Chapter 2 - The Lie He Couldn't Take Back
Clemente did not look at Marco.
That told Natalie everything.
If he looked, Vittorio would know the file mattered.
Instead, Clemente walked toward his grandmother and kissed her cheek.
“Nonna.”
Adelina Lombardo was eighty-two years old and perhaps five feet tall.
She nevertheless possessed the strange ability to make every man in the room appear twelve.
Her silver hair was swept neatly back. Diamonds glittered at her ears. Her black evening dress was simple and severe.
Her eyes were not.
They were sharp.
She looked at Natalie again.
“You are the fiancée.”
Natalie almost said no.
Then she saw Marco slide the folder behind his leg.
“Yes,” Natalie said.
Clemente looked at her.
Adelina noticed.
“Interesting.”
“What is?” Natalie asked.
“My grandson looks more surprised by his engagement than you do.”
Natalie smiled.
“He's adjusting.”
Adelina's mouth curved.
“I like her.”
Vittorio did not.
Marco certainly did not.
Clemente remained silent.
Adelina entered the study and sat without being invited.
Everyone else remained standing.
“Ring.”
Clemente cleared his throat.
“We haven't selected one.”
Adelina looked offended.
“You announced an engagement before buying a ring?”
“It happened quickly.”
“How quickly?”
Natalie answered.
“Tonight.”
Clemente closed his eyes for half a second.
Adelina stared at Natalie.
Then she laughed.
Not politely.
Genuinely.
“Oh, Clemente. You finally found one you cannot control.”
Natalie liked her immediately.
Vittorio stepped forward.
“Mama, perhaps we should discuss this privately.”
“No.”
“This affects the trust.”
“Everything affects the trust when you want something.”
Vittorio's face tightened.
Adelina looked toward Clemente.
“Do you love her?”
There it was.
The one question Clemente could not negotiate around.
Natalie waited.
Clemente looked at her.
For one strange second, the room disappeared.
His expression changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
“I trust her,” he said.
Adelina's smile faded.
“That is not what I asked.”
“No.”
Clemente's voice softened.
“But for me, it's rarer.”
Natalie felt something move beneath her anger.
She ignored it.
Adelina rose.
“Sunday lunch. Both of you.”
“Nonna—”
“Engaged couples attend family lunch.”
Then she turned toward Natalie.
“And wear something comfortable. These men dress as if they're attending their own funerals.”
Natalie almost laughed.
Adelina walked out.
Vittorio followed.
Marco remained.
He held the folder loosely.
Clemente finally looked at him.
“What's that?”
Marco glanced down.
“This?”
“Yes.”
“Some papers I found near the dining room.”
“Give them to me.”
Marco smiled.
“Of course.”
He handed Clemente the folder.
Nothing appeared missing.
That worried Natalie more.
Marco left.
The door closed.
Clemente immediately opened the file.
He flipped through the pages.
“Page seventeen.”
Natalie knew because she had reviewed the trust summary.
“Voting transfer clause.”
Clemente found it.
Still there.
But Natalie saw a mark.
A tiny pencil line beside the paragraph governing marriage.
“That wasn't there before,” she said.
“You're certain?”
“I prepared the copy.”
Clemente looked toward the closed door.
“So Marco knows.”
“Or wants us to think he knows.”
Clemente walked to the fireplace.
Natalie watched him.
“This is bigger than your ridiculous engagement announcement, isn't it?”
“Yes.”
“What happens if Vittorio gets temporary voting control?”
“He can force a sale of Lombardo Logistics.”
“To whom?”
“Bellaforte Capital.”
Natalie knew the name.
Everyone in the company did.
Bellaforte had attempted to acquire Lombardo Logistics twice.
Both offers had been rejected.
“Why would Vittorio want that?”
“Commission. Leverage. Revenge. Pick one.”
“Against you?”
“Against my father.”
Natalie knew Clemente's father had died years earlier.
She also knew Clemente never discussed him.
Clemente closed the folder.
“I'll have security audit Marco's access.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“If Marco accessed your office under his own credentials, he either doesn't care about being caught or wants you to find him.”
