Chapter 5: What Valentina Did at Midnight
Dr.
Carla Esposito arrived at the Moretti estate at half past five in the morning with a junior associate and a hard drive.
By six, she had read the fraudulent amendment, reviewed the transfer clause, and was sitting across from Lorenzo in the study with a legal pad covered in notes.
"The amendment is unenforceable," she said.
"Renato didn't have authority to execute a structural change of this magnitude without your signature.
He knew that."
"Then why draft it?"
"Because if you had signed it — even under pressure, even at the last moment — it would have been valid." She tapped her pen on the pad.
"She was going to get you to sign it at the wedding.
Buried in the ceremony paperwork.
Couples sign a great deal on that day without reading carefully."
Lorenzo stared at the window.
The estate grounds were grey with early light.
"What do I have?" he asked.
"The signed agreement between Nico and Valentina.
The phone records.
The fraudulent amendment.
Renato's confession — assuming you recorded it."
Lorenzo placed his phone on the desk.
Carla almost smiled.
"Then you have enough," she said.
"The question is what you want to do with it."
Before Lorenzo could answer, Marco knocked twice and opened the door.
"She's moving," he said.
"Valentina?"
"Packed a bag.
She's heading for the north garage."
Lorenzo stood.
"I told you no one leaves."
"She found the one driver who wasn't briefed."
Lorenzo was already moving.
He reached the north garage in under two minutes.
Valentina was standing beside a black car, a travel bag at her feet, wearing a coat over her nightclothes.
The driver — a young man named Teo who had worked at the estate for only three months — stood at the open door looking uncertain.
"Teo," Lorenzo said.
"Go inside."
Teo went.
Valentina turned slowly.
She looked at Lorenzo the way people look at something they have already decided to leave behind.
"You were going to let me walk out," she said.
"No."
"Then why did you wait all night?"
"I needed to understand how far it went."
She picked up her bag.
"And now you do."
"Put the bag down, Valentina."
She didn't.
"You're going to call the police," she said.
"Fine.
Call them.
I'll say Sophia was lying.
I'll say Nico acted alone.
I'll say you're a paranoid man who imagined a conspiracy because he couldn't believe a woman would leave him."
"You're not leaving," Lorenzo said.
"You're being held as a material witness to an attempted—"
"You have nothing on me directly."
"I have the agreement you signed with my brother."
Her chin lifted slightly.
"Nico signed that under duress."
"Renato will say otherwise."
"Renato will say whatever protects Renato." She took one step toward the car.
"You can't prove I knew about the mountain road."
"Not yet."
Something shifted in her eyes.
"What does that mean?"
"It means the man driving the vehicle that forced my car off the road is currently in a police holding facility in Florence," Lorenzo said.
"He's been there for two weeks.
My investigators found him four days ago.
I was waiting to see who he would contact before I moved."
Valentina's bag slipped from her fingers.
"He contacted you," Lorenzo said.
"Twice.
From the facility's approved call list.
Under a false name." He reached into his jacket and produced a printed call log.
"The number he called is registered to a shell company.
The shell company's registered agent is a name I think you'll recognize."
Her face had gone completely still.
"The Ricci family holding company," she said.
"Your father's company," Lorenzo confirmed.
"Which you have managed since his retirement."
The garage was very quiet.
A bird called somewhere outside.
Valentina looked at the car.
Then at the exit.
Then at Lorenzo.
"I want a lawyer," she said.
"That's the first honest thing you've said to me in two years."
He stepped aside.
Marco and two other members of the security team were standing at the garage entrance.
Valentina walked toward them slowly.
At the threshold she stopped.
She turned back once.
"I did love you," she said.
"In the beginning.
Before I understood what you were worth."
Lorenzo looked at her for a long moment.
"I know," he said.
"That's the saddest part."
She walked out.
The sound of her heels on the stone faded.
Marco reappeared in the doorway.
"Police are on their way from the city.
Twenty minutes."
"Good." Lorenzo looked at the empty garage.
"And Nico?"
"Still in the dining room.
He hasn't moved."
May you like
Lorenzo nodded.
"I'll go to him."
