Chapter 4 - The Debt Between Their Fathers
Nora had been lying for five years.
Not about everything.
Samuel Bellamy was dead.
His official cause of death was cardiac arrest.
But three weeks before his death, he had told Nora someone was following him.
He had discovered financial evidence involving a Moretti subsidiary and Arden Capital.
Then his car was forced off Lake Shore Drive.
He survived.
Two weeks later, he died.
The autopsy found nothing suspicious.
Nora had never believed it.
“Did Vittorio know?”
“Yes.”
“And you still agreed to marry me?”
“I didn’t believe you were involved.”
“Why?”
“You were in Milan when my father died.”
Luca stared at her.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigated everyone.”
For some reason, that made him smile.
Nora noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Luca.”
“I’m beginning to understand why my grandfather liked you.”
She rolled her eyes.
It was the first moment between them that felt almost normal.
It did not last.
Samuel’s recovered records exposed a decades-old partnership between Vittorio and Nora’s father.
They had discovered that Arden Capital was using Moretti infrastructure to move illicit corporate funds.
Vittorio wanted proof before confronting anyone.
Samuel wanted federal investigators.
Neither got the chance.
The trail went cold after Samuel’s death.
Until now.
Nora and Luca began working as partners.
Real partners.
He stopped treating her as an obligation.
She stopped assuming every sentence from him contained an insult.
He learned she ate peanut butter directly from the jar when stressed.
She learned he called his mother every Sunday despite pretending not to be sentimental.
He learned she hated elevators.
She learned he could not sleep with a television on.
And somewhere between financial records and midnight coffee, the marriage began changing.
Not becoming romantic.
Not yet.
But becoming real.
Celeste noticed.
She arrived at Moretti headquarters Tuesday morning without an appointment.
Nora was sitting beside Luca in the executive conference room.
Celeste looked at their chairs.
Too close together.
“Am I interrupting?”
“Yes,” Nora said.
Luca hid a smile.
Celeste’s eyes sharpened.
“I need to speak with Luca privately.”
“No.”
Both women looked at him.
Luca continued.
“Anything involving Arden Capital involves Nora.”
Celeste laughed softly.
“Your wife has trained you quickly.”
“My wife found twelve million dollars your auditors missed.”
Nora glanced at him.
My wife.
Not Miss Bellamy.
Not the condition.
His wife.
Celeste heard the difference too.
She placed a folder on the table.
Inside was evidence supposedly proving Adrian Mercer had engineered the attack.
Bank transfers.
Emails.
Authentication records.
Everything pointed toward him.
Too perfectly.
Nora read three pages.
“This is manufactured.”
Celeste’s expression hardened.
“Excuse me?”
“The metadata doesn’t match.”
Luca leaned closer.
Nora showed him.
The emails had been exported using software updated only two months earlier.
One email was dated eight months earlier.
Celeste’s face changed.
Barely.
But Luca saw it.
“So,” Nora said quietly, “who gave you these?”
Celeste stood.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“No,” Luca said.
“I made one at my wedding.”
Nora looked at him.
Celeste did too.
Luca continued.
“I’m trying not to repeat it.”
Celeste left.
That night, Luca apologized.
Properly.
No excuses.
No grandfather.
No inheritance.
They stood in the kitchen of the Moretti estate.
“I humiliated you because I was angry about losing control of my life,” he said. “You were simply the easiest person to punish.”
Nora said nothing.
“That was cowardly.”
Still nothing.
“I’m sorry.”
She studied him.
“I believe you.”
Relief surprised him.
“But forgiveness isn’t the same as forgetting.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
He nodded.
Nora walked toward the door.
Then stopped.
“Luca?”
“Yes?”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t hate you anymore.”
“How romantic.”
She smiled.
“Don’t ruin it.”
He laughed.
A real laugh.
Nora looked back.
And for one dangerous second, neither moved.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Marco entered carrying a package.
It had been delivered without a courier.
Inside was Samuel Bellamy’s missing file.
And a voice recorder.
Nora pressed play.
Her father’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, Nora, I failed.”
She gripped the table.
Samuel continued.
“The person behind this is closer to Vittorio than anyone understands.”
Static.
Then another voice entered the recording.
A woman.
Luca recognized it immediately.
He looked at Nora.
The recording continued.
May you like
And his mother said:
“Samuel, Luca can never know what we did.”
