Chapter 9 - Lorenzo's Unforgivable Lie
Lucia Costa had not died seventeen years earlier.
The grave contained ashes.
No DNA identification had ever been performed.
Lorenzo finally confessed.
Their mother had disappeared after their father was murdered.
He had been nineteen.
Mateo twelve.
Lorenzo was told she had died overseas.
Years later, he discovered evidence she might have survived.
He never told Mateo.
Mateo stared at his brother.
“Another secret.”
“I was protecting you.”
“There it is again.”
Lorenzo’s face tightened.
Mateo laughed bitterly.
“Every time you destroy someone’s life, you call it protection.”
Lorenzo took the blow silently.
Sienna saw something she had not expected.
Shame.
Lucia had created North Atlantic Logistics with Dominic.
But Camille believed Lucia later turned against him.
The network had split.
Dominic’s faction wanted control.
Lucia’s faction had quietly collected evidence.
Nobody knew which side Vale served anymore.
Then Sienna noticed something in Evelyn’s ledger.
Two sets of payments.
One marked L.C.
Another D.R.
They had been fighting financially for years.
Her mother had been tracking a war.
Sienna looked at Lorenzo.
“We find Lucia.”
Adrian traced the newest shell account to an estate outside Providence.
They arrived after midnight.
The house appeared empty.
Inside, however, someone had prepared dinner for one.
Fresh tea.
Warm fireplace.
A woman’s coat.
Mateo found a photograph.
Lucia with Evelyn Mercer.
Taken twelve years earlier.
Sienna stared.
“Our mothers knew each other.”
Behind the photograph was a note.
EVELYN KEPT THE ONLY COPY.
Sienna thought of the ledger.
“No.”
She opened its leather cover.
Nothing.
Then Mateo pressed along the spine.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a microSD card.
They played it.
Evelyn appeared.
Sienna’s mother.
Alive in a moment preserved eleven years earlier.
“If Sienna sees this, then Harrison failed to keep her outside the war.”
Sienna’s eyes filled.
Evelyn explained that Lucia had approached her after discovering Dominic was using Mercer Shipping.
Together, they collected evidence.
But there was a deeper problem.
Dominic had compromised judges, police and port officials.
Going public too early would get them killed.
Evelyn created Sienna’s trust as a safeguard.
Lucia created Mateo’s.
Two heirs.
Two companies.
Neither network could control the port without both.
Sienna understood.
The marriage between her and Mateo would combine exactly what their mothers had protected separately.
It could either hand the network everything—
or destroy it.
Evelyn’s recording continued.
“If someone tries to force those two interests together, assume the person arranging it serves Dominic.”
Sienna’s stomach dropped.
The marriage.
Someone had engineered it.
Harrison blamed Vale.
Vale worked for someone.
Who had first suggested Mateo instead of Lorenzo?
Lorenzo.
Everyone turned toward him.
His face hardened.
“I changed the groom because Harrison was compromised.”
“Did anyone suggest it?” Sienna asked.
“No.”
“Think.”
Lorenzo did.
Then his expression changed.
Adrian whispered, “Who?”
Lorenzo looked toward him.
“My attorney.”
“Daniel Price?”
“Yes.”
The fake attorney.
The man who supposedly delivered the first contract.
Except perhaps Price had not been fake at all.
Perhaps the disappearance had been staged.
Sienna’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A woman spoke.
“You finally found Evelyn’s message.”
Sienna knew.
“Lucia?”
Mateo stopped moving.
The woman continued.
“Do not marry my son.”
“Why?”
“Because the moment you do, Charles Vale will have what he needs.”
“What?”
“Both signatures in one legal record.”
Sienna looked at Mateo.
“For what?”
Lucia answered.
“To transfer the entire consortium.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Everyone looked toward the staircase.
May you like
The bedroom door slowly opened.
And a woman stepped into view.
