Chapter 10 - Harper’s Impossible Choice
The gala terrace was empty when Harper returned.
No champagne.
No guests.
No music.
Just the dessert table.
And Evelyn.
Vittorio stood behind her.
Harper had refused to come alone.
Dante and Marco were positioned outside.
Thomas coordinated with federal agents.
But Harper walked onto the terrace by herself.
Vittorio smiled.
“You really do enjoy dramatic entrances.”
“I learned from your family.”
“Not my family, apparently.”
The bitterness in his voice revealed more than anger.
Harper stopped ten feet away.
“Let her go.”
“Transfer the trust.”
“No.”
Vittorio pressed the weapon closer to Evelyn.
Harper remained still.
“You won’t shoot her.”
“Why?”
“Because you still need the phrase.”
Vittorio smiled.
“I already have it.”
Harper’s confidence slipped.
Evelyn looked ashamed.
“They recorded me at the vault.”
Harper understood.
Vittorio had two factors.
The key?
He held it up.
Three.
Only Harper remained.
“Fingerprint,” Vittorio said.
“You built an empire and forgot biometric systems can be revoked.”
His smile disappeared.
Harper had changed the trust authorization hours earlier.
Now it required a new verification.
Her voice.
A live legal declaration.
Vittorio couldn’t force a fingerprint from a corpse anymore.
He needed her conscious.
Harper had bought herself leverage.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Confession.”
He laughed.
“To what?”
“Salvatore.”
Silence.
“You poisoned him.”
Vittorio’s eyes changed.
“You have no idea what Salvatore was.”
“I know he discovered you.”
“He humiliated me.”
There it was.
Harper kept him talking.
“You weren’t his brother.”
“I was more his brother than Thomas ever was.”
“But he was going to expose you.”
Vittorio’s face hardened.
“He was going to take everything.”
“So you killed him.”
“I corrected a mistake.”
Harper heard the tiny click in her earpiece.
Recorded.
Good.
“What about Arthur?”
“Gabriel handled Arthur.”
“And Cross?”
“Useful until she wasn’t.”
“And my parents?”
“Persistent.”
Harper looked at Evelyn.
Her mother’s eyes were fixed on something behind Vittorio.
Dante.
Moving silently through the glass doors.
Harper continued.
“The twelve million?”
“Bait.”
“For Dante.”
“Finally.”
Vittorio smiled.
“I needed enough money inside the foundation to trigger federal seizure.”
“And then?”
“Lombardi Holdings collapses. Assets move. Creditors panic. I purchase what remains through intermediaries.”
Harper almost admired the accounting.
Almost.
“You forgot one thing.”
“What?”
“Accountants.”
Dante struck.
Evelyn dropped.
Harper moved.
Vittorio fired.
The bullet shattered glass.
Dante tackled him.
They crashed into the dessert table.
Harper pulled Evelyn away.
Marco entered with agents.
Vittorio reached for his weapon.
Dante stopped him.
Seconds later, Vittorio was handcuffed.
Harper stood over him.
He looked up.
“You think this ends anything?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“But it improves my evening.”
Federal agents took him away.
Evelyn hugged Harper.
This time Harper allowed it.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But a beginning.
Then Dante approached.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You?”
“No.”
Harper looked at the destroyed dessert table.
“My cake didn’t survive.”
“I’ll buy you another.”
“That isn’t the point.”
He laughed.
For several hours, it seemed finished.
Then Thomas called.
Gabriel had been arrested at JFK.
Cross had been captured.
Vittorio’s confession was recorded.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Harper finally exhaled.
Until Thomas added, “There’s a problem.”
“What?”
“Arthur’s ledger.”
“What about it?”
“One page is missing.”
Harper’s stomach tightened.
“Which?”
“Page seventy-one.”
“What was on it?”
“We don’t know.”
Harper remembered the board copies.
She had scanned the ledger.
She opened her laptop.
Page seventy.
Page seventy-two.
No seventy-one.
It had been removed before they found it.
Then she remembered Arthur’s video.
Account 7719.
Everything changes.
Harper searched the archive again.
A hidden file appeared beneath the original video.
She clicked.
A document opened.
At the top were two words:
SUCCESSION AGREEMENT.
Dante leaned over her shoulder.
Harper scrolled.
Then stopped.
The agreement named the person who would inherit control of Lombardi Holdings if Salvatore’s direct heir became legally compromised.
May you like
Harper read the name.
Her own.
