Chapter 2 - The Man Who Already Knew My Name
I turned with the photograph still in my hand.
Rafael didn't look angry.
That made it worse.
“You knew me.”
“Yes.”
“Before Serena?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Eight months.”
I held up the photograph.
“And my father?”
His jaw tightened.
“He knew too.”
I remembered the fundraiser.
The storm.
The stranger.
I had spent perhaps fifteen minutes beside Rafael without knowing his name.
We had talked about terrible catered food.
About architecture.
About how rich donors applauded affordable housing until someone proposed building it near their own homes.
I had made him laugh.
Then a car arrived and I left.
“You were there because of me?”
“No.”
“Then why paint it?”
“Because I remembered it.”
That answer was somehow more intimate.
I looked away.
“Did you choose Serena because of me?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
Rafael walked to his desk and opened a drawer.
He removed a file.
CALLow LOGISTICS.
My stomach tightened.
“Your father approached my company eleven months ago,” he said. “He needed financing.”
“Three point eight million.”
“That number came later.”
“How much originally?”
“Two million.”
“What happened to the rest?”
“That is one of the questions I've been asking.”
He slid documents toward me.
Wire transfers.
Shell companies.
Invoices.
My accounting brain took over before my emotions could interfere.
I read.
And read again.
“These vendors don't exist.”
“Correct.”
“These signatures—”
“Yours.”
I looked up.
“I didn't sign these.”
“I know.”
Someone had forged my signature on approvals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Until three days ago, you weren't part of the agreement.”
“Apparently my signature was.”
His expression hardened.
“Yes.”
The marriage had suddenly become secondary.
Someone had used my identity to move money.
“Was Serena involved?”
“I don't know.”
“My father?”
“I can prove he benefited. I can't yet prove he created the invoices.”
I paced.
“You could have destroyed him.”
“Yes.”
“But instead you agreed to marry Serena.”
Rafael was silent.
“Why?”
“Because Victor offered something besides repayment.”
“What?”
“Parcel C.”
The contract.
“What is it?”
“A warehouse property near the Hudson.”
“That doesn't sound worth a marriage.”
“It isn't.”
“Then?”
“There is something inside it.”
Before he could continue, the study door opened.
A security man entered.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Rafael's expression sharpened.
“What?”
“We found Mrs. Moretti's phone.”
“My phone is upstairs.”
“Not that Mrs. Moretti.”
Serena.
My chest tightened.
“Where?”
The guard placed a sealed evidence bag on the desk.
Inside was Serena's phone.
The screen was cracked.
Dark stains marked one corner.
“Where did you find this?”
“Parcel C.”
I looked at Rafael.
The warehouse.
The place my father had tried to transfer.
The place Serena's phone had somehow reached after she disappeared.
Rafael picked up his own phone.
“Lock down the property.”
Then Serena's phone lit up inside the bag.
One new message appeared.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
I leaned closer.
May you like
There were only six words.
JUNE WAS ALWAYS THE REAL DEAL...
