Chapter 5 - THE SIGNATURE THAT DIDN'T BELONG TO LUCA|
Martin Vale had always frightened me in a different way from Luca Moretti.
Luca's anger was obvious.
When he was furious, his voice grew quiet and everyone around him knew it.
Martin was different.
He smiled while threatening people.
He spoke politely while making them feel powerless.
And he always behaved as though the truth belonged to whoever could afford the most expensive attorney.
That morning, standing in Luca's library, he looked at the little metal box as though it contained a loaded weapon.
"Give me those documents," Martin said.
Luca didn't move.
"They belong to my father."
"They may contain confidential legal material."
"Then you can explain why my father accused you of forging his signature."
Martin adjusted his cuff links.
"Your father was under enormous financial pressure during his final months."
"He misunderstood several transactions."
"Strange," Luca replied.
"He sounded perfectly clear on that recording."
Vanessa hurried toward Martin.
"Tell him this nonsense needs to stop."
Martin gave her a warning look.
She fell silent immediately.
I noticed.
So did Luca.
"Claire," Luca said, "bring me the property papers."
I handed him the thick envelope recovered from my grandfather's clock.
Inside were carbon copies of bank correspondence, handwritten receipts, and a 1986 agreement bearing Frank Moretti's signature.
Beside it was another agreement with a signature that looked almost identical.
But the handwriting on the second page seemed stiff and unnatural.
Luca held both documents against the morning light.
"My father signed his name with a long stroke beneath the final letter."
"He always said his signature should look like the roof over our restaurant."
He pointed toward the second page.
"This one doesn't have it."
Martin scoffed.
"You're not a handwriting expert."
"No," Luca replied.
"But I knew my father."
He placed the papers inside a folder.
Then he called his independent attorney, Evelyn Brooks, a former federal prosecutor who had never worked for the Bellini family.
I had met her once before when she visited the mansion to review a charitable foundation contract.
She was a woman in her early forties with sharp eyes and a reputation for refusing to be intimidated.
When Evelyn arrived an hour later, she examined the evidence without speaking for several minutes.
Then she looked directly at Martin.
"I think you should retain your own counsel."
Martin's smile disappeared.
"That sounds unnecessarily dramatic."
"Considering the allegations of forgery and fraudulent property transfers, I'd say it's unusually restrained."
Luca asked her to review every business document Martin had prepared for him during the previous month.
What she discovered made even Vanessa stop pretending to be bored.
Three days before the wedding, someone had electronically signed an agreement authorizing a transfer of several Moretti commercial properties into a new holding company.
The company was registered under an unfamiliar name.
Lakefront Heritage Partners.
Evelyn examined the ownership information.
"Angelo Bellini is connected to this company through two intermediate entities."
Luca frowned.
"I never agreed to transfer my properties."
"Your electronic signature appears on the authorization."
"Then someone used it without my permission."
Vanessa stepped forward.
"Perhaps you signed it while you were busy with wedding preparations."
Luca looked at her.
"I remember everything I sign."
"People forget things, darling."
"Not things worth thirty million dollars."
Evelyn opened the document history on her laptop.
"The authorization was submitted from an IP address associated with this house."
She paused.
"And the verification code was sent to the mobile number listed as your secondary contact."
Luca's eyes moved toward Vanessa.
Her face had gone white.
"That's your number," he said.
Vanessa lifted her chin.
"I'm your wife."
"That doesn't give you permission to impersonate me."
"I was helping you with the business arrangements my father recommended."
"By transferring my father's restaurant to him?"
Martin suddenly closed his briefcase.
"This conversation is over."
He headed toward the door.
But Evelyn spoke before he reached it.
"Martin, I've already requested preservation of the relevant records and notified the institution that the authorization is disputed."
"You may want to avoid destroying anything."
Martin stopped.
Then he turned toward Luca.
"Your father was stubborn, and his stubbornness nearly ruined his family."
"Don't make the same mistake."
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Get out of my house."
Martin left without another word.
Vanessa followed him into the hallway, but Luca stopped her.
"You're staying until we finish talking."
She turned back, furious.
"You cannot imprison me in my own home."
"You're free to leave, Vanessa."
"But you're not using my accounts, my employees, or my father's name to steal another dollar."
Vanessa stared at him.
Then she ripped off her diamond necklace and threw it onto the library sofa.
"My father warned me you were sentimental about that stupid restaurant."
Luca looked at the necklace, then at the pocket watch.
"My father was sentimental about feeding people."
"Your father seems to care more about owning the place where they eat."
Vanessa stormed out.
A few minutes later, Evelyn's phone rang.
She listened without interrupting.
Then she turned to Luca with a grim expression.
"The bank has confirmed that the transfer instructions were scheduled to become effective tomorrow morning."
"Can we stop them?" Luca asked.
"I'm working on an emergency injunction, but we need evidence tying the fraudulent documents to the original ownership records."
I looked toward the little copper key lying beside my grandfather's photograph.
For years, I had thought he was simply a sentimental old man who couldn't throw anything away.
Now I understood that he had been guarding the truth for decades.
"There's someone else we need to speak to," I said.
Luca turned toward me.
"Who?"
I pointed toward the photograph of Frank Moretti, Nathan Bennett, and Anthony Russo.
May you like
"The one man still alive who was there when this all began."
And for the first time in twenty years, Luca Moretti agreed to meet the man he believed had murdered his father.
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