Clemente considered that.
“You think someone used his badge.”
“I think whoever did this understands your family well enough to know you'd blame him.”
“Which means?”
“Your traitor may not be Marco.”
For the first time that evening, Clemente smiled without calculation.
“This is why I pay you.”
“Not enough.”
“I doubled your bonus.”
“For being your fake fiancée.”
His smile disappeared.
Natalie picked up her clutch.
“We need rules.”
“Rules?”
“If I'm going to continue this insanity for forty-eight hours.”
Clemente leaned against the desk.
“I'm listening.”
“One: no touching me without warning.”
“Fine.”
“Two: no inventing romantic history without telling me first.”
“Fine.”
“Three: if someone asks how you proposed, you answer.”
“Why me?”
“Because this disaster belongs to you.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
“Four: nobody insults me for your entertainment again.”
His face hardened.
“They won't.”
“That's not what I said.”
Clemente understood.
“You're right.”
Natalie studied him.
He meant it.
“Five,” she said, “when this is over, we tell everyone the engagement ended privately and respectfully.”
“Agreed.”
“Good.”
She walked toward the door.
“Natalie.”
She stopped.
“I am sorry.”
She didn't turn.
“I know.”
“That doesn't fix it.”
“No.”
“Will anything?”
Natalie looked over her shoulder.
“Ask me after you've become the man who wouldn't have done it.”
Then she left.
The following morning, Natalie arrived at Lombardo Holdings at 6:42.
There were already flowers on her desk.
White roses.
No card.
She stared at them.
Clemente's office door opened.
“They aren't from me.”
“I didn't think they were.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I sound suspicious.”
He handed her coffee.
Correct order.
No sugar.
Extra shot.
Natalie accepted it.
“Security report?”
“Coming.”
“Did you sleep?”
“No.”
“Good. Consequences.”
He almost smiled.
At eight-fifteen, the first rumor reached accounting.
At eight-thirty, legal knew.
At nine, Natalie received seventeen congratulatory emails.
At nine-ten, someone had placed a bridal magazine on her desk.
She carried it into Clemente's office and dropped it before him.
“Your empire moves efficiently when gossip is involved.”
He looked at the cover.
“Do we need one?”
“A magazine?”
“A wedding.”
Natalie stared.
“Don't test me before coffee number two.”
He raised both hands.
At ten, the security report arrived.
Marco's badge had accessed Clemente's executive floor at 9:17 the previous morning.
But camera footage showed Marco entering a restaurant across town at 9:06.
Natalie looked at Clemente.
“Cloned badge.”
“Possible.”
“Who can do that?”
“Security.”
“Who runs security?”
Clemente's expression changed.
“My cousin Luca.”
Another Lombardo.
Another suspect.
The deeper they looked, the more uncomfortable the pattern became.
Three confidential files had been accessed in two months.
The succession agreement.
A pending shipping contract.
And a property acquisition near Newark.
Every breach occurred shortly before Bellaforte Capital made a strategic move.
Someone inside Lombardo Holdings was feeding information to a competitor.
Natalie spent the afternoon tracing document metadata.
At 5:43, she found something.
All three documents had been printed through the executive network.
Same printer.
Same unusual formatting error.
A faint vertical line caused by a damaged imaging drum.
Natalie opened the succession folder.
The line was there.
Then she remembered the copy Marco carried at dinner.
Same line.
She called Clemente.
No answer.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Then a message appeared on her phone.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
If you want to know why Clemente really called you his fiancée, come downstairs alone.
Natalie stared at it.
A second message arrived.
A photograph.
Clemente at a restaurant.
Across from him sat a beautiful brunette Natalie recognized immediately.
Serena Bellaforte.
Daughter of Bellaforte Capital's chairman.
The timestamp was two weeks earlier.
A third message appeared.
He was supposed to announce HER engagement last night. Ask him why he changed the woman at the final minute.
Natalie's stomach dropped.
The elevator doors opened behind her.
She turned.
Serena Bellaforte stepped out.
May you like
She was holding a diamond ring.
And she said, “Natalie, I believe you're wearing my engagement.”
