.”

“Did he?”

“No.”

Helena placed another page beside the first.

“Daniel transferred his interest into a survivorship trust for his child three weeks before he was killed.”

Emma stared at her own name.

EMMA CLAIRE REED.

Beneficiary.

She felt nothing at first.

Then everything.

Belini had not kidnapped her because of an old photograph.

She had kidnapped her because she was alive on paper.

Luca understood at the same moment.

“The transfers Enzo moved.”

Helena nodded.

“They passed through companies created from assets the Bellinis never legally owned.”

Enzo finally spoke.

“I didn’t know about Reed.”

Helena looked at him.

“You knew enough to hide the transfers.”

“That is different.”

“No,” Luca said. “It is smaller.”

Enzo went quiet.

Emma remembered the papers Belini had tried to force her to sign.

“Lily’s inheritance.”

Helena’s eyes sharpened.

“What about it?”

Emma explained.

The packet.

Belini claiming it protected Lily after the marriage.

The signature line.

Helena asked, “Did you sign anything?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“Why?”

Helena opened one of the copied trust schedules.

“Because as Lily’s mother, your signature could have been used to acknowledge a new family asset schedule.”

Luca’s face hardened.

“One that omitted the Reed trust.”

“Yes.”

“And once Belini married me?”

“Her family office would have become administrator on several merged holdings.”

Emma stared at the papers.

“So Lily was the excuse.”

“Lily was the bridge.”

That was worse.

Luca walked to Enzo.

“You used my daughter.”

Enzo shook his head.

“Belini designed the packet.”

“Who told her to?”

Silence.

Luca stepped closer.

“Your father?”

Enzo closed his eyes.

Helena answered instead.

“Probably.”

Luca turned.

“You believe Vittorio is alive.”

“I know he is.”

The room froze.

Helena removed a photograph from the case.

Recent.

Grainy.

An older man leaving a private medical clinic in Montreal.

Vittorio Bellini.

Alive.

Emma looked at Enzo.

He would not meet her eyes.

Luca asked, “How long have you known?”

Enzo whispered, “Six years.”

Matteo swore under his breath.

“Belini too?”

Enzo nodded.

“Why fake his death?”

“Because Alessandro was getting close.”

Helena’s hand stopped on the next document.

Luca saw it.

“Close to what?”

She looked at him.

“The truth about Daniel.”

“No.”

“More than that.”

Helena hesitated for the first time.

Then she placed a medical report on the table.

“Your father did not trust the official explanation for his own death.”

Luca’s face became unreadable.

“He died of cardiac arrest.”

“Yes.”

“That is what every doctor said.”

“Every doctor who saw him after he was dead.”

Emma watched Luca’s stillness.

It was the same stillness he used when rage would have been easier.

Helena continued.

“Two weeks before Alessandro died, he sent me bloodwork and a sample of his medication.”

Matteo stepped closer.

“What did you find?”

“The tablets in his bottle were not the tablets prescribed to him.”

Luca’s eyes lifted.

“Who had access?”

Helena looked toward the empty doorway where Belini had disappeared.

“Someone inside this house.”

As if summoned by the words, Matteo’s phone vibrated.

He read the message.

Then looked at Luca.

“We found Belini’s red coat in the service tunnel.”

“Belini?”

“No.”

“What else?”

Matteo turned the screen toward him.

“One burner phone.”

Luca asked the only question that mattered.

“Last call?”

Matteo’s expression changed.

“To a warehouse on the river.”

Emma looked at the old photograph in her hand.

The warehouse behind Alessandro.

Behind Vittorio.

Behind her mother holding a newborn.

“The same warehouse?”

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

Matteo nodded.

And Luca reached for the brass key.