Chapter 2 - THE UNCLE WHO PAID THE MISTRESS
My uncle Carlo had walked me down the aisle rehearsal.
He'd kissed my forehead.
Told me my father would have been proud.
And warned me never to let the Vitale family swallow my identity.
Now his signature appeared on payments made to Alessandro's mistress.
I stared at the transfer records.
“This has to be fake.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“My accountants verified the accounts exist. We’re still investigating who controlled them.”
I looked toward him.
“Why would Carlo pay Bianca?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
“No.”
His expression changed.
“No?”
“You don't get to turn my family into one of your private wars.”
“Serena—”
“If my uncle did something illegal, we find evidence. We use attorneys. We don’t make people disappear.”
Alessandro held my gaze.
Then nodded.
“Agreed.”
That surprised me.
The Alessandro I left forty-seven days earlier would have ordered three men into a car before I finished speaking.
This one seemed to understand that if he wanted any future with me, he couldn't drag me back into the same world I'd escaped.
I opened the folder.
Bianca had received monthly payments through a consulting company.
Eleven payments.
One for each month of the affair.
My stomach twisted.
“So she was being paid the entire time?”
“Yes.”
“And she still slept with you voluntarily?”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
I appreciated that he didn't try to hide behind manipulation.
It would have been easy to pretend he was purely a victim.
He wasn't.
Neither was Bianca.
But somebody had been encouraging the betrayal.
Why?
I turned the page.
The payments increased after our engagement.
Then doubled three months before the wedding.
“What did Carlo want?”
Alessandro looked toward the lake.
“Access.”
“To what?”
“My shipping contracts. Political contacts. Security schedules.”
My stomach tightened.
“And Bianca gave him those?”
“We believe she passed information to someone.”
I looked down.
For years, Uncle Carlo had complained that the Bellini family lost power after my father died.
He hated how close I'd become to Alessandro.
He always said the Vitales took everything they touched.
I thought it was old family resentment.
Now I wasn't sure.
Then Alessandro handed me a phone.
A message from Bianca appeared on the screen.
I KNOW WHY CARLO WANTED THE WEDDING TO FAIL.
My heart pounded.
Below it was a second message.
HE NEVER WANTED SERENA TO MARRY YOU BECAUSE THEN SHE WOULD DISCOVER WHO REALLY OWNS THE BELLINI PORTS.
I looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Alessandro shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Then a third message arrived.
This one included a photograph.
My father stood beside Alessandro's father twenty years earlier.
Between them was a signed contract.
At the bottom appeared two words:
JOINT INHERITANCE.
My pulse quickened.
I had spent my entire life believing the Bellini ports belonged to Carlo after my father died.
But according to the contract, half the company had been placed in a trust.
May you like
For me.
And someone had hidden that fact for thirteen years.
