Chapter 5 - Belini's Other Promise

Luca did not confront Belini immediately.

Instead, he canceled the private rehearsal scheduled for Friday morning and asked her to meet him in the winter garden. Emma watched from a discreet distance, seated beside Mrs. Carter with a blanket over her knees.

Belini arrived wearing a long red wool coat over a cream dress. She stopped when she saw the empty chairs where the wedding planners were supposed to sit.

“Where is everyone?”

“I sent them home,” Luca said.

“Without telling me?”

“I wanted us to speak privately.”

She studied him. “About the maid.”

“About what you installed in my study.”

For a few seconds, her face was completely still.

Then she sat.

“I didn't plan for Emma to get hurt.”

The admission landed harder than Luca expected. It was the first honest sentence he'd heard from her since dinner.

“Tell me what happened,” he said.

Belini clasped her hands. “Adriana told me you were changing everything. The prenuptial agreement. Your will. All of it.”

“I was changing parts of it.”

“She said you were preparing to leave me with nothing.”

“Did you ask me?”

“Would you have answered?”

“Yes.”

Belini looked away. “I didn't believe that.”

She confessed that she'd allowed Adriana to place the mirror in the study and had agreed to receive recordings of Luca's meetings. Belini claimed she wanted proof that he was negotiating against her family before their wedding. When Emma discovered the device, Belini panicked and pushed her away from the mirror.

“That doesn't explain the receiver in my lamp,” Luca said.

Belini frowned. “What receiver?”

“Or the medical authorization forged in my name.”

Her eyes widened. It might have been an act. Luca could no longer tell.

“Adriana said she only needed evidence,” Belini whispered. “She never mentioned documents.”

Luca placed a photograph of the forged form on the table.

“Look carefully.”

Belini read the name beneath the authorization. Her fingers began to shake.

“That isn't what we agreed.”

“Who is 'we'?”

“Adriana. My uncle Vittorio. Daniel was supposed to help with access, nothing more.”

“Vittorio Russo?”

She nodded.

Luca knew the name. Vittorio controlled a family investment firm that had repeatedly attempted to buy minority interests in Castellano port properties. Luca had refused every offer.

“Why would he want this?”

Belini answered too quietly for Emma to hear from across the room.

“My uncle has debts.”

“To whom?”

“He wouldn't tell me.”

Luca leaned forward. “And the recordings?”

“He promised to destroy them after the wedding.”

“Belini, he was listening to meetings where men discuss things you were never meant to carry.”

“I know that now.”

Her regret may have been real. It did not erase Emma's bruises or the breach of trust.

Luca stood. “The wedding is postponed.”

Belini closed her eyes.

“You're ending it?”

“I'm investigating what you've done. The wedding will not go ahead while I do.”

He arranged for her to remain in a separate wing until her attorney and family could be contacted. She agreed, but as she passed Emma she stopped.

“I owe you an apology,” she said.

Emma looked at her carefully. “You owe me the truth.”

Belini swallowed. “Adriana told me you were already being watched before the mirror arrived.”

Luca turned back.

“By whom?”

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Belini's expression became grave.

“She said the first recordings came from inside your own security team.”