Chapter 6 - THE SISTER AT THE AIRPORT
Gianna DeLuca refused to enter the assisted-living residence until Dominic came outside alone.
He found her standing beside Charles’s abandoned sedan beneath a gray sky.
She was thirty-three, tall, dark-haired, and wearing the same expression Dominic remembered from every childhood argument they had ever lost together.
Only this time she did not hug him.
“You brought Victoria.”
Dominic stopped several feet away.
“She followed me.”
Gianna laughed once.
“She always does.”
Daniel remained near the entrance.
Hannah watched from inside the lobby with Aunt Teresa and Elena.
Gianna glanced through the glass and noticed her.
“Who is that?”
“Hannah Cole.”
“The housekeeper?”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“You know her name?”
Gianna looked away.
“Victoria mentioned her.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone who gets too close to you becomes a threat.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Becca.”
Her face tightened at the nickname.
“Don’t.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did.”
“I never got the calls.”
“I emailed.”
“I never got the emails.”
“I wrote letters.”
Dominic’s jaw flexed.
“I found those yesterday. Victoria had them.”
Gianna stared at him.
For the first time, certainty left her face.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She said you returned them unopened.”
“She lied.”
Gianna looked toward the building.
“She showed me messages from your account.”
“Fake.”
“She showed me one saying I was not welcome at the wedding.”
“I never wrote it.”
Gianna’s eyes filled.
For months she had lived inside a story built enough to feel like memory.
Dominic understood that because he had spent the same months inside a different version of it.
He held out his hand.
“Come inside.”
Gianna looked at it.
Then at him.
“What happens if I do?”
“You meet your mother.”
Her mouth trembled.
“I did.”
Dominic’s hand fell.
“What?”
Gianna closed her eyes.
“Six months ago.”
Inside the sunroom, Elena stood when Gianna entered.
The old nurse did not speak.
Gianna crossed the room and folded into her arms.
Aunt Teresa began crying again.
Hannah looked away.
Victoria stood near the far wall, pale and rigid.
When Gianna stepped back, Victoria spoke.
“You stole Elena’s documents.”
Gianna turned.
“No. I moved them before my father could.”
Victoria frowned.
“Our father.”
The words struck the room like glass breaking.
Gianna stared at her.
Victoria seemed to regret them immediately.
Elena sat down.
Dominic looked at Victoria.
“You knew.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“I suspected.”
Gianna gave a bitter laugh.
“You knew enough to threaten me with it.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“What?”
Victoria shook her head.
“She is upset.”
Gianna opened the leather document case.
“Then let’s make everyone upset.”
She removed her original birth certificate.
The mother’s line read ELENA RUSSO.
The father’s line was blank.
Beneath it lay a letter in Salvatore DeLuca’s handwriting.
Gianna handed it to Dominic.
He read the first paragraph and had to stop.
My daughter Gianna,
If you ever learn that blood did not bring you into our house, remember that love did not ask permission before making you ours.
Dominic swallowed.
Gianna looked at him.
“Dad wrote that when I was twelve.”
“You knew he had?”
“No. Elena had it.”
Dominic continued.
Salvatore wrote that Lucia had insisted Gianna inherit equally with Dominic from her voting-share trust. He named her his daughter without qualification. He instructed any trustee to treat a challenge to Gianna’s parentage as an attack on his own declared family.
Victoria shifted.
Hannah noticed.
Gianna did too.
“That letter is why she wanted the case.”
Victoria scoffed.
“No.”
Gianna removed another document.
A transfer agreement.
Dominic read the heading.
ASSIGNMENT OF BENEFICIAL INTEREST.
His eyes hardened.
Gianna spoke quietly.
“I signed it last month.”
“To whom?”
“A holding company.”
“Which company?”
She looked at Victoria.
“Hale Capital Partners.”
Aunt Teresa struck her cane against the floor.
Victoria lifted her chin.
“She signed voluntarily.”
Gianna laughed.
“You told me Dominic would expose my birth if I refused.”
“I told you the press could discover it.”
“You showed me forged messages saying my brother wanted me cut out of the trust.”
Dominic looked at Victoria.
She held his gaze.
“You had no relationship with her for six months. What was I supposed to think?”
“That you shouldn’t steal her shares.”
“I did not steal anything.”
Hannah stared at the transfer document.
“Why did Gianna have to sign before the wedding?”
Everyone looked at her.
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
Hannah felt the old instinct to apologize.
She ignored it.
“If the shares belonged to Gianna, why did the timing matter?”
Dominic turned the pages.
A closing date appeared near the bottom.
Tomorrow.
At nine in the morning.
Daniel stepped closer.
“The transfer is not complete.”
Gianna nodded.
“My signature was only the first step. The trustee has to countersign.”
