Chapter 5 - The Wedding Cake That Exposed a Liar
Elena didn't run.
She sat down.
That frightened me more.
"Explain," Luca said.
She looked at the ledger.
"I can't."
"You can."
"I promised Father."
"Father is dead."
"That doesn't make the promise disappear."
Luca's voice dropped.
"Elena."
She closed her eyes.
"The account isn't stolen money."
Marco frowned.
"Then what is it?"
"Protection money."
Nobody spoke.
Not the kind we expected.
Luca's father had quietly created a fund for families whose businesses had been damaged by corrupt men associated with the old Moretti organization.
My father discovered it during his audit.
Instead of exposing the fund, he helped hide it.
Elena had administered it after her father's death.
"Why secretly?" I asked.
"Because Vittorio wanted it."
"The money?"
"All of it."
The account contained almost forty million dollars.
But Luca's father's will included another condition nobody had mentioned.
Once Luca married, control of the charitable trust transferred to his spouse jointly with him.
Me.
That was why someone wanted Luca married.
But it still didn't explain why they wanted him married to me.
My father arrived at the estate two days later.
I hadn't seen him in months.
I wanted to yell.
Instead, I hugged him.
Then yelled.
"You could have told me."
"I know."
"That's your defense?"
"No."
"Good."
He looked older than I remembered.
Luca watched from across the room.
My father approached him.
"You deserved the truth."
"Yes."
"I thought keeping Sophia ignorant would protect her."
"It didn't."
"No."
My father looked at me.
"But there's something else."
Of course there was.
Apparently our families had been connected long before either Luca or I knew.
My grandfather had helped Luca's father establish the fund.
The Bennett name was built into its original charter.
If Luca married before October 18, his spouse could become co-trustee.
But if that spouse descended from one of the fund's founding families, Vittorio permanently lost his ability to challenge the trust.
I stared at my father.
"So that's why me."
"Yes."
"Who arranged it?"
He looked at Luca.
"Your father."
Luca frowned.
"My father died eleven years ago."
"He prepared the contract before he died."
The contract had remained sealed with an attorney.
It was supposed to be offered only if Vittorio returned.
Three months ago, somebody activated it.
"Who?" Luca asked.
My father shook his head.
"I don't know."
We finally learned during a dinner I hadn't even wanted to attend.
I was supposed to prepare dessert.
I made a wedding cake.
Not because we needed one.
Because Luca and I had never had one.
Three tiers.
Chocolate.
Orange cream.
White frosting.
Elena insisted I put a small bride and groom on top.
The groom figurine was nearly twice the bride's height.
I laughed when I saw it.
Luca pretended to hate it.
He didn't.
The entire family gathered.
Marco.
Elena.
My father.
Several trustees.
And an elderly attorney named Thomas Bell.
Bell had administered Luca's father's estate for thirty years.
When he saw the cake, he froze.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
I noticed because bakers notice people's reactions to cakes.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"No."
He stared at the topper.
"Beautiful."
"You've seen it before?"
His face changed.
Luca noticed too.
"Answer her."
Bell swallowed.
"Your father had something similar."
"Where?"
"In his study."
Elena frowned.
"No, he didn't."
Bell's mistake was tiny.
But fatal.
He had described an object that had never existed publicly.
Because the cake topper wasn't random.
My father had brought it from Chicago.
It had belonged to Luca's father.
And it had been stored inside the same sealed box as the original marriage documents.
Only three people should have known it existed.
My father.
Luca's father.
And the attorney who sealed the box.
Bell.
Luca stood.
"You activated the contract."
Bell's shoulders dropped.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Vittorio returned."
The room fell silent.
"Where is he?"
Bell looked toward the windows.
"Closer than you think."
Headlights appeared beyond the estate gates.
A black car climbed the drive.
Then another.
Luca stepped beside me.
His hand found mine.
The first car stopped.
The rear door opened.
An older man stepped out.
Elena whispered, "Vittorio."
But Bell shook his head.
"No."
We looked at him.
Bell stared toward the second car.
"That's not the man you should be watching."
The second door opened.
And the woman who stepped out was someone Luca recognized immediately.
His first fiancée.
The first woman who had rejected him.
And she was carrying a folder marked:
May you like
LUCA MORETTI — PATERNITY RECORDS.
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