Chapter 6 - The Signature They Needed Before Midnight

When Marcello returned to the estate, the gala had become louder.

Guests were dancing.

Champagne was flowing.

Nobody knew that the evening had already collapsed.

Dante entered through the service hall with him.

They reached the west study without crossing the ballroom.

The door was almost closed.

Voices came from inside.

Victor spoke first.

“You should have destroyed the prosthetic.”

Bianca answered, “I didn’t have time. The child walked in.”

“You had nineteen seconds.”

“She was staring at me.”

“You let a three-year-old ruin three months of work?”

Marcello’s face hardened.

Dante reached for the door.

Marcello stopped him.

They listened.

Bianca’s voice dropped.

“The agreement is gone from the archive.”

Victor replied, “I have the final version here.”

“And if he refuses to sign?”

“He won’t.”

“You sound very sure.”

“Because he still thinks tonight is an engagement announcement. By the time he understands the voting clause, the witnesses will already have signed.”

Bianca whispered, “And afterward?”

A pause.

Then Victor said, “Afterward, the pregnancy no longer matters.”

Marcello pushed the door open.

Victor froze.

Bianca turned so quickly that the color drained from her face.

On the desk lay a thick legal document.

Beside it sat the old red family registry.

Marcello walked in.

“Explain the clause.”

Victor recovered first.

“Marcello, this is not what—”

“The clause.”

Dante shut the door behind them.

Victor said nothing.

Marcello picked up the agreement.

He had read an earlier draft.

This version was different.

A paragraph had been inserted beneath the custodial provisions.

If Marcello married Bianca and acknowledged the pregnancy in writing, Bianca would receive temporary emergency voting authority over a major block of family shares if Marcello became incapacitated before the child’s birth.

It was written in language dense enough to hide its purpose.

Marcello looked at Victor.

“You changed it.”

Victor’s silence was an admission.

Bianca began crying.

“Marcello, I can explain.”

“Were you ever pregnant?”

She looked at the floor.

That answered him too.

Marcello placed the agreement back on the desk.

“You built a fake pregnancy to get temporary control of my company.”

Victor shook his head.

“Not the whole company.”

Dante almost laughed at the absurdity.

Marcello did not.

“What happens after I sign?”

Nobody answered.

Then he noticed a second document beneath the agreement.

A private medical directive.

Prepared in advance.

It described Marcello as having a history of stress-related cardiac symptoms.

He had no such history.

Dante checked the room.

Near the champagne tray, he found a small unlabeled vial.

He did not touch it.

Bianca stared at it as though she had never seen it before.

Victor’s expression changed.

For the first time, he looked afraid.

“That isn’t mine.”

Marcello looked at the two glasses on the tray.

One was full.

One was empty.

Bianca whispered, “Marcello…”

Dante’s face tightened.

“Did you drink from that tray?”

Marcello thought back.

Before he left for the clinic, Arturo had handed him a champagne glass.

Marcello had taken one sip.

Then a board member interrupted him.

He had set the glass down on a table.

When he returned, it was gone.

Bianca suddenly turned toward Victor.

“You said nobody would get hurt.”

Victor snapped, “I never brought that vial.”

A new possibility entered the room.

The fake pregnancy.

The forged medical records.

The altered agreement.

Those belonged to Victor and Bianca.

But the vial might belong to someone else.

Someone who needed Marcello unable to object after the papers were signed.

Marcello’s phone buzzed.

A message from Francesca.

Three words.

ARTURO IS LEAVING.

Marcello looked at Victor.

“Who paid you?”

Victor went silent.

“Who paid Dr. Caruso?”

Still nothing.

Marcello stepped closer.

“Who told Bianca to choose me?”

Victor’s eyes moved involuntarily toward the ballroom.

That was enough.

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Then Bianca whispered the name herself.

“Arturo.”