Chapter 14 - Someone Inside Luca's Circle Betrayed Him
Evelyn confessed three days later.
Not to murder.
Not exactly.
She admitted confronting Matteo on his boat.
She admitted knowing he intended to testify.
She admitted trying to persuade him to leave the country.
According to Evelyn, they argued.
She left.
Hours later, the boat exploded after a fuel line failed.
She claimed Danner caused it.
Investigators were not convinced.
Neither was Luca.
But before they could determine the truth, another crisis arrived.
Belandi Imports lost three major contracts in one morning.
By afternoon, four banks froze credit facilities.
The following day, confidential internal documents appeared online.
Someone inside Luca's company was leaking information.
Most of the documents were harmless.
A few weren't.
Old payments from fifteen years earlier.
Security retainers.
Cash transactions from the period when Antonio still controlled operations.
Nothing directly tied Luca to current crimes.
But enough to revive every headline.
BELANDI EMPIRE BUILT ON DIRTY MONEY?
WEDDING HERO OR CRIME HEIR?
Hannah hated that headline most.
Luca wasn't a wedding hero.
He was a person.
Reducing him to the dance was no better than reducing Hannah to the abandoned bride.
She called him.
No answer.
Called again.
Nothing.
Elena answered instead.
“He's busy.”
“With what?”
“Trying to keep eight hundred employees from wondering whether they'll have jobs next month.”
Hannah's anger disappeared.
“Can I help?”
Elena was quiet.
“Maybe.”
“How?”
“Don't defend him publicly.”
Hannah blinked.
“That was not what I expected.”
“Whoever is leaking this wants Luca to look like he manipulated you. If you become his spokesperson, they'll use it.”
“So I do nothing?”
“No.”
Elena's voice softened.
“You keep living your life.”
That was more difficult than it sounded.
Hannah returned to Harbor Ridge Monday.
Her students had decorated the board.
WELCOME BACK MS. MILLER!
Madison gave her a bracelet made from purple beads.
A boy named Tyler asked, “Are you famous now?”
“No.”
“My dad says you're famous.”
“Your dad is incorrect.”
“Can I tell him?”
“Please.”
The classroom saved her.
Children cared about immediate truths.
Who had the blue marker.
Whether recess would be outside.
Whether spiders slept.
They did not care about corporate investigations.
By three o'clock, Hannah almost felt like herself.
Then she saw a black sedan across the street.
Not Luca's.
She froze.
A man stepped out.
Marco Bellini.
Luca's chief operations officer.
Hannah had met him twice.
He was forty-five, broad-shouldered, usually cheerful.
Today he looked exhausted.
“Ms. Miller.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.”
Her instincts tightened.
“About what?”
“Luca.”
She did not get into his car.
Instead they spoke in a coffee shop across from the school.
Marco stirred his espresso without drinking.
“The leaks are mine.”
Hannah stared.
“You're betraying him.”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I released the documents.”
“Why?”
“Because someone was preparing to release altered versions.”
He handed her a folder.
“I gave journalists the real records first.”
Hannah frowned.
“You made Luca look guilty to prevent someone making him look more guilty?”
“Yes.”
“That is an aggressively complicated strategy.”
“Welcome to the Belandi family.”
She did not smile.
“Does Luca know?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the source of the forged documents is inside his legal team.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Hannah leaned back.
“Then why tell me?”
“Because nobody suspects you of understanding corporate records.”
She stared.
“Was that supposed to be insulting?”
“No.”
“It succeeded.”
Marco almost smiled.
Then he lowered his voice.
“Thomas Miller created a verification system in his notebooks.”
Hannah's attention sharpened.
“What?”
“Tiny marks beside certain entries. Luca's people didn't understand them.”
“I might?”
“You're his daughter.”
“That is not hereditary.”
“Maybe not.”
Marco slid over copies.
Hannah studied them.
Tiny dots.
Short lines.
Marks in the margins.
She recognized them.
Not as financial codes.
As grading marks.
Her father had taught her a simple substitution game when she was a child.
Dots meant vowels.
Lines indicated position.
Numbers represented page references.
“He used our puzzle.”
Marco leaned forward.
“You know it?”
“Yes.”
They worked for an hour.
The marks resolved into initials.
W.D. / E.V. / J.C.
Danner.
Evelyn.
Who was J.C.?
Hannah searched her memory.
No one.
Then Marco went pale.
“What?”
He stared at the page.
“Julian Cross.”
“Who is that?”
“Luca's general counsel.”
The leak source.
Julian had worked for Belandi Imports for eleven years.
