Chapter 9 - The Secret Elena Had Carried for Three Years
“Freeze every Moretti account.”
Daniel stared at Luca.
“That will alert Victor.”
“He already knows.”
“It will also shut down payroll, vendors and active construction draws.”
“Do it.”
Daniel began making calls.
Luca turned to Marco.
“Find Victor.”
“I have people looking.”
“Find him faster.”
Mia watched from the leather chair.
“Is shiny man in trouble?”
Luca softened his expression.
“Yes.”
“Because he took things?”
“Yes.”
“My teacher says we don’t take things.”
“Your teacher sounds smarter than most executives I know.”
Mia nodded.
“She is.”
Elena entered moments later and immediately sensed the crisis.
“What happened?”
“The authentication token is gone.”
“What does that mean?”
“Victor can complete the transfer.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-eight million.”
Elena stared.
“And Thomas’s evidence?”
“We still get it.”
“Today?”
“Yes.”
“You’re coming?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“You changed your mind?”
“I can’t leave while accounts are being attacked.”
“That’s convenient.”
Luca stared.
“You think I’m using money as an excuse?”
“I think you control everything when you’re scared.”
He almost replied sharply.
Instead he stopped.
She had become disturbingly good at reading him.
“I’m scared,” he admitted.
Mia raised her hand.
“Me too.”
Both adults looked at her.
“Of what?” Elena asked.
“Breakfast.”
Elena blinked.
“Breakfast?”
“Cook made eggs.”
Luca laughed before he could stop himself.
For ten seconds the crisis disappeared.
Then Daniel called from the doorway.
“Transfer halted.”
Luca’s humor vanished.
“For how long?”
“Twelve hours maximum. After that the bank needs formal fraud documentation.”
“That’s enough.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“Victor moved seven smaller transfers overnight. Total just under six million.”
“To Raven Shore?”
“No.”
“Where?”
Daniel showed him the screen.
The recipient was Elena Bennett.
Elena stared at her own name.
“What?”
Luca understood immediately.
Victor was framing her.
False payments.
Her signature on freight documents.
Thomas’s history.
A perfect scapegoat.
“I’ve never seen that money.”
Daniel nodded.
“It never reached a personal account. It went to an account created in your name four months ago.”
Elena looked sick.
“He planned this.”
“For a long time,” Luca said.
Her face changed.
“Four months.”
“What?”
“The account was opened four months ago?”
“Yes.”
She sat down.
“Four months ago someone broke into my apartment.”
Luca stared.
“You never reported that.”
“To the police. They said nothing valuable appeared missing.”
“What was disturbed?”
“Thomas’s boxes.”
“Why didn’t you mention this?”
“I didn’t connect it.”
She pressed her fingers to her temple.
“They opened his desk. His old files were on the floor.”
Luca’s voice became careful.
“What files?”
“Work papers.”
“Did Thomas ever bring Moretti Freight documents home?”
“Sometimes.”
“Elena.”
“I know he wasn’t supposed to.”
“That’s irrelevant now.”
She thought.
“There was a notebook.”
“What kind?”
“Small. Green cover.”
“What was in it?”
“Numbers mostly.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said nothing was taken.”
“I thought nothing important was taken.”
She suddenly stopped.
Then looked toward Mia.
“Mia’s toy kitchen.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“After Thomas died, Mia was still a baby. Before I put everything into storage, I used one of Thomas’s notebooks to level the leg of a little wooden toy kitchen because the floor in our apartment was uneven.”
Daniel stared.
“You used evidence in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme to stabilize children’s furniture?”
“I didn’t know it was evidence.”
“Where’s the kitchen?”
“My apartment.”
Luca immediately grabbed his coat.
“Elena, you stay.”
“No.”
“This isn’t negotiation.”
“Then stop pretending you’re my employer right now.”
“I am your employer.”
“You moved me into a guest suite.”
“For security.”
“You invited my daughter to run your office.”
“Against my better judgment.”
“You’re not leaving me behind.”
Luca looked toward Mia.
Mia raised both hands.
“I vote Mommy.”
Daniel coughed to hide a laugh.
Luca sighed.
“Fine.”
The trip to Elena’s apartment in Glen Cove took less than twenty minutes.
Marco entered first.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Elena went straight to Mia’s small bedroom.
A wooden toy kitchen stood against the wall.
She crouched.
One rear leg was shorter than the others.
Beneath it sat a thin green notebook.
Three years of weight had flattened it.
Elena pulled it free.
Luca opened the cover.
Thomas Bennett’s handwriting filled every page.
Dates.
Container numbers.
Invoices.
Initials.
V.R.
C.W.
Luca’s pulse quickened.
Then he reached the final pages.
They were different.
Personal notes.
If I am right, Victor is preparing Luca to take the fall.
Another page.
Celeste knows more than she admits. I think she is afraid of Victor.
And then:
Raven Shore beneficiary is not Victor. Need proof. If I’m right, someone above Victor is involved.
Luca looked at Daniel.
“Someone above Victor?”
Daniel frowned.
“There isn’t anyone above Victor except you.”
“Then Thomas was wrong.”
Elena turned the page.
One final sentence had been written in darker ink.
Ask who controlled Raven Shore before Luca’s father died.
Luca went completely still.
His father.
Alessandro Moretti had been dead fifteen years.
Raven Shore apparently existed before Victor’s current scheme.
The betrayal was older than Thomas.
Older than Elena.
Possibly older than Luca’s leadership itself.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Victor’s voice came through.
“I assume you found the notebook.”
Luca looked around the apartment.
“How do you know?”
“I know you.”
“No, Victor.”
Luca’s voice turned cold.
“You knew my father.”
Victor said nothing.
Luca continued.
“And I’m beginning to think that’s where all of this actually started.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Then maybe it’s finally time you learned what Alessandro Moretti really left you.”
The line disconnected.
Luca stared at Thomas’s notebook.
For fifteen years, he had believed he inherited his father’s empire.
May you like
He was beginning to understand that he might also have inherited his father’s biggest lie.
---
