Chapter 8 - Dinner with the Morettis
Ashley was not kidnapped.
She was hiding.
It took six hours to learn the difference.
A hotel camera showed her entering a small boutique property near the airport under another name.
Bonnie insisted on going.
Luca came with her.
Ashley opened the hotel door wearing sweatpants, no makeup, and an expression of pure exhaustion.
When she saw Bonnie, she started crying.
Bonnie stepped inside.
Ashley covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
Bonnie closed the door.
Luca remained outside.
Ashley sat on the edge of the bed.
“I knew he was married.”
Bonnie said nothing.
“I knew about you. Obviously.”
“Yes.”
“He told me the marriage had been over for years.”
“It hadn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Bonnie sat in the chair across from her.
“Why did you run?”
Ashley took a long breath.
“Ryan came to see me after leaving Calvano.”
“When?”
“Before he went to your storage apartment.”
“What did he want?”
“My phone.”
“Why?”
“He thought I copied something.”
“Did you?”
Ashley looked toward the nightstand.
A USB drive rested there.
Bonnie stared.
“What is it?”
“I copied his laptop two weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I found messages about moving to the Cayman Islands and started realizing I might be temporary too.”
Bonnie almost laughed at the understatement.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then why hide?”
“Because Ryan knew I had it.”
“How?”
“I made a mistake.”
Ashley swallowed.
“I confronted him.”
Bonnie closed her eyes.
“Of course you did.”
“I was angry.”
“I understand.”
“He told me if I didn’t give it back, he would release private photographs and tell people I helped steal the money.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“I believe you.”
Ashley looked stunned.
“Why?”
“Because Ryan designed this so everyone would blame everyone except him.”
Ashley stared at the drive.
“Will Luca protect me?”
Bonnie’s expression changed.
“Ask him.”
“I’m asking you.”
That mattered.
Bonnie stood.
“I’ll make sure you have an attorney.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
Ashley’s mouth trembled.
“Why would you help me?”
“Because Ryan wants us to hate each other.”
Bonnie looked toward the door.
“And I am done living according to Ryan’s plans.”
The drive contained thousands of files.
That evening, Eva’s forensic team began analyzing it.
Bonnie returned to the Moretti estate exhausted.
Teresa met her at the door.
“You need dinner.”
“I need answers.”
“You can eat answers after pasta.”
Bonnie laughed.
“Is that a Moretti proverb?”
“It is now.”
Dinner included Luca, Teresa, Enzo, Eva, two cousins who arrived unexpectedly, and enough food for thirty people.
Bonnie had expected tension.
Instead she found noise.
Arguments.
Stories.
Teasing.
Teresa yelling at Luca for checking his phone at the table.
Enzo complaining that modern tomatoes had no flavor.
One cousin trying to convince Eva to represent him in a parking dispute.
“This is not what I pictured,” Bonnie whispered.
Luca looked over.
“What did you picture?”
“A long table. Silence. Everyone terrified of you.”
Enzo overheard.
“We are terrified of Teresa.”
Teresa pointed a wooden spoon at him.
“As you should be.”
Bonnie laughed.
Really laughed.
The sound surprised her.
Luca watched.
She noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That is the most suspicious word in my life right now.”
His smile appeared.
Small.
Genuine.
After dinner, Bonnie found Luca alone on the terrace.
Rain had finally stopped.
Philadelphia glowed in the distance.
She stood beside him.
“We need to talk.”
“I know.”
“The photographs.”
“Yes.”
“You had no right.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
Luca took his time.
“After the night we met, I learned Ryan had connections to Marcus Dane.”
“You thought I was involved.”
“Initially.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
“And after that?”
“I knew you weren’t.”
“So why continue?”
He looked toward the city.
“Because you had unknowingly stepped into something dangerous.”
“Then tell me.”
“I considered it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Ryan was your husband.”
“That has never stopped anyone from telling me things after the fact.”
Luca accepted the criticism.
“I believed exposing Ryan’s connections without proof might push him closer to Dane. I also thought you were happy.”
Bonnie laughed bitterly.
“I thought so too.”
Luca continued.
“When Dane disappeared from Philadelphia, I stopped checking.”
“But there were later photographs.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He turned toward her.
“Because once or twice a year, I asked someone whether you were okay.”
“That’s strange.”
“Yes.”
“Creepy.”
“Yes.”
“Stop agreeing.”
“No.”
She almost smiled.
Then became serious.
“Did you love me?”
The question surprised both of them.
Luca did not answer quickly.
Bonnie’s heart beat harder.
