Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Replace Her
Natalie did not move.
Serena Bellaforte walked toward her desk as though she belonged on the executive floor.
She was elegant.
Controlled.
Thirty-four, perhaps.
Dark hair.
Cream suit.
The diamond ring rested in her palm.
Natalie looked at it.
Then at Serena.
“You've got thirty seconds before security arrives.”
Serena smiled.
“Clemente always said you were efficient.”
“You know me?”
“I know about you.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“No. We've never met.”
“Twenty seconds.”
Serena placed the ring on Natalie's desk.
“He bought that three months ago.”
Natalie didn't touch it.
“For you?”
“For an agreement.”
“That's romantic.”
“Nothing about our families is romantic.”
Natalie folded her arms.
“Then explain.”
Serena studied her.
“My father wants Lombardo Logistics. Vittorio wants money. Clemente wants control of his grandmother's voting shares.”
“I know that part.”
Serena's eyebrows rose.
“Of course you do.”
“What I don't know is why you're standing in my office.”
“Because Clemente and I discussed marriage.”
The sentence landed harder than Natalie wanted it to.
She kept her face neutral.
“When?”
“For months.”
“Were you engaged?”
“No.”
“Then the ring isn't yours.”
Serena smiled faintly.
“I see why he likes you.”
Natalie hated the strange warmth that sentence produced.
“This isn't about whether Clemente likes me.”
“It may be now.”
Serena walked toward the window.
“My father proposed a merger. Clemente rejected it. Vittorio approached him separately.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He promised Vittorio a personal stake if Lombardo Logistics was sold.”
Natalie's suspicion sharpened.
“You have proof?”
“Some.”
“Why give it to us?”
Serena turned.
“Because my father intends to sacrifice me along with everyone else.”
Before Natalie could respond, the elevator opened again.
Clemente stepped out.
He stopped.
His gaze moved from Serena to the ring.
Then to Natalie.
“Serena.”
“Hello, Clemente.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Saving you the trouble of another lie.”
Natalie looked at him.
“Did you plan to marry her?”
Clemente's jaw tightened.
“We discussed it.”
“Yes or no.”
“No.”
“Did you buy that ring?”
“Yes.”
Natalie nodded.
Calmly.
That calmness frightened Clemente more than anger would have.
“Explain.”
Clemente looked at Serena.
“Leave.”
“No,” Natalie said.
Both looked at her.
“She stays.”
Clemente's eyes narrowed.
“This is my office.”
“And apparently I'm your fiancée. We should practice communication.”
Serena laughed.
Clemente did not.
He closed the office door.
“The ring was part of a proposed arrangement,” he said. “A merger through marriage would have prevented Vittorio from gaining enough support to force the sale.”
“So you considered marrying Serena for business.”
“Yes.”
Natalie looked at Serena.
“And you agreed?”
“I considered it.”
“Why didn't it happen?”
Clemente answered.
“Because I refused.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
The photograph.
The restaurant.
Natalie understood.
“That dinner.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“You were my secretary.”
Natalie's expression hardened.
Clemente saw his mistake.
“My private marriage negotiations were not something I expected to discuss at work.”
“Fair.”
He looked surprised.
Natalie continued.
“But once you called me your fiancée, they became extremely relevant.”
“Yes.”
Serena picked up the ring.
“My father didn't accept Clemente's refusal.”
Clemente looked at her.
“What has Victor done?”
Serena removed a flash drive from her handbag.
“He's been paying someone inside Lombardo Holdings.”
Silence.
Natalie stepped forward.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Clemente's expression darkened.
“Convenient.”
Serena placed the drive beside the ring.
“Bank transfers. Shell companies. Dates.”
“Why bring this now?”
Serena's composure cracked for the first time.
“Because last night my father told me that by Sunday, Clemente would either lose control of Lombardo Logistics or wish he had accepted our arrangement.”
Natalie looked at Clemente.
Sunday.
Family lunch.
Adelina.
The voting shares.
Everything converged on the same day.
Clemente inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
Natalie watched the transfers.
Six payments.
All routed through an LLC called Veridian Consulting.
Total: $780,000.
Recipient account hidden behind another corporate layer.
But the dates matched the document breaches.
Natalie opened her own spreadsheet.
“Look.”
Clemente leaned over her shoulder.
Every payment occurred within forty-eight hours of confidential information leaving the company.
Serena said, “My father isn't paying for rumors.”
“No,” Natalie replied. “He's buying documents.”
They spent three hours tracing the money.
At last, Natalie found a registered agent.
Caruso Management Services.
Clemente went silent.
Serena noticed.
“You know it.”
