Chapter 9 - The Woman in Red
Veronica’s shoe was not evidence of panic.
It was a message.
Alessia knew that the moment she saw it placed neatly in the middle of the archive floor.
“No scuff marks,” she said.
Marco looked at her.
“She didn’t lose it.”
“She left it.”
Valerio’s phone rang.
Veronica again.
This time he put it on speaker.
“You always did like entrances,” he said.
Veronica laughed softly. “And you always mistake control for intelligence.”
“Where are the files?”
“Safe.”
“Where is Heller?”
A pause.
“Alive.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Let me hear him.”
There was movement on the line. Then a weak voice.
“Alessia?”
Dr. Heller.
Alessia gripped the cane.
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry.”
The line shifted away from him.
Veronica said, “He signed things. He has regrets. Everyone has regrets.”
“What do you want?” Alessia asked.
“The original Bellini trust appendix.”
Valerio looked at her.
Alessia understood immediately.
The appendix contained the clause that had stopped the forty-eight-million-dollar transfer.
“You already have copies,” she said.
“Copies can be challenged.”
“And the original can be destroyed.”
Veronica smiled through the silence.
“You’re smarter than they said.”
“Who is they?”
The call ended.
Nathan cursed.
Marco traced the signal to an industrial district near the river, but the phone had already gone dark.
Alessia lowered herself into a chair.
Valerio watched carefully, as if chairs had become enemy objects.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Don’t what?”
“Look at furniture like you’re going to shoot it.”
He almost smiled.
Then she said, “Where is the original appendix?”
“In my father’s vault.”
“Does Cesare know?”
“He helped draft it.”
Sofia appeared in the doorway.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Valerio’s face hardened.
“What now?”
Sofia looked at Alessia.
“Your mother did not die believing the crash was an accident.”
Alessia stopped moving.
“My mother died five years before the crash.”
“Yes.”
Sofia swallowed.
“And before she died, she wrote a letter naming the person she believed would eventually come after your shares.”
“Who?”
May you like
Sofia’s eyes shifted toward Valerio.
“She named a Rinaldi.”
