Chapter 7 - THE MAID IN THE BOARDROOM
The emergency board meeting began at nine. Nobody had slept.
Vanessa arrived in white.
Not bridal white.
Business white.
A fitted suit.
Pearl earrings.
Vittorio walked beside her.
That made everything worse.
The moment Marco saw Teresa, his face changed.
“What is she doing here?”
“Good morning to you too.”
Vittorio looked at Luca.
“You brought household staff to a board meeting.”
Luca took the chair at the head of the table.
“I brought a trustee.”
Silence.
Marco stopped smiling.
Teresa sat.
Vanessa remained standing.
“This is humiliating.”
Luca looked at her.
“For who?”
“For everyone.”
Inside were two biscotti.
Vanessa stared.
Teresa smiled.
“I missed breakfast.”
Luca almost smiled.
Then Arthur Vale entered.
The smile disappeared.
Arthur placed the original trust documents on the table.
Marco stood.
“This meeting is a circus.”
Ruth looked at him.
He sat back down.
Then he spoke.
“Last night I learned that twenty-two percent of Moretti Holdings has been voted for nineteen years under a forged trustee resignation.”
No one moved.
Marco leaned back.
“That is an outrageous accusation.”
Arthur slid the resignation across the table.
“Then explain the signature.”
“That is not mine.”
Marco laughed.
“You expect us to accept the cook’s word?”
Luca’s voice became cold.
“You will call her Mrs. Ricci.”
Marco looked at him.
“Since when?”
“Since now.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“Luca, this is exactly what my father warned me about.”
“What?”
“You letting sentiment control business.”
“Business seems to have survived my tomato soup.”
Vittorio opened a legal folder.
“The trust is irrelevant until its authenticity is established.”
Arthur answered.
“It was established decades ago.”
“By you.”
“By Lucia Moretti, Antonio Moretti, Teresa Ricci, Ruth Santoro, and the bank that issued the certificates.”
Vittorio pushed another document forward.
“Then explain why the trust was never disclosed in annual reports.”
Arthur looked at Marco.
“Ask the man who redirected the notices.”
Every eye turned.
Marco’s face reddened.
“This is absurd.”
Luca placed the forged resignation beside the proxy records.
“You filed this.”
“Which counsel?”
Marco hesitated.
Luca looked at him.
Luca turned to the board secretary.
“Until the trust dispute is resolved, how are the shares treated?”
The secretary looked at Arthur.
Arthur answered.
“Under the emergency clause, the surviving trustee holds voting authority.”
Teresa raised her hand.
Everyone stared.
The board secretary swallowed.
“Immediately, Mrs. Ricci.”
Teresa nodded.
“Good.”
Vittorio leaned toward Vanessa.
They whispered.
Luca noticed.
“Say it out loud.”
Vanessa looked up.
“No.”
Vanessa blinked.
“What?”
“You wanted a vote.”
Teresa smiled.
“You were about to.”
“Motion to adjourn?”
Vittorio nodded.
One director seconded.
The vote began.
Marco voted yes.
Three directors followed.
Then Teresa voted no.
The motion failed.
He looked tired.
“Next issue.”
Daniel entered with a sealed evidence folder.
Vanessa stiffened.
Luca saw.
“My father’s toolbox was recovered from a foundation transfer authorized by Vanessa.”
“That is not board business,” she said.
“It became board business when we found proxy records, bank transfers, and a mechanic’s report inside it.”
Marco stood.
“We are not discussing Antonio’s death.”
Luca looked at him.
“Sit down.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Sit.”
Marco did not.
Luca placed the mechanic’s report on the table.
“Two days before my father died, a technician found a cut brake line.”
The directors went silent.
Marco’s face changed.
Vanessa stared at Luca.
He continued.
“My father wrote that Marco had borrowed the car the previous Tuesday.”
Marco laughed.
It sounded wrong.
“You’re suggesting I killed my brother?”
“I’m reading his words.”
“He was paranoid after Antonio’s illness.”
Teresa slammed her palm against the table.
The sound shocked everyone.
“Do not use her death to insult him.”
Marco turned.
“You stay out of this.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
Not with fear.
“I stayed out of too much.”
Ruth nodded.
“So did I.”
Luca looked at me.
My stomach tightened.
He had asked me in the car whether I was willing to speak about the forged witness signature.
I had said yes.
Vanessa smiled.
“Surely we are not taking testimony from the maid.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
I stood before he could answer.
“My name is Sophie Turner.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“I know your name.”
“I’m speaking to the board.”
My hands shook.
I let them.
“The acknowledgment document Mr. Bellini presented last night contains a witness signature in my name.”
I continued.
“I did not sign it.”
Vittorio said, “You cannot prove that.”
“Yes, I can.”
I placed my Mercy Hospital discharge parking receipt on the table.