He had conducted the audits.
He had told Luca his current businesses were clean.
If Julian worked for Evelyn or Danner—
Then every protection Luca believed existed could be compromised.
“Call Luca.”
Marco shook his head.
“Not by phone.”
They drove to Belandi headquarters.
Julian's office was empty.
His computer had been wiped.
Luca stood in the conference room when Hannah arrived.
His expression turned sharp.
“What are you doing here?”
She held up the decoded page.
“Saving you from your lawyer.”
Marco confessed.
Luca listened without interrupting.
When Marco finished, Luca looked at him.
“You released confidential records.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“You would have stopped me.”
“Yes.”
“That is why.”
Luca stared at him.
Hannah waited for anger.
Instead Luca said, “You're suspended.”
Marco nodded.
“Fair.”
“Not fired.”
Marco looked surprised.
Luca added, “Yet.”
Then he turned to Hannah.
“How did you decode this?”
“My father taught me.”
Something softened in Luca's face.
“Of course he did.”
Elena entered rapidly.
“We found Julian.”
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
“Leaving?”
“Trying.”
Federal investigators had detained him.
On his laptop, agents discovered drafted documents meant to implicate Luca in Danner's fraud.
Fabricated instructions.
Backdated emails.
False signatures.
Julian intended to preserve the old network by making Luca the final villain.
“He was going to give everything to prosecutors tomorrow,” Elena said.
Hannah felt sick.
“Would they have believed it?”
“For a while.”
Luca looked toward the city.
“And sometimes a while is enough.”
Hannah understood.
A reputation could be destroyed before facts caught up.
She had learned that in one wedding night.
Elena continued.
“Julian is talking.”
“What does he want?”
“Immunity.”
“Will he get it?”
“No idea.”
“Who was he working for?”
Elena hesitated.
“Not Evelyn.”
Luca frowned.
“Then who?”
“Richard Walsh.”
Silence.
Hannah's heart sank.
“No.”
Connor's father had been cooperating.
Turning over records.
Admitting cowardice.
Why frame Luca now?
They found Richard at his office.
He denied everything.
Then Elena showed him Julian's messages.
Richard sat down.
“I didn't hire him.”
“The payments came from Walsh accounts.”
“Then somebody used them.”
Connor entered midway through the confrontation.
He saw the documents.
His face changed.
“I know that account.”
Richard looked up.
“What?”
Connor pointed.
“That isn't Dad's.”
“It's Walsh Holdings.”
“No.”
Connor shook his head.
“Mom controls that subsidiary.”
Everyone went silent.
Vivien.
Again.
They drove to the Walsh estate.
Vivien was gone.
On her desk sat one letter.
Addressed to Hannah.
You will all want simple villains.
There aren't any.
I tried to protect Connor. Then Richard. Then myself.
Every protection became another lie.
Julian was supposed to make Luca negotiate. Nothing more.
I didn't know he intended to fabricate evidence.
Hannah stopped reading.
“She's running.”
Elena was already checking airports.
Connor sank into a chair.
“She spent my whole life saying she hated dishonesty.”
Hannah looked at him.
“People often hate most what reminds them of themselves.”
Luca said nothing.
His face looked exhausted.
Not angry.
Just tired.
Hannah finished the letter.
The final paragraph was for Luca.
I am sorry I allowed fear of your family to justify harming you.
Perhaps Thomas was right. Silence is a decision.
I have made too many.
I will make one final decision where William cannot control it.
Below was an address.
Federal courthouse.
Tomorrow.
9 a.m.
Vivien wasn't running.
She was surrendering.
And she planned to testify against everyone, including herself.
But when Hannah looked at Luca, he wasn't reading the letter anymore.
He was staring at one earlier sentence.
Julian was supposed to make Luca negotiate.
“Negotiate what?” Hannah asked.
Luca slowly raised his eyes.
“That is exactly what I want to know.”
The answer arrived ten minutes later.
Julian's files contained a proposed agreement.
Vivien would destroy the false evidence against Luca.
In exchange, Luca would transfer his Harborstone interests.
Not to Vivien.
Not Richard.
Not Danner.
To Connor.
Connor stared at the paper.
“I never asked for this.”
Hannah believed him.
Richard did too.
Vivien had been trying to secure her son's future using the same methods that had destroyed his life.
And the irony was almost unbearable.
Connor sat down and whispered, “She still doesn't understand.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Understand what?”
He gave a sad smile.
“I don't want their empire.”
May you like
For the first time, Connor Walsh sounded free.
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