Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO KEPT THE LEDGER
“Mr. Reed took Daddy away.”
Luca stared at the child's drawing.
Rose sat rigidly across from him.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
She pressed her hands together.
“Elizabeth used to have nightmares about that day.”
“What day?”
“The day Giovanni tried to visit her.”
Luca looked up.
“You said my father never arrived.”
Rose's eyes filled.
“He didn't come to the house. But Elizabeth saw him from the schoolyard.”
My stomach tightened.
Rose explained that Elizabeth had recognized Giovanni from an old photograph.
He was standing beside a dark car.
A silver-haired man stood next to him.
Before Giovanni could approach, another car pulled up.
Thomas Reed stepped out.
He spoke urgently to Giovanni.
Then they both left.
Elizabeth drew the scene that afternoon.
Rose had never believed it.
“I thought she imagined him because she missed her father.”
Luca looked at the watch.
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
Rose lowered her head.
“Because Antonio showed up an hour later.”
The old woman began trembling.
“He told me not to encourage Elizabeth's stories.”
I sat beside her.
“You weren't wrong to be frightened. But she needed the truth.”
Rose looked at me.
“I know.”
For a while, nobody spoke.
Then Luca placed the watch carefully in its pouch.
“Rose, I need to find Elizabeth. Not to force her home. Just to tell her what happened.”
Rose shook her head.
“She's had enough men making decisions for her.”
He nodded.
“Then I need to ask if she'll see me.”
That answer seemed to surprise her.
She reached into her cardigan pocket and removed a folded address card.
“She's living in Evanston. She works at a community center.”
Luca looked at the card.
“Does she know you're giving me this?”
“No.”
He handed it back.
“Then please ask her first.”
Rose stared at him.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“You really are Giovanni's son.”
Luca looked toward the watch.
“I hope I inherited the parts of him worth keeping.”
We returned to Chicago with the drawing, a photograph of the threatening message, and Rose's account.
But Luca wasn't satisfied.
He wanted the ledger.
Thomas Reed arrived at the mansion the following morning.
He wore the same dark suit from the engagement dinner, but his confidence was gone.
Luca invited him into the study.
I was helping Eleanor settle into an armchair when Thomas noticed the pocket watch on the desk.
He froze.
“Where did you get that?”
“From my sister's family.”
Thomas swallowed.
“I see.”
Luca held up the drawing.
“Explain November fourteenth.”
Thomas looked away.
“I don't remember.”
“Then I'll help you. You took my father away from a school before he could meet Elizabeth.”
Thomas sat down.
For a moment, he looked very old.
“Giovanni wanted to see her.”
“Why did you stop him?”
“I told him there was a problem at the company.”
“What problem?”
Thomas rubbed his forehead.
“Antonio had discovered discrepancies in the trust accounts.”
Luca went still.
“So you brought my father back to Chicago.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Antonio convinced him somebody was watching Elizabeth.”
Eleanor lifted her head.
“Antonio was watching her.”
Thomas didn't answer.
Luca leaned closer.
“I want the original ledger.”
Thomas sighed.
“I don't have it.”
“Where is it?”
“The old accounting firm.”
“Which firm?”
“Bellini Financial Services.”
Luca stared at him.
“Antonio controlled the accounting?”
Thomas nodded.
“During the early years.”
“And you never thought that was a conflict?”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“Giovanni trusted Antonio.”
Luca shook his head.
“No. Giovanni trusted you to protect his daughter's interests.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
There it was.
The truth he'd been trying to avoid.
He hadn't simply failed Luca's father.
He'd helped keep a family separated.
Thomas finally spoke.
“Antonio wasn't the only person who benefited.”
Vanessa entered the study before Luca could answer.
She'd returned to collect several belongings.
Her face was pale.
“Thomas, stop.”
Luca turned.
“You were told to arrange your things through Mrs. Porter.”
“I know. I came because I heard he was here.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Vanessa, I won't continue protecting this.”
She stared at him.
“You promised.”
“I promised to review the accounts. Not to lie about a child.”
Luca stepped between them.
“Vanessa, did you know about the watch?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Did you know my father tried to meet Elizabeth?”
Her eyes filled.
“I knew he had searched for her.”
“Then why did you tell her I didn't want her?”
She looked down.
“Because I thought she'd destroy everything we were building.”
Luca's voice softened unexpectedly.
“What exactly were we building?”
She began crying.
“A life. A family. Something that was ours.”
“You already had that.”
“No,” she whispered. “I had you, but I never had a place in your father's world.”
Luca looked at her for a long moment.
“You could have earned a place beside me. Instead, you tried to erase my sister.”
Vanessa covered her face.
Thomas opened his briefcase.
He removed a single printed page.
“This is from the most recent trust statement.”
Luca took it.
I watched his expression change.
“What am I looking at?”
“Distributions authorized during the last eighteen months.”
Luca traced the figures.
Several payments were listed under Elizabeth Moretti's name.
The amounts were enormous.
But one detail caught his attention.
The final payment had been made three weeks earlier.
The recipient account belonged to a company I'd heard Vanessa mention during dinner preparations.
Bellini Restoration Holdings.
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
“Your father's company?”
She shook her head.
“Not anymore.”
Thomas spoke quietly.
“She became its controlling director last year.”
Luca stared at her.
“Vanessa?”
Her mouth trembled.
“I was trying to return the money.”
Luca looked down at the final transfer.
Then at the date.
“Return it to whom?”
She said nothing.
Thomas reached across the desk and turned the statement over.
On the back was an authorization record.
Not from Vanessa.
Not from Antonio.
The approval carried the electronic signature of someone with full authority over the Moretti trust.
Luca read the name aloud.
“Eleanor Moretti.”
His mother began shaking her head.
“No.”
Thomas looked at her with unmistakable guilt.
“Mrs. Moretti, someone has been using your identity.”
Then he pointed to the most recent authorization.
May you like
It had been made while Eleanor was recovering in the hospital.
And the device used to approve it was registered to Luca Moretti's private study.