“Your document says I witnessed Mr. Moretti’s signature at three fifteen Thursday afternoon. At three fourteen, my parking ticket was scanned entering Mercy Hospital.”
Daniel added a security printout.
“At three twenty-two, hospital camera footage shows Ms. Sullivan at the burn clinic with Mrs. Ricci.”
“Cooking is dangerous.”
Nobody laughed.
Vanessa looked at me.
“If you think this little performance guarantees your job—”
Luca stood.
The entire boardroom changed.
“Finish that sentence.”
Vanessa stopped.
“She has a job because she does her job.”
“Luca—”
“She does not need to earn safety by lying for you.”
Her face tightened.
“You’re choosing employees over your future wife.”
“No.”
He looked around the table.
“I chose the truth before I chose anyone.”
Then he took the engagement ring box from his pocket.
Vanessa went pale.
He placed it in front of her.
“The wedding is canceled.”
The words landed harder than any shout.
Vittorio stood.
“You cannot make a decision of this magnitude while under emotional pressure.”
Luca looked at him.
“I just did.”
Vanessa stared at the box.
“You’re ending our engagement because of a cook, a gardener, and a maid?”
Teresa’s eyes flashed.
Luca answered quietly.
“I’m ending it because you believe those words make them less credible.”
Vanessa’s mouth trembled.
For one second, I thought she might cry.
Instead, she took off the diamond ring.
She set it on top of the box.
“Fine.”
Then she looked at the directors.
“Before everyone applauds, perhaps Luca should tell you what happens to Moretti Holdings if Bellini Capital calls its credit line.”
The boardroom froze.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What credit line?”
Vittorio sat down slowly.
Vanessa smiled without warmth.
“The one your uncle renewed six months ago.”
Luca looked at Marco.
Marco did not meet his eyes.
The CFO opened a file on his tablet.
“There is a Bellini Capital facility.”
Luca stared.
“How much?”
The number made even Teresa inhale.
“Who authorized it?”
The CFO hesitated.
“Board approval.”
“I never voted on it.”
Marco finally spoke.
“You were traveling.”
“That does not remove my vote.”
“You delegated.”
“To who?”
Marco said nothing.
Luca looked at the proxy records.
The stolen trust shares.
Twenty-two percent.
Arthur understood first.
“They used Lucia’s block.”
The CFO went pale.
Luca turned to Vittorio.
“You loaned my company money using votes you knew were forged.”
Vittorio’s expression stayed calm.
“I loaned a company money after its board approved the transaction.”
“And if the wedding is canceled?”
Vanessa answered.
“The facility has a change-of-control review clause.”
Luca laughed bitterly.
“There is no change of control.”
“There will be if Teresa’s trust vote replaces Marco’s proxy.”
The board secretary checked the agreement.
His face changed.
“She’s right.”
Teresa whispered, “So they built a trap around the stolen shares.”
Arthur nodded.
Vittorio folded his hands.
“Call it what you want.”
Luca looked at him.
“What do you want?”
“Stability.”
“No.”
“What do you want from me?”
Vittorio smiled.
“The same thing your father refused to give me.”
“Control.”
“Cooperation.”
Luca’s phone vibrated.
Daniel looked at the message first.
Then leaned toward him.
“Boss.”
Luca read it.
His face went blank.
“What?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Chicago police reopened the file on Antonio’s crash this morning.”
Marco stood.
“Why?”
Daniel looked directly at him.
“Because an anonymous caller sent them the mechanic’s report.”
Marco’s eyes widened.
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
She looked genuinely confused.
Then everyone’s phones began buzzing.
News alerts.
A local reporter had received the same report.
The story was already online.
Vittorio swore.
Luca looked around the boardroom.
“Who leaked it?”
Nobody answered.
Then Teresa’s phone rang.
She stared at the number.
Unknown.
Luca nodded for her to answer.
She put it on speaker.
A man’s voice came through.
Old.
Rough.
Terrified.
“Teresa Ricci?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Frank Delaney.”
Arthur went white.
Luca noticed.
“Who is he?”
Arthur whispered, “Antonio’s mechanic.”
Frank heard him.
“I worked on Mr. Moretti’s car before the crash.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Mr. Delaney, this is Luca Moretti.”
Silence.
Then the old man breathed out.
“I wondered when you’d find the report.”
Luca’s hand tightened on the table.
“Who cut my father’s brake line?”
Frank answered immediately.
“I don’t know.”
Marco exhaled.
Then Frank continued.
“But I know who paid me to say the cut was ordinary wear after your father died.”
The boardroom went still.
Luca asked, “Who?”
Frank’s voice shook.
“Your uncle Marco.”
Marco backed away from the table.
May you like
Frank was not finished.
“And the cash came in a Bellini Capital envelope.”
