Chapter 7 - The Woman in Red Chose a Side

Belini laughed when Luca said Emma was going to Palermo.

Nobody joined her.

“You cannot seriously bring her into a Moretti archive.”

Luca looked at Emma.

“She is Moretti.”

The sentence changed the room.

Emma felt it.

So did Belini.

Caterina lowered her eyes.

Dante did not react at all.

He had already accepted the new reality.

Belini stood slowly.

“My engagement to you was supposed to unite two families.”

Luca’s gaze returned to her.

“Was.”

One word.

Belini went still.

Outside the archive, the orchestra was still playing because no one had told them to stop.

The absurdity of it made Emma almost smile.

Belini touched the engagement ring on her finger.

“You’re ending this because of a woman you met an hour ago?”

“No.”

Luca’s voice remained calm.

“I’m ending it because you knew enough to remove records from my archive, enough to try to expel Emma before she reached it, and enough to lie every time I asked you directly.”

“My father ordered me to protect the alliance.”

“You protected the lie.”

Belini’s face hardened.

“And what exactly do you think your father did? Vittorio buried his own daughter for twenty-five years.”

Emma flinched.

Luca did not.

“He is dead. I cannot question him.”

Then his eyes sharpened.

“You are standing in front of me.”

Belini looked away.

Emma saw something crack.

Not arrogance.

Something closer to exhaustion.

“My father told me if the Golden Door Trust changed hands, hundreds of contracts would collapse. People would turn on us. My brother would lose his companies. My mother’s foundation would be investigated. Every family depending on Vescari credit would run.”

“So you erased me again,” Emma said.

Belini looked at her.

“I tried to make you leave a hotel.”

“You knew my mother had been forced into hiding.”

“Yes.”

“You knew your father had tracked her.”

“Yes.”

“You knew he had records about her death.”

Belini’s eyes filled, but she refused to let the tears fall.

“Yes.”

Emma’s voice lowered.

“And you still chose him.”

Belini took a breath.

“He is my father.”

Emma looked at Luca.

Something passed between them.

Family loyalty.

And the damage it could justify.

Dante entered with a small evidence bag.

“Boss.”

He placed a key card on the desk.

“Found in Belini’s suite.”

Belini closed her eyes.

“What does it open?” Luca asked.

Dante looked at her.

“A Vescari private vault at First Meridian.”

Emma watched Belini.

“What’s inside?”

Belini said nothing.

Luca waited.

Eventually she removed the engagement ring.

Not dramatically.

She placed it beside the red ledger.

“My father’s copies.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed.

“Copies of what?”

“The agreements. Isabel’s file. Rinaldi’s reports.”

Emma stared.

“You had them here?”

“No. The vault is downtown.”

Luca looked at Dante.

“Send a team.”

Belini raised one hand.

“If they enter without the second code, the contents are destroyed.”

Dante stopped.

“What code?”

Belini looked at Emma.

“Her mother’s birth date.”

Caterina whispered it.

Dante transmitted the numbers.

For several minutes, nobody spoke.

Then his phone rang.

He listened.

His face hardened.

“What?”

Luca asked.

“The vault opened.”

Emma’s pulse climbed.

“And?”

“Documents. Photographs. Audio tapes.”

Belini looked toward the floor.

Dante continued.

“And a current payment ledger.”

Luca became still.

“Current?”

“Yes.”

“Paid to whom?”

Dante hesitated.

Emma knew she would hate the answer.

“A Moretti employee.”

Luca’s voice sharpened.

“Name.”

Dante looked at him.

“Not one employee. Three.”

He read the first two.

A driver.

A retired records clerk.

Then the third.

“Gabriel Rinaldi.”

Belini frowned.

“That doesn’t make sense. Rinaldi hated my father.”

“Apparently not enough to stop taking his money.”

Emma looked at the ledger.

“If Rinaldi has been paid all these years, he knew where my mother was.”

“Yes,” Luca said.

“And if he had her accident report…”

“Yes.”

Emma swallowed.

“He may know who killed her.”

The ballroom doors opened.

One of Dante’s men entered quickly.

“Boss.”

Luca turned.

“We intercepted Rinaldi’s passport scan from Palermo.”

“Good.”

The guard shook his head.

“That isn’t the problem.”

He handed Dante a tablet.

The image showed airport security.

Rinaldi.

Older.

Gray-haired.

Moving through arrivals.

Beside him was another man.

Vincent Vescari.

Belini stared.

“My father is in New York.”

“No,” Dante said.

“He left three hours ago.”

Belini’s face changed.

Luca watched her.

“You didn’t know.”

For the first time all night, Emma believed her.

Belini looked at the screen.

Her father had lied to her too.

Dante enlarged the next frame.

Vincent carried a black case.

On its lid was the crowned lion crest.

Caterina whispered, “That case belonged to Isabel.”

Emma stepped closer.

The case her mother had spent a lifetime hiding from the Vescari family was now in Vincent’s hands.

Belini reached for the table.

“What is he doing?”

Luca answered.

“Finishing what you failed to stop.”

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Then he looked at Dante.

“Palermo. Now.”