Chapter 6 - THE SISTER AT THE AIRPORT
Rebecca Moretti refused to enter the assisted-living residence until Luca came outside alone.
He found her standing beside Vittorio’s abandoned sedan beneath a gray sky.
She was thirty-three, tall, dark-haired, and wearing the same expression Luca remembered from every childhood argument they had ever lost together.
Only this time she did not hug him.
“You brought Vanessa.”
Luca stopped several feet away.
“She followed me.”
Rebecca laughed once.
“She always does.”
Daniel remained near the entrance.
Claire watched from inside the lobby with Teresa and Elena.
Rebecca glanced through the glass and noticed her.
“Who is that?”
“Claire Morgan.”
“The housekeeper?”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“You know her name?”
Rebecca looked away.
“Vanessa mentioned her.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently everyone who gets too close to you becomes a threat.”
Luca 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.”
Luca’s jaw flexed.
“I found those yesterday. Vanessa had them.”
Rebecca stared at him.
For the first time, certainty left her face.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She said you returned them unopened.”
“She lied.”
Rebecca 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.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
For months she had lived inside a story built carefully enough to feel like memory.
Luca understood that because he had spent the same months inside a different version of it.
He held out his hand.
“Come inside.”
Rebecca looked at it.
Then at him.
“What happens if I do?”
“You meet your mother.”
Her mouth trembled.
“I already did.”
Luca’s hand fell.
“What?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Six months ago.”
Inside the sunroom, Elena stood when Rebecca entered.
The old nurse did not speak.
Rebecca crossed the room and folded into her arms.
Teresa began crying again.
Claire looked away.
Vanessa stood near the far wall, pale and rigid.
When Rebecca finally stepped back, Vanessa spoke.
“You stole Elena’s documents.”
Rebecca turned.
“No. I moved them before my father could.”
Vanessa frowned.
“Our father.”
The words struck the room like glass breaking.
Rebecca stared at her.
Vanessa seemed to regret them immediately.
Elena sat down.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“You knew.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“I suspected.”
Rebecca gave a bitter laugh.
“You knew enough to threaten me with it.”
Luca’s face changed.
“What?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She is upset.”
Rebecca 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 Antonio Moretti’s handwriting.
Rebecca handed it to Luca.
He read the first paragraph and had to stop.
My daughter Rebecca,
If you ever learn that blood did not bring you into our house, remember that love did not ask permission before making you ours.
Luca swallowed.
Rebecca looked at him.
“Dad wrote that when I was twelve.”
“You knew he had?”
“No. Elena had it.”
Luca continued.
Antonio wrote that Lucia had insisted Rebecca inherit equally with Luca from her voting-share trust. He named her his daughter without qualification. He instructed any trustee to treat a challenge to Rebecca’s parentage as an attack on his own declared family.
Vanessa shifted.
Claire noticed.
Rebecca did too.
“That letter is why she wanted the case.”
Vanessa scoffed.
“No.”
Rebecca removed another document.
A transfer agreement.
Luca read the heading.
ASSIGNMENT OF BENEFICIAL INTEREST.
His eyes hardened.
Rebecca spoke quietly.
“I signed it last month.”
“To whom?”
“A holding company.”
“Which company?”
She looked at Vanessa.
“Bellini Capital Partners.”
Teresa struck her cane against the floor.
Vanessa lifted her chin.
“She signed voluntarily.”
Rebecca laughed.
“You told me Luca 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.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
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.”
Claire stared at the transfer document.
“Why did Rebecca have to sign before the wedding?”
Everyone looked at her.
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
Claire felt the old instinct to apologize.
She ignored it.
“If the shares already belonged to Rebecca, why did the timing matter?”
Luca turned the pages.
A closing date appeared near the bottom.
Tomorrow.
At nine in the morning.
Daniel stepped closer.
“The transfer is not complete.”
Rebecca nodded.
“My signature was only the first step. The trustee has to countersign.”
“Who is the trustee?” Luca asked.
Rebecca looked at Teresa.
