Chapter 4 - The Scandal Someone Wanted
By Monday morning, Anna Carter had become one of the most searched names in America.
She hated every second of it.
Photographers stood outside her apartment.
Morning shows debated whether she had secretly been dating Matteo De Luca while advising his company.
One financial blog called her “the consultant who captured the billionaire client.”
Anna nearly threw her laptop across the room.
Instead she closed it carefully.
Throwing expensive electronics, she reminded herself, was rarely an effective communications strategy.
Her phone rang.
Matteo.
“I’m downstairs.”
Anna walked to the window.
A black SUV waited at the curb.
“So are approximately fourteen photographers.”
“They’ll move.”
“How?”
“I asked.”
“You asked?”
“Politely.”
She looked again.
Two building security guards were creating a clear path.
Anna sighed.
“Five minutes.”
When she reached the lobby, Matteo was waiting inside.
Black suit.
White shirt.
No tie.
Perfectly composed.
Anna stopped.
“You know what I hate most about you?”
“There’s a list?”
“You look exactly the same during a scandal.”
“I slept four hours.”
“You look like you slept ten.”
“That sounds like jealousy.”
Anna walked past him.
Outside, cameras immediately flashed.
Questions flew from every direction.
“Anna, when did the relationship begin?”
“Matteo, are you engaged?”
“Was the De Luca ring a surprise?”
“Is Anna pregnant?”
Anna stopped walking.
Matteo stopped beside her.
His head turned slowly toward the reporter who had shouted the last question.
Anna touched his arm.
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t going to do anything.”
“Your face disagrees.”
He opened the SUV door for her.
They climbed inside.
As soon as the vehicle moved, Anna leaned back.
“That is my professional nightmare.”
Matteo handed her coffee.
She accepted it automatically.
“Correct order.”
“I pay attention.”
Anna looked at him.
That was becoming part of the problem.
Matteo paid attention to everything.
He remembered how she took coffee. He noticed when she became overwhelmed before she said anything. He knew she hated elevators with mirrored walls and that she always rewrote important emails twice before sending them.
Somewhere during six weeks of arguments and midnight meetings, Matteo De Luca had quietly learned her.
Anna had been too busy insisting she disliked him to notice.
She stared out the window.
“Where are we going?”
“Office.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“You think bringing your fake fiancée into headquarters will calm rumors?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because the Portwell vote is at eleven.”
Anna turned.
“I thought it was tomorrow.”
“They moved it.”
“Who?”
“Caleb.”
Her expression hardened.
“Convenient.”
“He claims the board is concerned about instability.”
“Created by a scandal he may have engineered.”
“Yes.”
Anna drank her coffee.
“What does he want?”
“For me to accept Portwell’s revised offer.”
“Which is?”
“Two hundred million higher.”
Anna stared.
“That is not normal.”
“No.”
“Why suddenly increase it?”
“Because they want the agreement signed before we discover whatever they don’t want us to discover.”
Anna’s mind shifted instantly from scandal to numbers.
“Let me see the documents.”
Matteo handed her a tablet.
For twenty minutes, Anna read silently.
The proposal appeared generous.
Too generous.
Portwell would purchase thirty percent of De Luca Maritime’s European logistics network.
The payment was enormous.
But buried inside the governance section was a clause allowing Portwell to acquire additional voting rights if De Luca Maritime failed certain quarterly targets.
Anna reread it.
Then again.
“Matteo.”
“I know.”
“This could give them practical control within two years.”
“Yes.”
“Did your board notice?”
“Some did.”
“Caleb?”
“Called the risk theoretical.”
Anna laughed without humor.
“It isn’t theoretical.”
The car entered an underground garage.
Matteo looked at her.
“You still want to attend?”
“More than ever.”
They entered the conference room together at 10:58.
Every conversation stopped.
Twelve board members sat around the table.
Caleb stood near a presentation screen.
His expression showed surprise.
“Anna.”
She smiled.
“Caleb.”
Matteo took his seat.
Anna sat beside him.
Caleb cleared his throat.
“I wasn’t aware Ms. Carter would participate.”
“She is our communications adviser,” Matteo said.
Caleb hesitated.
“Given recent events, that relationship may create questions.”
Anna looked at him.
“Which relationship?”
Silence.
Caleb smiled thinly.
“Your engagement.”
“There is no legal engagement.”
The board stirred.
Matteo turned slightly toward her.
Anna continued.
“A private family misunderstanding became public through an unauthorized photograph. That matter is being investigated. It has no relevance to whether Portwell’s proposed governance structure is good for De Luca Maritime.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
“It affects perception.”
“I’m literally hired to understand perception.”
Several board members smiled.
Anna opened the proposal.
“This deal should not be approved today.”
Caleb looked at Matteo.
“You’re allowing your personal—”
Matteo interrupted him.
“Finish that sentence carefully.”
Silence.
Anna glanced at Matteo.
There it was again.
