Chapter 2 - THE LIE IN THE LEDGER
Luca slowly put down his silver dessert fork.
The dining room around him was filled with the soft murmur of twenty-six wealthy guests, the clinking of crystal glasses, and the gentle hum of classical music playing from the corner.
But Luca didn’t hear any of it.
He looked at his mother. Teresa sat beside him, her fragile hands folded quietly in her lap, completely unaware of the bomb she had just dropped.
“Mom,” Luca said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Are you absolutely sure about what Vanessa said?”
Teresa nodded, her eyes reflecting a deep, maternal sorrow. “She told Hannah she would make sure you cut off the hospital payments. I heard it myself, Luca. She was so cruel about it. Hannah just stood there and took it, crying, trying to hold the broken pieces of my dish.”
A cold, terrifying anger began to spread through Luca’s chest.
Eight months ago, when Hannah’s mother was moved to hospice care, Luca had privately authorized a blank check to cover the mounting medical debt. He hadn’t told Vanessa. He hadn’t told his financial advisors. He had instructed Daniel, his head of security and most trusted confidant, to handle it quietly through a secure private account.
If Vanessa knew about the hospital bills, it meant someone inside Luca’s inner circle was leaking his private financial ledgers to the Bellini family.
Luca stood up.
He didn’t excuse himself to the table. He didn’t look at the extravagant chocolate cake. He simply turned and walked out of the dining room.
The heavy mahogany doors of the mansion’s grand foyer stood open. Outside, the freezing Chicago night air whipped across the driveway. Daniel was standing near the black SUV, holding the rear door open for Vanessa, who was wrapping a fur coat tightly around her shoulders.
“Vanessa,” Luca called out.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried across the gravel like a gunshot.
Vanessa stopped. She turned around, a smug, irritated smile playing on her lips.
“Change your mind, darling?” she asked, tilting her chin up. “Ready to apologize for embarrassing me in front of the governor’s wife over a clumsy housemaid?”
Luca walked down the stone steps. He didn’t stop until he was standing inches from her.
“How did you know about the Collins hospital bills?”
Vanessa’s smile faltered for a fraction of a second, but she quickly recovered, crossing her arms over her fur coat.
“Please, Luca. You think you can hide money from my father? We’re merging families. My father’s accountant audited your personal ledgers weeks ago. We know about your little charity case.”
“I didn’t use a family ledger,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a dangerous baritone. “I used a blind trust. A trust that only two people in the world have the routing numbers for.”
Vanessa stepped closer, lowering her voice so Daniel couldn’t hear.
“Then maybe you aren’t as smart as you think you are, Luca. Because not only did we see the trust, we saw where the money actually went.”
Luca frowned. “It went to St. Jude’s Medical Center.”
Vanessa laughed. A sharp, mocking sound that echoed in the cold air.
“Oh, Luca. You really are blind. St. Jude’s was bought out by Bellini Holdings three years ago. We own the billing department. And let me tell you something interesting about the hundred thousand dollars you authorized for Hannah’s mother.”
She leaned in, her perfume sickeningly sweet in the freezing air.
“It never arrived at the hospital.”
Luca went completely still.
“What are you talking about?”
“The bills were never paid, Luca,” Vanessa whispered, her eyes shining with malicious triumph. “Whoever you trusted to wire that money siphoned it into a shell account. Hannah’s mother died drowning in debt, and that little maid has been working double shifts in your house to pay off a balance you thought you settled eight months ago.”
She stepped back, pulling her coat tighter.
“You want to play the righteous savior over a pie dish? Go ahead. But your own people are robbing you blind.”
She got into the SUV and slammed the door.
Luca stood on the driveway, the biting wind tearing at his unbuttoned collar.
His money had been stolen. The medical bills were never paid. Hannah had been suffering in silence, thinking she was drowning in debt, while working for the man who promised to save her.
He turned slowly to look at Daniel.
Daniel, who had been standing by the car, avoided Luca’s gaze, staring intensely at the gravel.
Before Luca could confront him, a taxi pulled up to the front gates.
The iron gates buzzed open. The cab drove up the long driveway and stopped.
The back door opened, and Hannah stepped out.
She looked pale, shivering in her thin uniform coat. But what caught Luca’s attention wasn’t her exhaustion. It was her right hand.
It was still wrapped in the bloody kitchen towel.
Luca rushed forward. “Hannah. Why aren’t you bandaged? Did the clinic not stitch it?”
Hannah looked up at him, her eyes red and brimming with fresh tears. She was holding a crumpled piece of yellow paper in her left hand.
“They refused to treat me, Mr. Moretti,” she whispered, her voice shaking uncontrollably.
“Refused?” Luca demanded, his anger flaring again. “I called ahead. I authorized them to bill my private estate insurance.”
Hannah held out the yellow paper. Her hand was trembling so hard the paper rattled.
“The clinic said the insurance policy was canceled, sir.”
Luca took the paper. It was a denial of service form.
“That’s impossible,” Luca said. “My estate policies auto-renew. Who canceled it?”
“I asked them to check,” Hannah said, a tear finally spilling down her cheek. “They gave me the authorization signature of the person who closed the account last week.”
Luca looked down at the bottom of the yellow form.
Printed clearly on the authorization line was a signature.
Luca’s blood ran cold. The driveway, the wind, the mansion behind him—everything seemed to fade away.
Because he recognized the handwriting perfectly.
It was the signature of Antonio Moretti.
May you like
His father.
Who had been dead for ten years.
