Chapter 7 - The Ledger Behind the Wall
Elena was already moving when Alessandro caught her arm.
She looked down at his hand.
He released her immediately.
“My sister is in Marco’s apartment.”
“And we’re going to get her out.”
“We?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“I’m going.”
Alessandro studied her for a second.
“Then you stay in the car until we know what’s happening.”
She almost argued.
Then remembered the forged signatures, surveillance, and missing documents.
“Fine.”
They reached Marco’s building eleven minutes later.
Dante had called the police before leaving Palazzo Moretti.
Elena noticed.
The feared Moretti brothers, she was learning, preferred witnesses, cameras, and paperwork when paperwork would win.
Sophia answered the apartment door herself.
Mascara streaked her face.
One suitcase stood behind her.
Elena pushed past Alessandro.
“Sophia.”
Her sister stared.
For one terrible second they were children again.
Then Sophia started crying.
“Elena.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where is Marco?”
“He left.”
“Why did you hang up?”
“He took my phone.”
Sophia held up a second device.
“I had this hidden.”
Elena looked around.
A chair was overturned.
Glass lay near the kitchen.
No blood.
No signs of serious physical violence.
But the fear on Sophia’s face was real.
“What happened?”
“He realized files were missing from his laptop.”
“The files you sent me?”
“Some.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“What didn’t you send?”
Sophia glanced toward the Morettis.
Alessandro said, “We can wait outside.”
Elena surprised herself.
“No. Stay.”
Sophia noticed.
A small, wounded expression crossed her face.
Elena felt no guilt.
Trust had consequences.
Sophia sat.
“When Marco first told me about Casano, he said they only wanted development access.”
“So you helped.”
“Yes.”
“For money?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Sophia looked down.
“For him.”
Elena swallowed her disgust.
“Continue.”
“Marco said the Morettis had blocked projects for years. He said nobody would get hurt.”
“People always say that when they’re planning to hurt someone.”
Sophia flinched.
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
Alessandro quietly moved toward the window.
He gave them space while remaining present.
Sophia wiped her eyes.
“About two months ago, Marco started acting strange. He had encrypted files. Meetings he wouldn’t discuss. Niccolò stopped letting me into conversations.”
“You were disposable.”
Sophia nodded miserably.
“I realized too late.”
“What did you copy?”
“Emails. Agreements. A spreadsheet.”
Elena’s attention sharpened.
“What spreadsheet?”
Sophia opened the second phone.
A photograph showed columns of names and payments.
Several matched the ledger from Rossi Studio.
Valli.
Shell companies.
Consultants.
A city planning official.
Then a line Elena didn’t recognize.
R. Moretti—contingency.
Alessandro turned.
“What?”
Sophia handed him the phone.
He read.
His face changed.
“Who is R. Moretti?”
Matteo asked from behind him, “Riccardo.”
Elena looked between them.
“Who?”
“Our uncle,” Dante said.
Alessandro went very still.
“He’s been on the family board for twenty-seven years.”
Elena understood immediately.
“You have your own Enzo.”
Nobody answered.
The conspiracy had just crossed inside the Moretti family.
Sophia watched them.
“I heard Marco say Riccardo could get them the final approval if Elena became a problem.”
Alessandro’s voice was dangerously calm.
“What approval?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“He said something about trustees.”
The San Aurelio Covenant required a Moretti trustee and a Rossi conservation architect.
If Elena’s signature was forged and Riccardo could supply Moretti authority—
“They have both sides,” Elena whispered.
Alessandro looked at her.
“Not legally.”
“But enough to create a dispute.”
“Yes.”
Sophia began crying again.
“Elena, I’m sorry.”
Elena turned.
“Don’t apologize yet.”
Sophia looked stunned.
“You don’t get to use ‘sorry’ like a key that opens the door back into my life.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Elena’s voice trembled for the first time.
“You slept with the man I was going to marry.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
“You helped strangers enter Dad’s work.”
“I know.”
“You sold information from my company.”
“I know.”
“You stood beside me during fittings while planning a future with Marco.”
Sophia sobbed.
“I know.”
“And now you’re frightened because he lied to you too.”
Sophia lowered her head.
“Yes.”
The honesty stopped Elena.
Sophia whispered, “I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I just want to stop what we did.”
Elena looked at her sister for a long time.
Then nodded toward the phone.
“Then help us.”
Sophia gave them everything.
Passwords.
Dates.
A secret email account.
Names.
She explained that the “master agreement” at Hotel Varenna contained the actual division of profits after redevelopment.
Bellini Development would receive twelve percent.
Valli would receive three.
Several shell companies divided the rest.
Sophia had seen her own initials once.
One percent.
The price of betraying her sister had been reduced to a percentage in someone else’s spreadsheet.
At sunset, police officers arrived to take Sophia’s statement.
Elena stepped onto the balcony.
Milan stretched beneath her.
Alessandro joined her.
“You were kind to her.”
Elena laughed softly.
“That wasn’t kindness.”
“You could have destroyed her.”
“She’s already doing a good job of that herself.”
He leaned against the railing.
“My uncle.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“You said the same thing to me.”
“I was wrong.”
Elena looked at him.
For a moment they simply stood there.
Two people discovering their families contained strangers.
“Why didn’t you marry?” Elena asked suddenly.
Alessandro looked surprised.
“Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know.”
He stared at the skyline.
“Because everyone I met seemed more interested in the name than the man.”
“That sounds arrogant.”
“It probably is.”
She smiled.
“What about you?”
“I almost did.”
His expression immediately changed.
“Bad question.”
“No.”
Elena looked through the glass at Sophia speaking to police.
“I thought marrying Marco would make my life larger.”
“And now?”
“Now I think I had been shrinking myself to make room for him.”
Alessandro’s eyes met hers.
Neither moved.
Something passed between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Recognition.
Then Dante opened the balcony door.
“We found something in the ledger from Rossi Studio.”
Elena turned.
“What?”
“There are coordinates written beside three payments.”
“Coordinates?”
“They lead here.”
“To Marco’s building?”
Dante shook his head.
“To Palazzo Moretti.”
Back at the estate, they followed the coordinates to the eastern wing under restoration.
Elena used old plans to identify a wall that had been sealed sometime after her father’s death.
The masonry looked ordinary.
But the mortar was wrong.
Newer.
They removed one loose panel.
Behind it was a shallow compartment.
Inside sat another ledger.
And this one carried Niccolò Casano’s signature.
Alessandro opened it.
The first page contained a list of dates.
The final entry was scheduled for ten days after Elena’s wedding.
Beside it were six words:
TRANSFER SAN AURELIO. REMOVE ROSSI AUTHORITY.
Elena stared.
They had never planned simply to use her.
May you like
They had planned to erase her.
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