Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE BLACK COAT
Serena stared at Claire's childhood photograph.
"Why would she pretend to be Elena Ward?"
Dominic looked troubled.
"Someone must have helped her create the identity."
"Victor?"
"Possibly."
Serena shook her head.
"No. Victor recommended her for the job. If she's his daughter, why hide her identity from Marco?"
Dominic thought for a moment.
"Unless Marco wouldn't have trusted her if he knew."
Serena remembered Elena's nervous smile.
The way she'd closed the red folder.
The fear in her eyes when Serena mentioned the missing pages.
Perhaps Elena hadn't been trying to steal Serena's position.
Perhaps she'd been placed there.
And perhaps she was frightened.
Serena returned to the archives and asked Evelyn for access to the public property records.
The map identified the clinic annex as a separate trust parcel.
It had never been included in the proposed sale.
Yet Bellwether Capital's revised development plan showed the clinic parcel folded into the waterfront acquisition.
Someone had expanded the transfer beyond what Serena had negotiated.
That meant even if Marco closed the original billion-dollar deal, the revised structure could be challenged.
But the fraud had already reached the council.
And tomorrow morning, a public vote would determine whether Santini Development received final development approval.
Serena needed to act before then.
At six that evening, she arrived at the Grayhaven Grand Hotel.
It was a restored nineteenth-century building overlooking the river.
Marco had reserved the entire upper floor for his delegation.
Serena approached the reception desk.
"Is Mr. Santini here?"
The clerk smiled nervously.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Please tell him Serena Vale would like a word."
She didn't wait in the lobby.
She walked straight toward the private dining room.
Marco stood near the fireplace with Victor, Nathaniel Price, and two council representatives.
He looked impossibly handsome in a charcoal suit.
For one painful second, Serena remembered the man she'd fallen in love with.
The man who had driven through a snowstorm to bring her soup when she was sick.
The man who had listened to her speak about her father for hours.
The man who had once told her he admired her because she couldn't be bought.
Then he saw her.
"Serena."
His relief was immediate.
And entirely unexpected.
He crossed the room.
"Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you."
"I needed to think."
He lowered his voice.
"I handled this morning badly."
She looked at him.
"Badly?"
"I should have told you Elena was coming."
"That isn't why I'm here."
Victor approached.
"Serena, wonderful. We were just discussing tomorrow's presentation."
His smile was smooth.
She had never liked it.
"Then perhaps you can explain Bellwether Capital."
Victor's expression barely changed.
"A financing partner."
"Who owns it?"
"International investors."
"Names."
"Confidential."
Serena looked at Nathaniel.
He avoided her eyes.
"Mr. Price," she said, "did you witness a transfer authorization using my name at six thirty-one this morning?"
Nathaniel went pale.
Marco frowned.
"What transfer authorization?"
Serena turned to him.
"The one you signed."
Marco looked genuinely confused.
"I signed the financing package."
"You signed the waterfront control transfer."
His face hardened.
"That's the same package."
"No, Marco. It isn't."
Victor intervened.
"Let's not discuss technicalities in front of guests."
Serena took the forged document from her handbag.
"Someone used my signature to approve an irrevocable transfer of my family's controlling interests."
Marco stared at the page.
"That's your signature."
"No."
"Serena—"
"My father taught me how to sign legal documents when I was sixteen. Whoever forged this didn't know that."
Marco studied it.
Then he looked at Victor.
"Did you know about this?"
Victor spread his hands.
"I authorized the legal team to complete the paperwork. If there was an administrative error, we'll correct it."
Serena almost laughed.
An administrative error.
Three hundred million dollars.
A secretly controlled holding company.
An elderly trustee whose visitor rights had been changed.
And a woman traveling under another identity.
"Where is Elena?" Serena asked.
Victor's smile disappeared.
"Why?"
"I want to speak with her."
Marco stepped closer.
"She's resting."
"Where?"
"At another hotel."
"Which hotel?"
Victor answered.
"She isn't available."
Serena looked directly at him.
"I wasn't asking you."
For a moment, the room fell silent.
Marco glanced between them.
He had begun to recognize that something was wrong.
But Serena still couldn't tell how much he knew.
She turned toward Nathaniel.
"Mr. Price, my father trusted you once."
Nathaniel flinched.
"You knew him?"
"I know he kept a recording."
The older man's face drained of color.
Victor's eyes sharpened.
"What recording?"
Serena did not answer.
Nathaniel took a step toward her.
"Miss Vale, please. Don't make accusations you can't support."
"I'm not accusing anyone."
She looked at Victor.
"Yet."
Marco gripped her elbow gently.
"Come outside with me."
This time, she allowed it.
They stepped onto a terrace overlooking the river.
Autumn wind moved through the trees below.
Marco closed the glass doors.
"Tell me what's happening."
Serena studied him.
"Do you know Elena Ward's real name?"
He frowned.
"What?"
"Claire Bell."
Marco went perfectly still.
The change was unmistakable.
He knew that name.
"Where did you hear it?"
"From the past you never told me about."
Marco stepped away.
"Claire is dead."
Serena felt a chill.
"Who told you that?"
"My uncle."
"When?"
"Years ago. After my father was arrested."
Serena slowly shook her head.
"She's alive, Marco."
"No."
"She was sitting beside you on the plane this morning."
He stared at her.
"That's impossible."
"You recognized her?"
"No. Claire had dark hair. She was just a kid when I last saw her."
"People change."
Marco pressed his hand against the terrace railing.
"Claire was my friend."
Serena said nothing.
"She used to stay at our house," he continued. "Her father was dangerous. My mother tried to protect her."
"Victor is her biological father."
Marco's head snapped toward her.
"What?"
"Richard Bell raised her. Victor fathered her."
Marco looked physically shaken.
For the first time, Serena saw the frightened young man beneath the powerful Mafia boss.
"My uncle told me Claire died in an accident."
"And you believed him."
"I was seventeen."
The answer was so human that Serena's anger faltered for a moment.
Then Marco whispered:
"My father went to prison because he wouldn't tell the police where she was."
Serena looked sharply at him.
"What?"
"Antonio refused to identify the person who helped Claire escape from Bell."
Serena remembered the cassette.
Antonio saying Claire had to stay out of it.
The story was beginning to make sense.
His father hadn't been protecting Richard Bell.
He had been protecting Claire from him.
Marco looked toward the dining room.
"If Elena is Claire, why come back now?"
Serena took out the child's mitten.
She placed it in his hand.
Marco stared.
"I remember this."
His voice cracked.
"My mother knitted it."
Serena watched his face change.
"And she stitched those little white flowers herself."
He closed his fingers around the mitten.
For several seconds, the years seemed to fall away.
Then the terrace door opened.
Victor stood there.
His eyes moved from Marco's face to the mitten.
And for the first time, the older man looked afraid.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded.
Marco raised his head.
"Uncle Victor."
His voice was dangerously quiet.
"Where is Claire?"
Victor didn't answer.
Marco took one step toward him.
"Where is she?"
Victor swallowed.
Then he said something neither Serena nor Marco expected.
"She's at the clinic."
Serena felt her blood turn cold.
"The Grayhaven clinic?"
May you like
Victor nodded.
"And if you want her to survive tonight, you'll stop asking questions about your father's case."
