Chapter 7: Two Women, One Plan
Celeste Romano arrived at the Moretti townhouse at half past two.
Sera, watching from a parked car across the street, sent Chloe the address before Celeste's driver had finished opening the door.
By three o'clock, Chloe and Luciano were in his lawyer's office on the fourteenth floor of a building that overlooked the harbor, and the lawyer — a compact, unhurried man named Aldric Voss who communicated primarily through reading glasses and silences — had the original will, the altered will, and Sera's sealed document spread across his desk.
"The alterations are not subtle," Aldric said.
He tapped the altered document with one finger.
"Whoever did this was confident they would never be examined side by side."
"Can we prove it?" Luciano asked.
"The paper stock on pages four through six of the altered version is different from pages one through three.
Different manufacturer, different weight.
The substitution was physical — those pages were reprinted and reinserted." He set his glasses on the desk.
"The original signatures on pages four through six are gone.
The signatures on the replacement pages are forgeries.
Good ones.
But forgeries."
"How long to establish that legally?" Chloe asked.
"In a normal proceeding?
Months.
Possibly longer if the other side contests the forensic findings." Aldric looked at her over the desk.
"But you don't need months.
You need to prevent the marriage certificate from being filed tomorrow morning.
If that document enters the official record before you establish the will's authenticity, the legal landscape becomes significantly more complicated."
"So we stop the filing," Luciano said.
"You need a court order.
Emergency injunction.
I can file tonight if you give me everything you have." He looked at Sera's document.
"Including this woman's testimony."
"She'll give it," Chloe said.
Luciano's phone buzzed.
He looked at it and stood up from his chair.
"Excuse me." He stepped toward the window.
Chloe watched his reflection in the glass — the way his shoulders set, the way his free hand went flat against his thigh.
He came back to the desk.
"That was Don Bellini's office," he said.
"Vittoria and Celeste met with his legal team an hour ago.
They presented the marriage certificate and a proposal: the Romano-Costa alliance proceeds, but under Vittoria's authority as the surviving Costa spouse.
Celeste becomes the public face.
Vittoria controls the assets." He paused.
"Bellini has not responded yet.
But his chief of staff says he is considering it."
Aldric picked up his pen.
"Then we file tonight."
"There's something else." Luciano looked at Chloe.
"Celeste's contribution to the proposal.
She offered Bellini something Vittoria couldn't — information.
About me.
About the Costa operations." He said it without visible emotion.
"She has been collecting it for two years.
In anticipation of a negotiation she expected to be conducting as my wife."
Chloe absorbed this.
"She was preparing to use it against you."
"If I did not cooperate with the alliance.
Yes."
"So she is not just humiliated.
She is dangerous."
"She always was." He sat back down.
"I simply underestimated how long she had been planning."
Aldric was already writing.
"I need both of you to give me a full account.
Everything from yesterday morning forward.
Every document, every message, every conversation." He looked at Chloe.
"Including the text messages from the unknown number."
"That was Sera."
"I'll need her in this office by six o'clock." He looked at Luciano.
"And I need to know about the staff member Vittoria has been using.
If that person has access to this office's communications—"
"They don't," Luciano said.
"This building is not the estate."
"Good." Aldric uncapped his pen.
"Then let's begin."
They worked for three hours.
Chloe talked through every detail she could remember — the folder, the photograph, Mr.
Hart's careful silence, the message about her mother.
Sera arrived at ten past six and gave her account without hesitation, her voice steady, her hands folded on her knees.
At eight-fifteen, Aldric set down his pen.
"The injunction application is ready.
I'll file electronically at nine and follow up with the duty judge personally." He looked at both of them.
"The hearing will likely be tomorrow morning.
Early.
You should both be prepared to appear."
"We will be," Luciano said.
They were in the elevator when Chloe's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Not Sera's.
She answered.
A woman's voice.
Older.
Controlled.
"Miss Mercer." Vittoria.
"I know where you have spent the last three hours.
I know what has been filed.
And I want you to understand something before tomorrow morning."
"I'm listening."
"I have a letter," Vittoria said.
"Written by your mother.
To Enzo.
Written the year you were born.
In it, she declines his offer of acknowledgment.
She asks him not to pursue a legal relationship with the child.
She signs it voluntarily." A pause.
"I have the original.
With her signature.
I will present it tomorrow as evidence that Anna Mercer herself did not want this claim pursued."
The elevator reached the ground floor.
The doors opened.
Chloe stood in the lobby and said nothing for a moment.
"Was the offer genuine?" she asked.
"The one my mother declined?"
"That is irrelevant."
"It isn't to me."
Silence.
"Goodnight, Miss Mercer," Vittoria said.
"Sleep well.
Tomorrow will be a long day."
The call ended.
Luciano looked at her.
"What did she say?"
Chloe told him.
He was quiet for a moment.
Then: "Do you believe her?
About the letter?"
Chloe thought about her mother.
About the cracked dashboard.
About the two jobs.
About the way Anna Mercer had never once mentioned Port Meridian, or the Costas, or the man whose house her daughter would one day scrub floors in.
"Yes," she said.
"I believe the letter exists."
"Then we need to know what it actually says."
"We need the original."
"Yes." He held the lobby door open.
May you like
Outside, his car was waiting.
"Which means we need to find it before nine tomorrow morning."