“I barely knew you,” he said.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
She exhaled.
Relief and disappointment mixed strangely.
“I didn’t love you.”
“Good.”
“I remembered you.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Love requires knowing someone.”
His eyes remained on hers.
“I knew one night.”
“A very glamorous night. I gave you frozen peas for your shoulder.”
“They worked.”
“They were the only frozen thing we owned.”
“I know.”
Bonnie smiled.
Luca continued.
“I remembered that you helped a stranger before knowing his name.”
“That’s not extraordinary.”
“It is in my world.”
She looked away.
“And now?”
His answer came more slowly.
“Now I know more.”
Bonnie felt warmth rise into her face.
“That is not an answer.”
“I’m trying not to create another problem in your life.”
“Very thoughtful.”
“You were divorced yesterday.”
“Technically two days ago.”
“My restraint is heroic.”
She laughed.
Then stopped.
They were standing closer than before.
Not touching.
But close enough Bonnie could see the silver at his temple.
Close enough to notice that Luca Moretti, the man other people feared, looked nervous.
It changed something.
Her phone rang.
Eva.
Bonnie answered.
“Tell me you found something.”
“We found many things.”
“Good things?”
“Depends on your definition.”
Luca moved closer to listen.
Eva continued.
“The USB contains copies of Ryan’s financial files, emails, offshore transfers, and communications with Calvano’s people.”
“Enough to clear me?”
“Likely.”
Bonnie closed her eyes in relief.
“But there’s something else.”
Of course.
“What?”
“Ryan kept a folder labeled Project Anchor.”
Bonnie frowned.
“And?”
“You’re the anchor.”
Her relief vanished.
“What does that mean?”
“We’re still reading.”
“Read faster.”
Eva ignored the comment.
“One memo describes a contingency strategy.”
“English, please.”
“If Ryan’s financial structure collapsed, he planned to transfer ownership of several distressed assets to you.”
Bonnie stared.
“Why?”
“Because you would appear responsible for the debts.”
“That part I understand.”
“Then once creditors seized them, another company would purchase them cheaply.”
“Whose company?”
Silence.
“Eva?”
“Marcus Dane.”
Luca went rigid.
Bonnie looked at him.
“Marcus again.”
Eva continued.
“There’s more. Ryan was still working with Dane as recently as last month.”
Luca’s expression became cold.
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
Bonnie asked, “Why?”
Eva sighed.
“Because the whole collapse may have been intentional.”
Bonnie stopped.
“The Pier project?”
“Yes.”
“Ryan wanted it to fail?”
“It looks that way.”
“For what?”
“To force Calvano into default, push properties into foreclosure, and allow Dane-linked entities to acquire them below market value.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Bonnie tried to absorb it.
“So Ryan steals Calvano’s money, puts the blame on me, disappears, and Dane buys the buildings.”
“That appears to be the strategy.”
“And Ryan gets paid.”
“Very well.”
Bonnie looked at Luca.
“How much?”
Eva answered.
“Twenty-five million.”
Bonnie laughed once.
Of course.
Forty-one dollars for her.
Twenty-five million for him.
Eva continued.
“But there’s a problem.”
“What now?”
“The final phase requires Bonnie’s signature.”
Bonnie frowned.
“He can forge it.”
“Not this one.”
“Why?”
“It requires an in-person notarized transfer because of the way one property is titled.”
Bonnie slowly understood.
“He still needs me.”
“Yes.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“Which means he’s going to contact her.”
Bonnie’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A text.
We need to talk. Alone. You have something I need. I have something you want. —Ryan
Bonnie stared.
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
Her grandmother.
Standing outside her assisted-living residence.
Taken that morning.
Bonnie went cold.
Luca saw the image.
His entire body became still.
“This is not a threat,” Bonnie whispered.
Luca’s voice was colder than she had ever heard it.
“It is.”
Bonnie looked at him.
Ryan had found the one person she could never ignore.
Her seventy-nine-year-old grandmother.
The woman who raised her.
The woman whose jewelry box he had stolen.
The woman who had no idea any of this was happening.
Bonnie’s fear became something stronger.
“Then we give him what he wants.”
Luca turned sharply.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Not the signature.”
Understanding appeared.
Bonnie’s voice steadied.
“We give Ryan the version of me he thinks he can still manipulate.”
And for the first time since the divorce, Luca Moretti smiled without humor.
“Now you’re thinking like a Moretti.”
May you like
Ryan believed Bonnie’s greatest weakness was loyalty. He was about to discover that loyalty could also make her dangerous.
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