Chapter 6 - THE MONEY THAT BELONGED TO THE DEAD
“My father sent Natalie to meet me in a car he knew Vincent had handled?”
Luca's voice shook with a fury I had never heard before.
Henry Doyle stood behind his repair-shop counter, looking suddenly much older.
“I can't tell you what Salvatore knew,” he answered. “I can only tell you what I saw.”
I wanted to hate him.
But there was something in the way his hands trembled that told me he had been carrying this memory for ten years.
“Why didn't you come forward after Salvatore died?” I asked.
Henry looked at his wedding ring.
“My wife had cancer. The Moretti family paid for treatments I couldn't afford.”
He swallowed.
“I told myself speaking up wouldn't bring Natalie back.”
“No,” I said. “But it might have stopped Vincent from hurting someone else.”
He lowered his head.
I wasn't trying to be cruel.
I was thinking of Sophie locked inside that customs office without her inhaler.
Henry nodded.
“You're right.”
Then he opened another drawer.
“I still have the original inspection photographs. The negatives too. I'll give them to the police.”
Luca looked at him.
“Tell Detective Keene everything. Including the payments.”
Henry didn't argue.
As we left the shop, Luca stopped beside his vehicle.
“I need to tell you something about Natalie.”
I folded my arms.
“Then tell me.”
“Eleven years ago, I wanted to marry her.”
The words caught me off guard.
“My father said she was using me. I knew he was wrong, but I was young enough to believe I could change his mind.”
He looked toward the waterfront.
“I told Natalie we should wait until I could make arrangements to live separately from the family business.”
“Did she agree?”
“She said she'd wait as long as I was honest with her.”
His expression tightened.
“Then my father told me she'd taken money and left town.”
I thought of the letters tied with blue ribbon.
“She was trying to reach you.”
“I know.”
“No, Luca. You don't understand. She wrote to you for weeks. She thought you stopped loving her.”
He closed his eyes.
I had seen powerful men angry before.
This was different.
He looked like someone discovering that an entire decade of his life had been stolen.
“I should have gone to her apartment,” he said.
“Yes,” I answered.
He looked at me.
I didn't soften the truth.
“You should have.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Luca nodded.
“I know.”
That evening, Detective Keene brought us to a conference room at the police administration building.
Celeste was waiting with another investigator.
She looked exhausted.
The expensive cream suit she had worn at the estate was wrinkled.
Her wrists were bruised.
For the first time since I'd met her, she wasn't wearing diamonds.
When she saw me, she stood.
“Emily.”
I didn't respond.
Keene sat between us.
“Ms. Whitmore has agreed to provide information concerning the eighteen-million-dollar transfer.”
Celeste looked at Luca.
“Vincent told me the money belonged to him.”
Luca's expression remained cold.
“It didn't.”
“I know that now.”
She pushed a photocopied ledger page across the table.
“I took this before Vincent removed the original book from the safe. He didn't know.”
Luca studied it.
At the top was an account name.
MORETTI WATERFRONT RESTITUTION RESERVE.
Below it were forty-one names.
I recognized some of them.
Families whose relatives had been injured in a warehouse fire years earlier.
One was a widow who occasionally brought homemade cookies to the estate kitchen.
Another was a retired dockworker I'd seen walking with a cane outside a neighborhood pharmacy.
“These people were supposed to receive compensation?” I asked.
Luca nodded slowly.
“My father told me the claims had been settled.”
“They weren't,” Celeste said.
The room fell quiet.
The money wasn't simply an inheritance.
It wasn't just a family fortune.
It was compensation owed to people who had lost their health, their livelihoods, and sometimes their loved ones.
Vincent had stolen from them.
Luca turned another page.
“Why is Sophie's name here?”
Celeste hesitated.
“Your father added a separate trust after Natalie died.”
I leaned closer.
SOPHIE PARKER.
Beneficiary.
The handwritten note beside her name was brief.
To be released upon acknowledgment by her father.
I felt a strange mixture of anger and grief.
Salvatore had known.
He had visited Natalie.
He had seen Sophie as a baby.
Then he had allowed me to raise that child while his own son remained unaware.
“Why?” Luca asked.
Celeste shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Why steal the money?” he demanded.
She looked away.
“Vincent said the reserve would be frozen once Sophie's parentage became public. He told me we had to move the funds first.”
“You didn't question that?”
“I wanted enough money to get away from him.”
Luca stared.
“From Vincent?”
Celeste's face tightened.
“My mother's house is mortgaged against his loans. He holds the notes. When I tried pulling out of our arrangement, he threatened to force her into bankruptcy.”
I studied her.
“You could have gone to the police.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told Luca.”
“Yes.”
“Instead, you put my child in your car.”
Celeste's eyes filled.
“I thought if I got the papers, Vincent would release the money and leave us alone. I was wrong.”
I shook my head.
“You were willing to frighten Sophie to protect yourself.”
Celeste didn't defend herself.
“Yes.”
That was the first honest thing she'd said to me.
Keene collected the photocopy.
“We can follow these accounts. But the original ledger would strengthen the case, especially if it contains records explaining the earlier payments.”
“Payments connected to Natalie's crash?” I asked.
“Possibly.”
Luca turned to Celeste.
“Did my father know Vincent was dangerous?”
She hesitated.
“I once heard Vincent say Salvatore had spent years making up for something he couldn't undo.”
“What something?”
“He never told me.”
The meeting ended with Celeste returning to police custody.
She had cooperated, but that didn't erase the kidnapping.
Outside, Luca stopped me.
“Emily, there's something else in the safe.”
“What?”
“My father's pocket watch.”
I stared at him.
“Why does that matter?”
“He always carried it. After he died, Vincent wanted it, but I kept it locked away.”
He opened a small velvet box.
Inside lay a silver watch.
Its hands had stopped at 9:17.
On the back were engraved initials.
S.M.
Luca turned it over.
There was a narrow scratch beside the hinge.
He carefully opened the back cover.
A small folded piece of paper rested inside.
Old.
Thin.
Yellowed around the edges.
My heart began pounding.
Luca unfolded it.
Natalie's handwriting.
I recognized it instantly.
Salvatore,
I know you think keeping Luca away will protect your family. But I won't sign away my daughter's future.
I have proof the waterfront accounts are being changed. I also know why Vincent keeps asking when Luca will drive to Mercer Pier.
If something happens to me, please tell Luca the truth.
He has a daughter.
Her name is Sophie.
Luca lowered the paper.
I couldn't breathe.
Natalie had tried to protect them both.
But there was one more sentence.
It had been squeezed into the bottom margin.
I saw Vincent under Luca's car yesterday. He was holding something sharp.
Luca looked up.
His eyes were full of horror.
And in that moment, we understood something neither of us had considered.
Natalie had known Luca was in danger.
She had been trying to warn him.
Luca looked at the stopped watch.
“Natalie didn't go to Mercer Pier to ask my father for money.”
I whispered, “She went there to save you.”
He looked down at the note again.
May you like
Then he read the final words written along the folded edge.
“If Luca gets into that car, he won't survive the drive home.”
