Chapter 3 - THE MEETING PLANNED BEFORE HE FELL
“Eight o'clock tomorrow morning?”
Marco looked at the tablet again.
“The meeting was arranged before tonight's party even started?”
Dominic lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Marco stood motionless.
For four months, he had trusted his cousin to manage the Bellini organization while he recovered.
Dominic had visited him in the hospital.
He had sat beside his bed, assuring him that the family's operations were safe.
And now there was a meeting scheduled to remove Marco permanently.
“You knew about this?” Marco asked.
Dominic hesitated.
“I knew there was a contingency meeting.”
“Contingency for what?”
“In case your recovery failed.”
Marco laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My recovery didn't fail, Dominic. Someone tried to make sure it would.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Boss, we should move this discussion somewhere private.”
“No.”
Marco pointed toward the seventy guests.
“Whoever planned this wanted witnesses. They can have witnesses.”
A nervous murmur passed through the ballroom.
Vivian approached him cautiously.
“Darling, you're exhausted. Please let Gabriel handle this.”
Marco looked at her.
“You nearly sent me down an open staircase.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
“You told me there were two more steps.”
“I was frightened!”
“Of what?”
Vivian opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Sofia stood beside the damaged banister, holding her injured wrist.
She could still feel Marco's weight pulling her toward the staircase.
She remembered how Vivian had released his arm.
How she had smiled.
How she had whispered those words.
Two more steps.
That wasn't the behavior of someone who had accidentally forgotten a railing.
But Sofia needed more than a memory.
She needed proof.
“Mrs. Ward,” she called.
Celia Ward, the mansion's sixty-two-year-old head housekeeper, emerged from the gathering.
She had supervised the household for nearly eighteen years.
“Yes, Sofia?”
“Who approved the changes to tonight's staircase decorations?”
Celia looked uncomfortable.
“The event coordinator received instructions from estate security.”
Gabriel frowned.
“That's standard procedure.”
“Was removing the rehabilitation railing standard procedure?” Sofia asked.
“No,” Celia answered immediately.
Vivian turned sharply.
“Celia!”
The older woman straightened.
“I'm too old to pretend I didn't see what I saw, Miss Russo.”
Marco faced her.
“Tell me.”
“Yesterday afternoon, Miss Russo personally inspected the staircase. She said the temporary railing made the entrance look like a hospital.”
Vivian folded her arms.
“I admitted that already.”
Celia continued.
“She asked whether it could be removed before the party. I told her the doctor had specifically prohibited it.”
“And?”
“She said security would take responsibility.”
Gabriel shifted his weight.
“I never authorized removing a medical safety barrier.”
Celia looked at him.
“I didn't say you did, Mr. Shaw. I said that's what she told me.”
For the first time, Vivian looked genuinely frightened.
Marco noticed.
“Vivian, who told you it was safe?”
She shook her head.
“I don't remember.”
“Try.”
“I said I don't remember!”
The sudden outburst silenced everyone.
Sofia looked toward the exposed screw holes.
Then she remembered something.
“The roses.”
Marco frowned.
“What about them?”
“The arrangements were delivered yesterday, but someone replaced the flowers beside the staircase this afternoon. I saw two men carrying a ladder.”
Gabriel immediately turned toward a guard.
“Find the delivery records.”
“Don't bother,” Celia said.
“They weren't florists.”
Everyone looked at her.
“They were wearing security jackets.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“We used additional contractors tonight.”
Sofia studied the enormous arrangement of white roses near the landing.
A decorative gold rosette had been attached above it.
She hadn't noticed the rosette before.
Now she realized it was positioned directly toward the staircase.
“That's where the camera is,” she whispered.
A guard carefully examined the decoration.
Seconds later, he removed a small black lens concealed behind the gold ornament.
The same red symbol blinked on its side.
Marco stared at it.
Someone had chosen the exact position from which his fall would have been recorded.
Vivian sank into a chair.
Dominic whispered something beneath his breath.
But Sofia had another question.
“Why would they need seventy witnesses if Mr. Bellini died?”
Marco understood immediately.
“They wouldn't.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Marco turned toward him.
“They wanted me injured. Not necessarily dead.”
Dominic finally spoke.
“Under the family trust's succession provisions, a permanent incapacity finding could allow the governing board to replace you.”
“Who becomes chairman?”
Dominic's voice cracked.
“Me.”
Marco stepped closer.
“And what were you planning to do with my companies?”
“I wasn't planning to steal them.”
“Then answer the question.”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“There was an offer to purchase Bellini Port Logistics.”
Marco went still.
The port company was the legitimate foundation of his family's wealth.
Thousands of workers depended on it.
His father had built it from three aging warehouses and a borrowed delivery truck.
“Who made the offer?”
“Bridgewater Holdings.”
“I've never heard of them.”
“Neither had I, until recently.”
Marco studied his cousin.
“How much?”
“Thirty-two million dollars.”
“That's less than half the company's value.”
Dominic said nothing.
Marco's face changed.
“Who was going to receive the difference?”
Before Dominic could answer, Sofia noticed another document on the tablet.
It was the board's agenda for the following morning.
Most of the items concerned Marco's health and company leadership.
But the final item caught her attention.
She enlarged it.
“Mr. Bellini, there's a condition attached to the sale.”
Marco read the sentence slowly.
The purchase would proceed only if he was declared permanently unfit to exercise control.
He looked toward the staircase.
Then toward Vivian.
Then back at Dominic.
“So this entire party was arranged to produce that declaration.”
Nobody answered.
But Sofia kept reading.
At the bottom of the agenda was a list of people required to confirm the incident.
Three independent witnesses.
A medical representative.
A security officer.
And one household employee.
The employee had already been selected.
Sofia stared at her own name.
SOFIA RAMIREZ — STAIRCASE WITNESS.
Her stomach dropped.
“Mr. Bellini…”
Marco looked at the screen.
Sofia whispered:
“They chose me before the party.”
May you like
She glanced toward Vivian.
“And whoever planned this knew I would be standing exactly where you almost fell.”
