Chapter 6 - The Paper Hidden in Luca’s Desk
Monday morning arrived like an execution date.
By seven-fifteen, the executive floor was full.
Lawyers.
Board members.
Compliance officers.
People who usually required three weeks’ notice for meetings had suddenly found room in their calendars.
I sat at my desk outside Luca’s office wearing the safest clothing I owned: navy trousers, cream blouse, hair pinned neatly back.
No sequins.
No red.
No fantasy.
The weekend had been a disaster.
Photographs from the Christmas party were everywhere.
BILLIONAIRE LUCA MORETTI DEBUTS SECRET GIRLFRIEND.
MORETTI’S MYSTERY WOMAN IS HIS OWN EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT.
OFFICE ROMANCE OR CORPORATE CONFLICT?
One site had used a photograph of Luca looking down at me on the staircase.
I hated the picture.
Mostly because we looked in love.
At seven-thirty, Luca arrived.
He placed coffee beside my keyboard.
Black for him.
Oat-milk latte for me.
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“I know.”
We had barely spoken since Saturday.
His confession had changed the shape of every silence between us.
I looked at the coffee.
“Thank you.”
He stood there.
“Emma.”
“We have a board meeting.”
“I know.”
“We should focus.”
His jaw tightened.
“That is what you want?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t.
But wanting Luca Moretti had never been the dangerous part.
Believing him was.
At eight, the meeting began.
I was asked to wait outside.
Twenty minutes became forty.
Then an hour.
At nine-fifteen, Victor Hale stepped out.
“You may come in.”
The boardroom was colder than usual.
Luca sat at one end.
His attorney beside him.
Twelve board members faced me.
Victor took a seat.
A woman from compliance began.
“Ms. Bennett, we need clarity regarding the timeline of your personal relationship with Mr. Moretti.”
I had prepared for this.
“Our romantic relationship began Friday evening.”
Several board members exchanged looks.
“Friday?”
“Yes.”
Victor leaned back.
“Yet Mr. Moretti’s family believes otherwise.”
“His family believes what we allowed them to believe.”
“Why?”
I looked directly at him.
“Because Luca wanted to discourage pressure regarding an arranged marriage.”
A board member frowned.
“You fabricated a relationship?”
“Yes.”
Luca’s gaze snapped toward me.
We had not agreed I would admit it.
I continued.
“However, there was no romantic or sexual relationship while my compensation or employment terms were being influenced by Mr. Moretti.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“So Friday’s public declaration was false?”
I hesitated.
Luca’s voice cut through the room.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Victor’s eyebrows rose.
Luca continued.
“The arrangement was fake.”
His eyes found mine.
“My feelings were not.”
The room went silent.
I wanted to disappear.
Victor looked delighted.
“Thank you, Luca. That distinction will certainly simplify compliance.”
Luca ignored him.
The meeting continued for nearly two hours.
By the end, compliance concluded that because there had been no prior romantic relationship, no policy violation had occurred.
I should have been relieved.
Instead, Victor requested another vote.
“To address the reputational concerns created by Mr. Moretti’s judgment.”
There it was.
This had never been about ethics.
It was about weakening Luca before the family trust transferred.
The vote was postponed for forty-eight hours.
When the room emptied, Luca remained seated.
I gathered my papers.
“You told them.”
“You were about to lie.”
“I was protecting you.”
“I don’t want protection that requires you to damage yourself.”
His voice was tired.
“Emma, look at me.”
I didn’t.
Then I noticed something inside the folder I had picked up from his side table.
A document.
My name appeared near the top.
I froze.
“What is this?”
Luca looked.
Then stood immediately.
“Emma.”
I pulled the document free.
It was a memorandum prepared three weeks earlier.
Before the Christmas party.
Before Luca asked me to pretend.
The first line made my stomach twist.
EXECUTIVE EMPLOYMENT TRANSITION — EMMA BENNETT.
I read faster.
Proposed promotion.
Independent reporting structure.
Salary adjustment.
Transfer from executive assistant to Director of Strategic Operations.
No longer reporting directly to Luca.
I looked up.
“You were planning to move me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He said nothing.
Then I saw the date.
Three weeks earlier.
The reason struck me.
“You were planning this before you asked me to the party.”
“Yes.”
“So we wouldn’t violate the relationship policy.”
His silence confirmed it.
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
“You planned this.”
“Not the party.”
“But you planned for us.”
He stepped toward me.
“I was trying to create a situation where I could tell you how I felt without controlling your job.”
“You drafted my promotion without discussing it with me.”
“I drafted an option.”
“You changed my career because you wanted to date me.”
“No.”
“It’s written here!”
“Because you deserved that promotion a year ago.”
“Then why didn’t I have it a year ago?”
His face tightened.
Because promoting me would have meant losing me as his assistant.
Because keeping me close had benefited him.
The answer sat between us.
He didn’t deny it.
My eyes burned.
“You kept me in that role because you wanted me near you.”
“Partly.”
The honesty hurt.
“God, Luca.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I put the document down.
“You don’t get to rearrange my life because you’re afraid to say what you want.”
“I wasn’t trying to control you.”
“That is exactly what you were doing.”
I grabbed my bag.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“Emma.”
“I need space.”
He stopped.
That mattered.
Old Luca would have argued.
Commanded.
Solved.
This Luca stood there and let me leave.
I reached the door.
Then he said quietly,
“The promotion is yours whether you ever speak to me again.”
I turned.
He looked wrecked.
Not theatrically.
Quietly.
“You earned it.”
For one second, I almost stayed.
Then my phone buzzed.
An email.
Anonymous sender.
One attachment.
I opened it.
A scanned copy of the Moretti family trust.
One paragraph was highlighted.
Upon Luca Moretti’s thirty-fifth birthday, controlling Class A voting shares would transfer according to marital and succession provisions established by his late father.
Underneath, someone had typed:
ASK HIM WHAT HAPPENS IF HE IS UNMARRIED.
I looked up at Luca.
His face changed when he saw the document.
“What happens if you’re unmarried in February?”
He didn’t answer fast enough.
My heart sank.
“Luca.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“If I’m unmarried, Victor receives temporary voting authority over part of the trust.”
The truth hit harder than anything before it.
His company.
His family.
His future.
All of it depended on marriage.
May you like
And suddenly his decision to bring me to that Christmas party looked completely different.
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