Teresa went pale.
“Not me.”
Elena whispered, “Samuel Caruso’s successor.”
Daniel searched the corporate registry.
“Caruso Fiduciary Services.”
Luca frowned.
“I have never heard of it.”
Teresa looked at Elena.
Elena looked back.
Then both women said the same name.
“Margaret Carter.”
Claire blinked.
“Mrs. Carter?”
Luca stared.
“My housekeeper?”
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 Bellinis would overlook.”
Claire thought of Mrs. Carter pouring coffee, managing linens, arranging doctors, quietly knowing every door in the mansion.
Vanessa laughed.
“This is absurd. A housekeeper controls family shares?”
Claire 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.”
Luca called Mrs. Carter.
She answered immediately.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Are you trustee of my mother’s voting shares?”
Silence.
Then a sigh.
“I wondered when somebody would finally ask the correct question.”
Luca 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?”
“Vanessa’s attorney served transfer papers yesterday.”
Rebecca looked sick.
Luca’s voice tightened.
“Can you stop them?”
“I can refuse to sign.”
Everyone exhaled except Vanessa.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“But there is a complication.”
Luca looked at the transfer.
“What complication?”
“Rebecca already signed a sworn statement declaring she received independent advice and was not under pressure.”
Rebecca whispered, “I didn’t.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Vanessa spoke loudly enough for the phone to hear.
“She had counsel.”
Mrs. Carter’s voice changed.
“Miss Bellini.”
Vanessa looked at the phone.
“Margaret.”
“I wondered if you were listening.”
Luca almost smiled.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“The lawyer Rebecca supposedly consulted is employed by a Bellini subsidiary.”
Daniel checked.
“She’s right.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
Luca turned to Rebecca.
“Why did you sign?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“Because Vanessa said if I didn’t, you would announce at the wedding that I wasn’t a Moretti.”
Luca went still.
“She said you had already removed me from the family foundation. She showed me documents.”
“Forged?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire watched Luca absorb the cruelty.
Not financial.
Personal.
Vanessa had not merely tried to take Rebecca’s shares.
She had convinced a woman that the brother who raised her was ashamed she existed.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“You used my name to make my sister believe I rejected her.”
Vanessa’s voice hardened.
“I protected the merger.”
“What merger?”
“Our marriage.”
“That is not a merger.”
“To your family, everything is.”
Teresa laughed bitterly.
“No, dear. To yours.”
Vanessa turned.
“I am tired of being insulted by women who spent their lives serving this family.”
Claire felt Rebecca tense.
Then Mrs. Carter’s voice came through the phone.
“And I am tired of wealthy girls confusing service with surrender.”
Vanessa flushed.
Luca put the call on speaker.
“Margaret, what do you need to stop the transfer?”
“The original trust letter and proof Rebecca signed under coercion.”
“We have Antonio’s letter.”
“That helps.”
“And Elena’s testimony.”
“That helps more.”
“What else?”
A pause.
“The transfer appointment is tomorrow at nine. Bellini Capital requested an emergency closing.”
“Where?”
“Moretti Holdings.”
Luca stared.
“My building?”
“Yes.”
Daniel swore softly.
Mrs. Carter continued.
“They scheduled it before the board meeting.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
She did not deny it.
The plan became visible.
Acquire Rebecca’s beneficial interest.
Enter the board meeting with Bellini control over enough shares to force a settlement.
Marry Luca before he understood why.
Rebecca opened Antonio’s letter again.
“There’s a contingency clause.”
Vanessa 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.”
Claire stared at the phone.
“No.”
Mrs. Carter continued.
“Yesterday Claire reported Vanessa’s assault, preserved the photograph, and identified the forged access.”
Vanessa went white.
Luca looked at Claire.
Mrs. Carter’s voice became firm.
“Until tomorrow’s dispute is resolved, Claire Morgan holds the proxy attached to Rebecca’s shares.”
May you like
Nobody moved.
Then Vanessa whispered, “She can’t vote.”