“My mother's maiden name was Caruso.”
Natalie turned.
“Who controls the company?”
“I don't know.”
“Can we find out?”
“Yes.”
Clemente called an attorney he trusted outside the family.
The answer arrived an hour later.
Caruso Management had been created eighteen months earlier.
Its beneficial owner was hidden.
But its mailing address wasn't.
Natalie recognized it.
“That's the building where Lombardo Family Counsel has its private office.”
Clemente's expression became grim.
Family counsel.
One of only three parties who originally knew about the marriage clause.
Suddenly Marco's cloned badge made sense.
Someone with legal access had the knowledge.
Someone with security access had the means.
But they still needed a name.
Serena left shortly before midnight.
Before leaving, she stopped beside Natalie.
“For whatever it's worth, I never loved him.”
Natalie glanced toward Clemente's office.
“That isn't my concern.”
Serena smiled.
“You're a terrible liar.”
“So I've been told.”
“Actually, I suspect you're very good at it.”
She left.
Natalie returned to Clemente's office.
He was staring at the ring.
“Beautiful,” Natalie said.
“It was selected by a jeweler.”
“That makes it much more romantic.”
He closed the box.
“Natalie.”
“Yes?”
“I never intended to marry Serena.”
“You intended to consider marrying her.”
“Yes.”
“For the company.”
“Yes.”
“And last night you used me for the same reason.”
Clemente stood.
“No.”
Natalie laughed softly.
“Don't.”
“The first invitation was a joke. A cruel one. I admit that.”
“And the engagement?”
“I said it because Vittorio was humiliating you.”
“You could have told him to stop.”
“I did.”
“You could have asked me to leave with you.”
“I should have.”
“Instead you made me yours.”
The words silenced him.
Natalie continued.
“You changed my title from secretary to fiancée because you knew your family would suddenly respect me.”
Clemente looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Do you understand how ugly that is?”
“Yes.”
“No, Clemente. I don't think you do.”
She stepped closer.
“I was the same woman before you said it.”
“I know.”
“I had the same intelligence.”
“I know.”
“The same dignity.”
“I know.”
“The same value.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it.”
He stared at her.
“I will.”
Natalie picked up her coat.
“Goodnight.”
“Natalie.”
She stopped.
“Why did you play along?”
That question had been waiting all night.
She could have said the company.
The trust.
The investigation.
Instead she gave him the truth.
“Because despite everything you did wrong last night, when Vittorio looked at me like I was something beneath his table, you looked ashamed.”
Clemente didn't speak.
“I wanted to see what you did with that shame.”
She left.
Sunday arrived too quickly.
Adelina's family lunch was held at the Lombardo estate.
Natalie arrived separately.
Not because Clemente wanted it.
Because she did.
She wore a dark green dress.
No ring.
Adelina noticed immediately.
“So my grandson remains an idiot.”
Natalie smiled.
“I'm not authorized to comment.”
“I am.”
Adelina linked her arm through Natalie's.
“Walk with me.”
They entered the garden.
For ten minutes, Adelina asked nothing about the engagement.
She asked about Natalie's mother.
Her education.
Her work.
Her ambitions.
Then she said, “Clemente did not invite you here because he loved you.”
Natalie stopped.
“No.”
“Good. We begin with truth.”
“You know?”
“I raised him.”
Adelina looked toward the house.
“He thinks protecting something and possessing it are the same act.”
Natalie said nothing.
“His father made the same mistake.”
“What happened?”
“He lost someone he loved before he learned the difference.”
Adelina looked at Natalie.
“Do not let Clemente make you smaller so he can feel bigger.”
“I won't.”
“I know.”
They returned inside.
The family gathered around the dining table.
Vittorio sat opposite Clemente.
Marco beside him.
Luca near the end.
Family counsel, Anthony Rinaldi, sat beside Adelina.
Natalie saw Clemente notice him.
Rinaldi.
The lawyer.
The address.
The payments.
Adelina raised her glass.
“Before lunch, I have an announcement.”
Vittorio straightened.
Clemente became alert.
Adelina continued.
“I have decided when the voting transfer will occur.”
Rinaldi opened his briefcase.
“Today.”
The room erupted.
Clemente stood.
“Nonna—”
Adelina raised one hand.
Silence returned.
Rinaldi removed documents.
Vittorio smiled.
Natalie's phone vibrated beneath the table.
One message.
From Serena.
DON'T LET HER SIGN. RINALDI WORKS FOR MY FATHER.
Natalie looked up.
May you like
Rinaldi had already placed a pen in Adelina's hand.
And Adelina was lowering it toward the signature line.
