Chapter 4 - The Explosion Was Not the Beginning

Three months before the yacht explosion.

That date changed everything.

Luca read it again.

Then again.

Marco did the same.

“No.”

Luca’s voice was quiet.

“This is wrong.”

Dr. Ruiz shook her head.

“The medication schedule is clear.”

“I was walking.”

“Yes.”

“Training.”

“Yes.”

“Fighting.”

“Yes.”

Emma looked at the file.

“Then why suppress nerves in someone who could still walk?”

Ruiz turned the page.

“Because the dosage was low.”

Belini looked toward her.

“Low enough to do what?”

“Cause intermittent weakness. Delayed reflex. Numbness. Fatigue.”

Luca’s eyes changed.

Memory.

Not theory.

He had felt it.

Marco saw that.

“You remember something.”

Luca said nothing for several seconds.

“Before the explosion, my left hand went numb twice.”

Emma frowned.

“Your hand?”

“And my leg gave out once on the stairs.”

Belini stared.

“You never told me.”

“We weren’t together then.”

“That has never stopped you from being difficult.”

Under different circumstances, Emma might have smiled.

No one did.

Ruiz continued.

“The yacht injury would have made the drug effect much stronger.”

Marco’s expression hardened.

“So whoever started dosing him before the explosion benefited from the explosion.”

“Yes.”

Luca looked at the wall.

His uncle.

His doctor.

Seven years.

Then Emma asked the question everyone else had skipped.

“Why keep Luca alive?”

Silence.

Marco looked at her.

She continued.

“If Salvatore wanted control, why not kill him?”

Belini’s face changed.

Luca noticed.

“What?”

She looked away.

“Belini.”

She exhaled.

“Because the Moretti succession trust requires a living principal.”

Luca stared.

“What trust?”

Her eyes returned to his.

“The family infrastructure trust.”

Marco swore softly.

Luca’s voice cooled.

“You had access?”

“My father’s firm reviewed it during the restructuring.”

“And you never mentioned it?”

“I thought you knew.”

“No.”

The answer made her pale.

Marco took the file.

“What does it say?”

Belini spoke slowly.

“If Luca dies without an heir, the controlling shares fragment among six branches.”

“And if he is alive but medically incapacitated?”

“An appointed steward can exercise temporary control.”

Emma knew the answer before Luca asked.

“Who was the steward?”

Belini looked at him.

“Salvatore.”

The room went silent.

Even Luca seemed to stop breathing.

Marco spoke first.

“He was dead.”

“Officially.”

Emma looked at the treatment file.

“So Salvatore needed Luca alive.”

“Yes.”

“Unable to rule.”

“Yes.”

“And he had legal control while everyone believed Luca could not fully manage the organization.”

Luca’s eyes sharpened.

“I have managed it.”

Belini looked at him.

“Publicly.”

Marco understood.

“Not the old trusts.”

Belini shook her head.

“No.”

There were assets Luca had never touched.

Ports.

Land.

Offshore holdings.

Old protection funds.

Frozen behind a medical incapacity clause.

Emma stared.

“All because he couldn’t walk?”

Belini shook her head.

“Not walking was not enough.”

“Then what?”

“Neurological incapacity certified by two physicians.”

Mercer.

And someone else.

Marco flipped through the file.

“Second signature.”

He found it.

Dr. Victor Hale.

Luca looked at him.

“Dead?”

Marco searched.

“No.”

“Where?”

Marco’s face darkened.

“Monaco.”

Belini laughed once.

“Of course.”

Emma watched Luca.

He looked calm.

Too calm.

“What happens if Luca is medically declared recovered?” she asked.

Belini answered.

“The steward loses control immediately.”

Marco looked toward the old treatment file.

“Then Salvatore’s entire hidden empire disappears.”

Luca’s fingers tightened.

“And Mercer had to keep me numb.”

Ruiz nodded.

“Likely.”

Emma looked at Luca’s foot.

“Unless the injections stopped working.”

Everyone turned toward her.

She continued.

“The towels weren’t medicine.”

“No.”

“They only revealed sensation.”

Ruiz nodded.

“Which suggests the drug level is falling.”

Marco checked the dates.

Luca’s last injection had been eight days ago.

One day late.

Mercer had disappeared before giving the next one.

Belini went still.

“That’s why.”

Luca looked at her.

“What?”

“Three weeks ago, I confronted Mercer.”

Marco stared.

“You did what?”

“I told him I knew the treatment file was false.”

“And?”

“He said the next injection would be the last.”

Luca’s face hardened.

Belini swallowed.

“I thought he meant he would stop.”

Emma understood first.

“He meant a stronger dose.”

Belini’s eyes filled with something close to shame.

“That is why I switched the syringe.”

Silence.

Luca looked at her.

“The footage.”

“Yes.”

“You handed him another syringe.”

“A harmless anti-inflammatory.”

“And shook your head when he pointed to my legs.”

“I told him no more.”

Emma stared.

“So you were trying to stop it.”

Belini looked at her.

“Yes.”

“Then why run?”

Belini’s face became pale again.

“Because Mercer showed me who was watching the camera.”

Luca’s voice dropped.

“Salvatore.”

“No.”

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She shook her head.

“Someone Luca trusts more.”