“Who is the trustee?” Dominic asked.
Gianna looked at Aunt Teresa.
Aunt Teresa went pale.
“Not me.”
Elena whispered, “Samuel Caruso’s successor.”
Daniel searched the corporate registry.
“Caruso Fiduciary Services.”
Dominic frowned.
“I have never heard of it.”
Aunt Teresa looked at Elena.
Elena looked back.
Then both women said the same name.
“Margaret Carter.”
Hannah blinked.
“Mrs. Carter?”
Dominic stared.
“My housekeeper?”
Aunt Teresa shook her head.
“Your mother’s friend.”
The family connections seemed to rearrange again.
Elena explained.
“Margaret’s father worked under Samuel Caruso. When Samuel died, he transferred the trust administration to Margaret because she was the only person Lucia believed the Hales would overlook.”
Hannah thought of Mrs. Carter pouring coffee, managing linens, arranging doctors, quietly knowing every door in the mansion.
Victoria laughed.
“This is absurd. A housekeeper controls family shares?”
Hannah looked at her.
There it was again.
That tone.
The belief that service meant insignificance.
Elena’s eyes sharpened.
“Margaret controls nothing. She protects what Lucia assigned. There is a difference.”
Dominic called Mrs. Carter.
She answered immediately.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
“Are you trustee of my mother’s voting shares?”
Silence.
Then a sigh.
“I wondered when somebody would ask the correct question.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your father ordered me not to unless the trust was challenged.”
“It has been challenged.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Victoria’s attorney served transfer papers yesterday.”
Gianna looked sick.
Dominic’s voice tightened.
“Can you stop them?”
“I can refuse to sign.”
Everyone exhaled except Victoria.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“But there is a complication.”
Dominic looked at the transfer.
“What complication?”
“Gianna signed a sworn statement declaring she received independent advice and was not under pressure.”
Gianna whispered, “I didn’t.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Victoria spoke loudly enough for the phone to hear.
“She had counsel.”
Mrs. Carter’s voice changed.
“Miss Hale.”
Victoria looked at the phone.
“Margaret.”
“I wondered if you were listening.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“The lawyer Gianna supposedly consulted is employed by a Hale subsidiary.”
Daniel checked.
“She’s right.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
Dominic turned to Gianna.
“Why did you sign?”
Gianna’s eyes filled.
“Because Victoria said if I didn’t, you would announce at the wedding that I wasn’t a DeLuca.”
Dominic went still.
“She said you had removed me from the family foundation. She showed me documents.”
“Forged?”
“I don’t know.”
Hannah watched Dominic absorb the cruelty.
Not financial.
Personal.
Victoria had not merely tried to take Gianna’s shares.
She had convinced a woman that the brother who raised her was ashamed she existed.
Dominic looked at Victoria.
“You used my name to make my sister believe I rejected her.”
Victoria’s voice hardened.
“I protected the merger.”
“What merger?”
“Our marriage.”
“That is not a merger.”
“To your family, everything is.”
Aunt Teresa laughed bitterly.
“No, dear. To yours.”
Victoria turned.
“I am tired of being insulted by women who spent their lives serving this family.”
Hannah felt Gianna tense.
Then Mrs. Carter’s voice came through the phone.
“And I am tired of wealthy girls confusing service with surrender.”
Victoria flushed.
Dominic put the call on speaker.
“Margaret, what do you need to stop the transfer?”
“The original trust letter and proof Gianna signed under coercion.”
“We have Salvatore’s letter.”
“That helps.”
“And Elena’s testimony.”
“That helps more.”
“What else?”
A pause.
“The transfer appointment is tomorrow at nine. Hale Capital requested an emergency closing.”
“Where?”
“DeLuca Holdings.”
Dominic stared.
“My building?”
“Yes.”
Daniel swore softly.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“They scheduled it before the board meeting.”
Dominic looked at Victoria.
She did not deny it.
The plan became visible.
Acquire Gianna’s beneficial interest.
Enter the board meeting with Hale control over enough shares to force a settlement.
Marry Dominic before he understood why.
Gianna opened Salvatore’s letter again.
“There’s a contingency clause.”
Victoria stepped closer. “What clause?”
Mrs. Carter answered through the speaker.
“If either heir is coerced into surrendering shares, temporary voting authority passes to the senior domestic witness who documents that coercion.”
Hannah stared at the phone.
“No.”
Mrs. Carter continued.
“Yesterday Hannah reported Victoria’s assault, preserved the photograph, and identified the forged access.”
Victoria went white.
Dominic looked at Hannah.
Mrs. Carter’s voice became firm.
“Until tomorrow’s dispute is resolved, Hannah Cole holds the proxy attached to Gianna’s shares.”
May you like
Nobody moved.
Then Victoria whispered, “She can’t vote.”
