Chapter 5 - THE FIRST PERSON WHO HELPED
Gianni became a suspect before sunrise.
Luca hated it.
Emma could tell.
Some betrayals injure pride.
Others attack memory.
Gianni had known Luca since they were eight.
His father had died protecting Luca’s father.
They went to school together.
Buried friends together.
Built businesses together.
Gianni drafted Luca’s marriage agreement.
Held Matteo at the hospital.
Cried at Sofia’s funeral.
Now Sofia’s final recording seemed to warn them about him.
Luca did not confront him immediately.
That surprised Emma.
“You’re learning.”
“From who?”
“Me.”
“God help me.”
Instead, Luca had an outside attorney review Sofia’s trust.
The conclusion changed everything.
Gianni had lied.
Not about Emma being trust protector.
That was real.
He lied about when he discovered it.
Server records showed Gianni accessed the amendment six months before Sofia died.
He knew Emma’s name.
He knew why Sofia chose her.
He knew that if Luca became incapacitated, Emma—not Vittorio—would control emergency trust decisions.
“Then why pretend he just discovered it?” Emma asked.
“To hide what else he knew.”
Luca’s voice was dead calm.
Gianni arrived at the hotel at noon.
No idea the ground beneath him had shifted.
Luca let him sit.
Let him drink coffee.
Then placed the server report on the table.
Gianni stared.
“You accessed Sofia’s amendment six months ago.”
Silence.
“Why did you lie?”
Gianni looked toward Emma.
Then back at Luca.
“Because Sofia asked me to.”
That was not the answer anyone expected.
“What?”
“She knew someone inside the family was monitoring her legal work.”
“She ordered me to pretend I had never seen the amendment if anything happened.”
“Why?”
“So whoever was watching would believe the protector remained Vittorio.”
Emma understood.
A decoy.
Vittorio thought Sofia’s old trust structure still stood.
Emma’s identity was supposed to remain invisible.
“Then why tell us now?”
Gianni looked at Luca.
“Because the trust document surfaced.”
“And because Rosa named Vittorio.”
“I thought the threat was already exposed.”
Luca did not relax.
“What else did Sofia ask you to hide?”
Gianni hesitated.
Too long.
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“All of it.”
Gianni finally confessed.
Sofia had suspected Vittorio was siphoning money from Romano-controlled shipping companies into shell businesses.
Not enormous amounts at first.
Enough to build his own loyalty network.
Then she discovered something worse.
Vittorio was negotiating secretly with The Bellandi Organization, Luca’s oldest rival.
A power-sharing arrangement.
If Luca died, Vittorio would control the Romano family and Matteo’s Bianchi assets.
The Bellandis would receive territory and port access.
Sofia began gathering evidence.
“Did she tell you about the brakes?”
“No.”
“Did she say she feared for her life?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“She made me promise.”
Luca slammed his hand against the table.
Matteo startled in the next room.
Emma immediately stood.
“So much for quiet anger.”
Luca froze.
He looked toward the bedroom.
Then sat.
Lower.
Controlled.
Gianni stared at Emma.
“You do realize nobody does that.”
“She does.”
Marco sounded almost proud.
Gianni produced an encrypted drive.
Sofia’s financial evidence.
Payments.
Shell companies.
Meetings.
Enough to implicate Vittorio in corruption.
Not murder.
Yet.
Then Gianni said,
“There is something else.”
Emma sighed.
“You people need new phrases.”
Sofia’s car had been serviced two days before the crash.
The mechanic was a Romano employee named Paolo Greco.
He disappeared after the funeral.
Luca ordered a search.
By evening, they found Paolo.
Alive.
Hiding in Indiana.
Terrified.
He agreed to talk only if his family received protection.
Luca promised.
Paolo said a man paid him fifty thousand dollars to disable Sofia’s brakes.
He refused at first.
Then the man threatened his daughter.
Paolo did it.
He hated himself.
“Who paid you?” Luca asked.
Paolo began crying.
“Mr. Romano.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“Vittorio?”
Paolo looked confused.
“No.”
Then he said a name that broke Luca harder than Vittorio ever could.
“Your cousin.”
Alessandro Romano.
Luca’s closest living relative after Vittorio.
The man who had stood beside him when Matteo was born.
But Paolo added one detail.
“Alessandro didn’t give the order.”
“Who did?”
“He said he was paying a debt.”
“To who?”
Paolo swallowed.
“A man named Russo.”
Emma’s stomach dropped.
Gianni.
May you like
Again.
And this time, Luca did not know which version of his oldest friend to believe.
