Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO PRETENDED TO BE MY FRIEND
Arthur Bellini had spent three years pretending to be my friend.
Now he was threatening my father.
I stared at the message until my hands stopped shaking.
Something inside me became very still.
For years, I'd been afraid of making powerful men angry.
I softened my words.
Avoided arguments.
Smiled when I wanted to cry.
But I wasn't going to do that anymore.
I showed the message to Evelyn.
Then to the investigator handling my father's case.
They preserved the evidence and contacted law enforcement.
I didn't reply.
I didn't agree to meet Arthur.
And I certainly didn't hand over the locket.
Instead, I sat beside my father and asked him to tell me everything.
Arthur's father, Victor, had helped Salvatore Moretti hide money through false charitable accounts.
When Daniel discovered the scheme, Victor arranged for him to be declared mentally unfit.
Lucia tried to help.
She disappeared.
And Arthur eventually inherited his father's role inside the Moretti organization.
I felt sick.
“So Arthur knew about you?”
Daniel nodded.
“For years.”
“And he knew I was your daughter?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The man who had encouraged Nico to discuss sending me away had been connected to the people threatening us all along.
Then I remembered something.
The conversation outside Nico's study.
Arthur suggesting Nico should take me somewhere quiet.
Nico laughing.
My heart tightened.
What if Arthur had been testing him?
What if the conversation was more than casual cruelty?
I called Evelyn's investigator.
He reviewed the timeline.
Then returned with disturbing information.
Arthur had been trying to persuade Nico to relocate me to a private property outside New York.
A property connected to Victor Bellini's old companies.
The same network used to confine Daniel.
I stared at the report.
Arthur hadn't wanted me to have a vacation.
He wanted me isolated.
Then I remembered Nico's exact words.
“She has my black card. She can go anywhere she wants.”
At the time, I'd heard contempt.
And it had hurt.
But perhaps Arthur had heard something else.
Resistance.
Nico refusing to send me away.
Still, none of that explained what came next.
The words that made me leave.
I'd change the locks by morning and forget her name by Friday.
I swallowed.
“Was Nico trying to protect me?”
The investigator looked at me carefully.
“We can't know his intention without further evidence.”
I nodded.
That was fair.
I wasn't going to rewrite the past simply because new information made it more complicated.
Then Nico arrived at the facility.
He didn't enter my father's room.
He waited outside.
When I stepped into the hallway, he stood.
His eyes were red.
His hair uncombed.
He looked nothing like the man who controlled half the city's nightmares.
“Hannah.”
I crossed my arms.
“What do you want?”
He swallowed.
“To tell you the truth.”
I stared.
“For once?”
He lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Then he said something I hadn't expected.
“Arthur recorded our conversation that night.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Nico nodded.
“He sent the recording to Victor.”
I stared.
“And?”
Nico's voice broke.
“I knew Arthur was listening. I thought if I convinced him you meant nothing to me, he'd stop seeing you as leverage.”
I couldn't breathe.
“So you said you didn't care?”
“Yes.”
My hands trembled.
“And you let me hear it?”
Nico closed his eyes.
“I didn't know you were outside.”
I stared at him.
May you like
Then he whispered:
“Hannah, the cruelest thing I ever said was meant to fool Arthur—but it was still a lie I chose to tell about you.”
