Chapter 7 - WHAT CARLO BELLANDI HID INSIDE MY MARRIAGE
The chip inside my wedding ring contained one file.
No money.
No passwords.
No list of Bellandi enemies.
A video.
Carlo Bellandi appeared on screen looking thinner than I remembered.
Cancer had already hollowed his face.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Claire, if you are seeing this, then Adrian finally found the chip.”
Adrian sat beside me but kept space between us.
Carlo continued.
“The Continuity archive was created because I made the mistake of believing blood guaranteed loyalty.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I was wrong.”
The video shifted to scanned financial records.
For thirteen years, money had been disappearing from Bellandi companies.
Small amounts at first.
Then millions.
Marco Bellandi’s name appeared repeatedly.
Nicholas Dane’s appeared beside security payments.
Carlo had discovered an organization growing inside Adrian’s organization.
A second chain of command.
Loyal to Marco.
Not Adrian.
“Why didn’t your father tell you?” I asked.
Adrian looked sick.
“Because I defended Marco every time he raised concerns.”
Carlo answered from the screen as if he heard him.
“Adrian will not believe me without proof. He loves his cousin like a brother.”
I looked at Adrian.
That one landed.
Then Carlo said my name again.
“Claire has something Adrian does not.”
I leaned closer.
“Distance.”
The file showed photographs from sixteen years earlier.
My parents.
Thomas and Anne Mercer.
Standing beside Carlo.
My heart stopped.
“My parents knew him?”
Adrian turned.
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t know.”
Carlo continued.
“Thomas Mercer discovered Marco’s first laundering route while auditing a construction company.”
My father had been an accountant.
I knew that.
I had never known who his client was.
“Thomas brought the evidence to me. I promised protection.”
The next image was a newspaper clipping.
COUPLE KILLED IN LAKESHORE COLLISION.
My parents.
I couldn’t breathe.
“No.”
Adrian reached toward me.
Stopped before touching.
Carlo’s voice became quieter.
“Their deaths were not an accident.”
My vision blurred.
“Marco arranged the collision.”
Adrian stood.
“Jesus Christ.”
Carlo looked older suddenly.
“I failed them.”
I barely heard the next sentence.
“I failed Claire.”
For sixteen years, I had believed rain and bad roads killed my parents.
Not Marco.
Not Bellandi business.
Not a man who had hugged me at their funeral.
A man who toasted my marriage.
Carlo explained that he had hidden the proof inside Continuity because Marco had people in police, security, and finance.
The archive could destroy him.
But only Adrian and I could open it together.
That was why Marco needed me alive.
That was why the camera went dark.
That was why he let me think my escape had been entirely my choice.
Then Carlo’s final warning appeared.
“If Marco moves against Claire, understand one thing.”
The video paused.
Adrian looked at me.
Carlo said:
“He will try to convince her that Adrian knew about her parents.”
My skin went cold.
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Because somewhere across Chicago, Marco Bellandi opened the original Continuity envelope he had stolen from my mother’s cottage.
Inside was a document bearing Adrian’s signature.
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