Chapter 6 - SOMEONE WANTED EVELYN TO INHERIT AN EMPIRE
Evelyn’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
Marco looked confused.
“No what?”
“No family trust. No empire. No whatever insane thing you just said.”
Antonio almost smiled.
“You cannot refuse something you do not yet have.”
“Watch me.”
She paced the hotel room.
“If Antonio dies, Luca is blamed, and somehow I become useful. That means whoever planned this expects to control me.”
Antonio nodded.
“Exactly.”
“Then find the person who thinks I’m controllable.”
The board vote in New York was postponed after Antonio appeared by secure video.
His face alone silenced the room.
Several directors looked relieved.
Two looked disappointed.
Antonio noticed both.
One was his uncle Matteo.
The other was family attorney Charles Vale.
Vale had administered the Vitelli trusts for twenty-seven years.
He was also the man who had recently requested an updated genealogy report.
Marco found the invoice.
The research began six weeks earlier.
Before Evelyn’s photograph was taken.
Antonio called Vale.
No answer.
Then Luca finally appeared.
Not by phone.
In person.
He walked into the Shannon hospital flanked by two Irish officers and one American federal liaison.
Evelyn recognized him immediately from photographs.
Younger than Antonio.
More openly handsome.
More visibly angry.
Antonio’s expression turned cold.
“You hired Daniel Rusk.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To investigate Vale.”
Everyone went silent.
Luca explained that he had discovered unexplained legal fees tied to genealogy research, offshore trusts, and emergency succession planning.
He hired Rusk privately because he did not trust anyone inside the family.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would have confronted Matteo.”
Antonio did not deny it.
Luca continued.
“Rusk found Evelyn.”
She folded her arms.
“And decided to follow me?”
“He needed to know why your name appeared in Vale’s notes.”
“Did he poison Antonio?”
“No.”
“How convenient.”
Luca looked genuinely offended.
“I came here because Rusk disappeared.”
Marco asked the obvious question.
“Where was he supposed to meet you?”
“Rome.”
“What was he bringing?”
Luca looked at Antonio.
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
“That Uncle Matteo and Charles Vale were moving family assets before your death.”
Antonio’s face hardened.
Then Luca pulled a flash drive from inside his coat.
Rusk had mailed a copy before the flight.
The files showed trust amendments.
Insurance policies.
Private security payments.
And a draft legal petition naming a temporary fiduciary if both Antonio and Luca became unavailable.
That fiduciary was Evelyn Foster.
Her signature appeared at the bottom.
Perfectly forged.
Evelyn stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Antonio believed her.
Then Luca opened another file.
A photograph taken inside Charles Vale’s Manhattan office.
Vale stood beside someone whose face Evelyn recognized instantly.
Her airline supervisor.
May you like
The man who had arranged her original Shannon hotel.
And on the desk between them sat her complete flight schedule for the next three months.
