Chapter 11 - HARPER’S CONFESSION
Harper surrendered before anyone touched her.
She sat in our living room with Matteo across from her and me beside him.
Not behind him.
Never again.
She looked smaller without the performance.
No perfume.
No silk dress.
No seductive smile.
Just a frightened thirty-year-old woman who had made terrible choices.
Matteo’s voice was cold.
“Why are you here?”
“Because Luca is going to kill Adrian.”
Adrian stood near the fireplace.
Harper looked at him.
“And then you.”
Matteo said nothing.
She turned toward me.
“I’m sorry.”
I almost laughed.
“For sleeping with my husband or helping someone destroy my family?”
“Both.”
“At least you’re efficient.”
Matteo flinched.
Harper deserved some of the anger.
He deserved more.
She continued.
“Luca recruited me eighteen months ago.”
“Why?”
“My brother owed him money.”
Of course.
Debt.
Fear.
Leverage.
The machinery was always the same.
“He told me Matteo cheated anyway. He said all I had to do was become someone Matteo would choose.”
I looked at Matteo.
He looked at the floor.
Good.
Harper continued.
“Luca needed Matteo distracted enough to stop checking financial movements himself.”
“What movements?”
“The Bellini network.”
Matteo looked up.
“You had access to my phone.”
Harper nodded.
“When you slept.”
I almost smiled bitterly.
Matteo had mocked me for caring about the perfume on his collar.
Meanwhile, the woman leaving that perfume had copied security codes from his phone.
Consequences can be brutally precise.
Harper pulled a small device from her pocket.
“I recorded Luca last night.”
She placed it on the table.
Luca’s voice filled the room.
Once the ledger is mine, Matteo goes to prison.
Another voice asked:
And Adrian?
Luca answered:
He dies before anyone can test his blood.
The recording continued.
Then Harper’s own voice asked:
What about Norah?
Luca laughed.
She’ll run. Women like her always run after men like Matteo break them.
I felt Matteo go still beside me.
Luca continued:
And if she doesn’t, the hospital will solve the problem.
My blood froze.
“What hospital?”
Harper looked at me.
“Your delivery.”
Matteo stood so fast the table moved.
Harper raised both hands.
“Luca has someone inside St. Matthew’s.”
Dr. Evans worked there.
My scheduled C-section was seven weeks away.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo’s voice dropped.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Harper looked at me.
“But I know the code phrase.”
“What phrase?”
“When you arrive for delivery, someone will say, ‘Mrs. Rossi, we’ve prepared the private suite.’”
I stared.
That sounded normal.
“That’s the signal?”
“Yes.”
“To do what?”
Harper started crying.
“I don’t know exactly.”
Matteo stepped toward her.
I stopped him.
“Let her answer.”
Harper looked at me.
“Luca said if the baby carries the mutation, he wants blood samples and full records.”
“And if the baby doesn’t?”
She hesitated.
My skin went cold.
“Harper.”
“If the baby doesn’t carry it…”
May you like
She swallowed.
“He said there can’t be another healthy Rossi heir.”