Not aggression.
Authority.
Caleb adjusted his jacket.
“My point is simply that everyone should disclose potential conflicts.”
Anna nodded.
“Agreed.”
She looked around the table.
“So let’s disclose one.”
Caleb’s expression shifted.
Anna held up a document.
“Portwell’s revised offer was prepared three days ago.”
“So?”
“They knew De Luca Maritime’s internal revenue forecast.”
Several directors frowned.
“That forecast was distributed only to six people.”
Caleb’s face remained still.
Anna continued.
“The offer is structured around thresholds almost identical to projections in that confidential report.”
A director leaned forward.
“You’re suggesting a leak?”
“I’m saying Portwell knew numbers they should not have known.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Coincidence.”
Matteo spoke.
“Then you won’t object to postponing the vote.”
Caleb’s eyes snapped toward him.
“We cannot.”
“Why?”
“The offer expires tonight.”
Anna smiled slightly.
“That’s interesting too.”
Caleb looked at her.
“How?”
“Portwell increased its offer by two hundred million dollars and then gave a multibillion-dollar company less than twenty-four hours to accept.”
She closed the folder.
“That’s not confidence. That’s urgency.”
A murmur moved around the table.
Matteo stood.
“The vote is postponed.”
Caleb’s face changed.
Only for an instant.
But Anna saw it.
Fear.
The meeting ended twenty minutes later.
Caleb left first.
Daniel waited near the elevator.
“His briefcase?” Matteo asked.
“Still with security.”
“Has he requested it?”
“Three times.”
Anna looked between them.
“What exactly did you find besides my key card?”
Daniel handed her a transparent evidence sleeve.
Inside was a small electronic device.
Anna frowned.
“What is it?”
“A card-cloning device.”
Her stomach tightened.
Daniel continued.
“It can copy access credentials from close range.”
“So someone could have copied Caleb’s access card too.”
“Yes.”
Anna stared.
“Then finding my original card in his briefcase doesn’t prove he personally used it.”
“No.”
Matteo looked at Daniel.
“Anything else?”
“Not yet.”
Anna exhaled.
They were back to uncertainty.
As they entered Matteo’s office, his mother called.
He put the phone on speaker.
“Matteo.”
“Yes, Mama.”
“Your grandmother is angry.”
“That is a common condition.”
“I heard that!” Nonna shouted somewhere in the background.
Anna smiled.
Teresa continued.
“Someone sent flowers to the apartment.”
Matteo frowned.
“For whom?”
“Anna.”
Anna’s smile vanished.
Matteo looked at her.
“From?”
“No card.”
“Don’t touch anything.”
Teresa sounded offended.
“They are roses, Matteo, not explosives.”
“Just leave them.”
Nonna’s voice came through.
“They are ugly anyway.”
Anna almost laughed.
Then Teresa said, “There is something tied to the vase.”
Matteo straightened.
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Anna felt cold.
“What photograph?”
Silence.
Teresa’s voice changed.
“It is Anna.”
Matteo closed his eyes briefly.
“Doing what?”
“Standing outside her apartment. This morning.”
Anna’s heart began pounding.
Matteo’s face became stone.
“Turn it over.”
A pause.
“There is writing.”
“What does it say?”
Teresa read slowly.
Convince Matteo to sign by six, or the next headline ends your career.
Anna sat down.
Matteo’s gaze met hers.
For the first time, the scandal felt less like gossip and more like a carefully constructed trap.
The ring.
The photograph.
The key cards.
The fake engagement.
The rushed Portwell deal.
Every piece was pushing toward the same destination.
Sign.
Matteo walked to his desk.
He called Daniel.
“Lock down every file connected to Portwell.”
Then he called the board chair.
“Cancel the vote entirely.”
Anna stood.
“Matteo, if they release something worse—”
He ended the call.
“No.”
“You don’t know what they have.”
“I don’t care.”
“My company could be destroyed.”
“No.”
She stared.
“You cannot make that decision for me.”
“You’re right.”
His voice softened.
“But I can make mine.”
He came closer.
“I will not sign a bad deal because someone decided you were an effective pressure point.”
Anna’s throat tightened.
“That could cost you hundreds of millions.”
“Money can be recovered.”
“And reputation?”
“Also recoverable.”
“What isn’t?”
Matteo looked directly into her eyes.
“Trust.”
The word stayed between them.
Anna couldn’t answer.
His phone buzzed.
Daniel had sent a new security report.
Matteo opened it.
His expression sharpened.
“What?”
He turned the screen.
The device used to disable the yacht cameras had connected remotely to a registered corporate laptop.
Not Caleb’s.
Not Daniel’s.
A laptop assigned to somebody Anna had met only twice.
EDWARD SHAW — PORTWELL CAPITAL
Anna frowned.
“Shaw?”
Matteo’s voice became cold.
“Caleb’s brother.”
May you like
And suddenly the entire story changed.
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