Chapter 6 - The Friend at Matteo's Side
Silence swallowed the room.
Julian stared at Thomas Bennett on the screen.
"Excuse me?"
Thomas's face tightened.
"Julian Mercer."
Matteo moved between them.
"Thomas, what are you saying?"
"His father worked for Vittorio."
Julian shook his head.
"My father was a lawyer."
"He was Vittorio's lawyer."
Matteo turned slowly.
"Julian?"
"That's not a secret."
"It is to me."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"My father represented Bellandi subsidiaries twenty years ago. I didn't think it mattered."
Thomas continued.
"It matters."
Clara wiped her tears.
"Dad, what did Julian do?"
Thomas hesitated.
"I don't know what he did."
Julian laughed bitterly.
"Excellent."
"But Vittorio used his father to move the money. When the investigation started, the Mercer family was involved."
Julian stepped away.
"My father died when I was nineteen."
"After giving Vittorio access to accounts Thomas was investigating," Elena said.
Julian looked at her.
"You think I'm part of this?"
"I don't know."
Matteo said nothing.
That hurt Julian more than any accusation.
"You think I poisoned you?"
"No."
"Then say it."
Matteo looked at his oldest friend.
"I don't know what to think anymore."
Julian nodded slowly.
"Fair enough."
He removed his Bellandi security badge and placed it on the table.
"I'll leave."
"Julian."
"No."
His voice cracked slightly.
"If you're investigating everyone, investigate me too."
He walked out.
Clara watched Matteo.
"You didn't want him to leave."
"No."
"Then why let him?"
"Because trust without evidence is how my father controlled everyone."
Thomas asked to speak privately with Clara.
Matteo left.
For the next hour, father and daughter attempted to fit fifteen missing years into sentences.
Thomas explained.
Vittorio discovered his investigation.
Ferraro threatened Clara and her mother.
Thomas agreed to disappear in exchange for their safety.
A staged death protected them.
Then Thomas suffered a real medical crisis.
Vittorio kept him isolated.
"Why didn't you escape?"
"I tried."
"Fifteen years, Dad."
"I know."
"You let me think you were dead."
"I know."
Anger and love collided inside her.
She couldn't forgive fifteen years in one conversation.
She couldn't hate him either.
"I need time."
"You deserve it."
Before ending the call, Thomas said one more thing.
"Clara."
"Yes?"
"Matteo isn't his father."
She smiled sadly.
"I know."
Meanwhile, forensic investigators examined Marianne's devices.
Her account had been cloned.
She was cleared.
The real sender had accessed Bellandi's network using credentials belonging to Julian.
Suspicion deepened.
Julian disappeared.
His phone went dark.
Matteo pretended not to care.
Clara knew better.
"You've called him six times."
"Seven."
"That's worse."
"He doesn't disappear."
"Maybe he knows you suspect him."
"I don't."
"You told him you didn't know."
"That's not the same thing."
"It sounded the same."
Matteo looked exhausted.
Dr. Reeves finally discharged him with strict restrictions.
No alcohol.
No unnecessary travel.
No extreme stress.
Clara laughed when she heard the last instruction.
"What?"
"Your entire life is extreme stress."
"I'll retire."
"No, you won't."
"No."
For security reasons, Matteo moved temporarily to a private residence outside Manhattan.
Clara was supposed to go home.
Then someone fired a bullet through her apartment window.
Nobody argued afterward.
She stayed in Matteo's guest wing.
The closeness changed them.
Without boardrooms and restaurant uniforms, they began seeing each other differently.
Matteo cooked badly.
Clara discovered this when he attempted pasta.
"You're Italian."
"That's racist."
"Your pasta is racist."
He laughed.
A real laugh.
It surprised both of them.
Later, while washing dishes, Clara noticed his bracelet.
Visible now.
No watch hiding it.
"You stopped covering it."
Matteo looked down.
"Yes."
"Why?"
He considered.
"Because you were right."
"I usually am."
"Don't ruin the moment."
She smiled.
He continued.
"I spent years believing hiding it made me strong."
"And now?"
"Now I think it made everyone around me less able to help."
Clara touched the bracelet lightly.
"My father learned that too late."
Matteo looked at her.
"So did I."
Their eyes held.
He leaned closer.
Then stopped.
"Clara."
"Yes?"
"I don't know what my marriage is."
The words broke the moment.
Elena.
Of course.
Clara stepped back.
"You don't owe me an explanation."
"I think I do."
"No."
She dried her hands.
"You owe Elena one."
The next day, Matteo met Elena privately.
Their conversation lasted three hours.
When Elena emerged, she had been crying.
So had Matteo.
But something had settled.
They loved what they had been.
They could not return to it.
