Chapter 7 - The Name Maria Had Not Said in Twenty Years

Maria did not answer immediately.

Instead she studied Emma’s face.

Not casually.

As though comparing it to a memory.

Emma felt uneasy.

“Why are you looking at me?”

Maria’s eyes softened.

“What was your grandmother’s name?”

Emma froze.

“Grace.”

“Grace what?”

“Grace Reed.”

The room changed.

Maria closed her eyes.

Luca noticed.

“You knew her.”

Maria nodded.

“Thirty years ago.”

Emma stared.

“My grandmother never mentioned you.”

“She was trying to protect you.”

“From what?”

Carlo moved toward the door.

Matteo stopped him again.

Maria looked at Luca.

“Your grandfather did not trust the board.”

Luca said nothing.

“Especially after your father began expanding the legitimate companies.”

She turned toward Emma.

“Grace was my private nurse after my surgery.”

Emma’s throat tightened.

“My grandmother was a nurse.”

“Yes.”

“She worked at St. Vincent’s.”

“Before that.”

Maria gave a sad smile.

“She worked for us.”

Emma stood.

“No.”

“Emma—”

“No. She would have told me.”

“Not if she promised me she wouldn’t.”

Belini whispered something under her breath.

Luca heard it.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

He looked at Maria.

“Explain the safeguard.”

Maria nodded.

“When my husband created the family voting trust, he worried someone might pressure me during a succession fight.”

Carlo’s face hardened.

“He created a temporary independent proxy.”

“For whom?”

“Grace Reed.”

Emma stopped breathing.

Luca stared at her.

Maria continued.

“If I became medically incapable during a contested transaction, Grace would hold my vote until I recovered.”

Carlo laughed bitterly.

“Grace is dead.”

“Yes.”

“So the clause is useless.”

Maria looked at him.

“No.”

That ended his smile.

“The proxy passes to the named successor.”

Luca asked, “Who?”

Maria looked at Emma again.

“Grace’s eldest living adult descendant.”

Emma stepped backward.

“No.”

Belini whispered, “Impossible.”

Maria’s eyes sharpened.

“You knew.”

Belini shook her head.

“I knew there was a proxy clause.”

“But not the name.”

Belini did not answer.

Emma felt the room tilt.

She had spent the last year calculating rent, nursing tuition and grocery bills.

Now people were discussing her as if she belonged inside a Moretti trust.

“I don’t want anything.”

Maria reached for her.

“It is not money.”

“What is it?”

“One vote.”

“Worth how much?”

Luca answered.

“Tonight?”

He looked toward Carlo.

“Enough to stop a billion-dollar merger.”

Emma sat down again.

Slowly.

“That is insane.”

“Yes,” Luca said.

“Welcome to my family.”

Despite everything, Maria almost smiled.

Then Emma remembered something.

“My grandmother left a metal box.”

Maria’s expression changed.

“Where?”

“My apartment.”

Carlo moved.

This time violently.

Matteo caught him before he reached the door.

Luca rose.

“Why did that frighten you?”

Carlo struggled once.

Then stopped.

Belini closed her eyes.

Maria whispered, “Because Grace had the original.”

Emma looked at her.

“Original what?”

“The proxy document.”

Carlo’s voice became hard.

“You should never have brought her into this.”

Luca turned toward him.

“You brought her into it when you tried to incapacitate my mother.”

Carlo laughed.

“You still don’t understand.”

“What?”

He looked at Emma.

“The petition was never only about Maria.”

Emma felt cold.

Belini snapped, “Carlo, stop.”

He ignored her.

“If Maria became incompetent, the proxy activated.”

Luca’s eyes narrowed.

“And then?”

Carlo smiled without humor.

“Then we only had to make sure Grace Reed had no living successor.”

Nobody spoke.

Emma understood first.

The money.

The investigation.

Belini’s sudden interest in her nursing background.

None of it had begun tonight.

Someone had already been looking for Grace’s family.

Luca stepped between Emma and Carlo.

His voice was almost quiet enough to miss.

“Matteo.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Take Emma home.”

Emma looked at him.

“Why?”

“To get the box.”

“And then?”

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Luca looked at his uncle.

“Then we find out how long they have been planning to erase you.”