Nine years had changed them.
Elena had built another life in Europe.
Matteo had built walls.
They agreed to end their marriage legally and honestly.
Not with hatred.
With grief.
Elena hugged him before leaving.
"Be happy."
Matteo whispered, "You too."
Clara pretended she hadn't seen.
That evening, Julian returned.
Bruised.
Bleeding.
Carrying a laptop.
Security nearly shot him.
Matteo ran downstairs.
"What happened?"
"Ferraro."
"Where?"
"Doesn't matter."
Julian dropped the laptop onto the table.
"I found him."
Clara approached.
"You disappeared because you were looking for Ferraro?"
"I figured if everyone thought I was guilty, he might contact me."
"Did he?"
Julian smiled weakly.
"He tried to recruit me."
Matteo stared.
"Why?"
"Because my father really did work for Vittorio."
Julian's expression hardened.
"And because Vittorio thinks blood is destiny."
"What's on the laptop?"
"Everything Ferraro had."
They opened it.
The evidence was devastating.
Vittorio had ordered Elena's disappearance.
Thomas's staged death.
Corporate blackmail.
Medical-record theft.
The Novagen sabotage.
But the restaurant attack had not been ordered by Vittorio.
Matteo read the file twice.
"Then who?"
Julian opened a video.
Security footage from a private room.
Ferraro sat across from an unidentified person.
The person's face was outside the frame.
Audio played.
"We don't need Bellandi dead."
A woman's voice.
"We need him publicly compromised."
Clara recognized it.
Not Marianne.
Not Elena.
Someone else.
Matteo did too.
His face changed.
"Play it again."
Julian did.
The woman continued.
"Once Vittorio moves against his son, the board will fracture. Then both Bellandis become vulnerable."
Clara looked at Matteo.
"Who is she?"
He whispered:
"Isabella Conti."
CEO of Novagen Therapeutics.
The company Matteo had been trying to acquire.
The four-hundred-million-dollar deal.
Isabella had orchestrated the collapse to destroy both Matteo and Vittorio.
"Why?" Clara asked.
Elena answered.
"Because Novagen isn't worth four hundred million."
Everyone looked at her.
"It's worth billions."
She explained that the hidden treatment research could revolutionize care for several rare conditions.
Including Matteo's.
If Bellandi acquired Novagen before the research became public, Matteo's company would control it.
Isabella wanted the acquisition stopped.
"She used your illness to destroy the deal," Clara said.
Matteo nodded.
"And used my father as the obvious suspect."
Julian connected the final pieces.
Tyler.
The disabled cameras.
The contaminated drink.
The leaked photograph.
Everything pointed toward Vittorio.
Enough truth mixed with one lie.
A perfect frame.
They contacted federal authorities.
A plan formed.
Matteo would publicly announce he was proceeding with the acquisition.
Isabella would believe her scheme had failed.
Ferraro, already cooperating to save himself, would arrange a meeting.
Dangerous.
But controlled.
The meeting took place in an empty Bellandi hotel ballroom.
Matteo wore a wire.
Clara watched remotely.
Isabella arrived.
Elegant.
Calm.
Unconcerned.
"You look healthy," she told Matteo.
"Disappointed?"
"Surprised."
"You shouldn't be."
He placed his medical bracelet openly on the table.
"You underestimated this."
Her eyes flickered.
"You underestimated what people will do for money."
"Did you poison me?"
"Poison is such an ugly word."
That was enough.
Federal agents moved.
Isabella realized instantly.
She ran.
Agents entered.
Chaos erupted.
She was arrested before reaching the exit.
Clara exhaled.
It was over.
Or should have been.
Then Matteo's phone rang.
Vittorio.
He answered.
His father's voice was strangely calm.
"Congratulations."
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"You let her use you."
"I've survived worse."
"Not this."
Matteo looked at the evidence file.
"I'm giving everything to prosecutors."
A pause.
"You won't."
"I already did."
Another pause.
Then Vittorio laughed softly.
"You still believe this is about the company."
Matteo's face tightened.
"What does that mean?"
"It means Thomas Bennett never told his daughter why I kept him alive."
Clara heard.
She stepped closer.
"Ask him."
Matteo did.
Vittorio answered.
"Because Thomas wasn't protecting evidence."
Clara's heart pounded.
"What was he protecting?"
Vittorio whispered something.
Matteo went completely still.
"What?"
Clara grabbed the phone.
"What did he say?"
Matteo looked at her.
Before he could answer, every light in the house went out.
Security alarms screamed.
A gunshot cracked from the front gate.
Then Thomas Bennett's video feed appeared on the dark television by itself.
May you like
His wheelchair was empty.
Someone had taken him.
