Chapter 2 - Page Forty-Three
Luca did not let Marco leave Aurelio.
He did not need to make a spectacle of it. He only lifted two fingers from the table, and Frank Donnelly—who had been waiting near the entrance—appeared beside Marco’s chair.
Marco looked from Frank to Luca.
“You’re taking her side?”
Luca’s expression turned cold.
“I am taking the side of the numbers.”
“That secretary has been trying to make herself important for years.”
Evelyn stood.
“No,” she said. “I have been trying to prevent this company from losing money for years.”
Marco’s face darkened.
“You think you are smarter than everyone here because you can read a spreadsheet?”
“I think I am smarter than you because I read the spreadsheet you hoped nobody would read.”
Frank stepped closer.
Marco looked toward Luca for support.
None came.
“Take him to the office,” Luca said. “No one touches him. No one warns anyone. I want every account, phone, server, and access card preserved.”
Marco’s confidence collapsed in stages.
First came anger.
Then disbelief.
Then the quick, darting look of a man calculating how much evidence existed and how much time he had left.
“You cannot do this over a clerical error,” he said.
Luca rose from his chair.
The dining room became silent.
“I can do anything I want in response to a man stealing from me.”
Marco’s mouth opened.
But Evelyn spoke before he could.
“Not only from you.”
Everyone looked at her.
She returned to the table and removed one final document from her bag.
“The duplicate invoices were only the beginning. The false shipments were used to hide payments made to a private security contractor.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What contractor?”
“Vantage Risk.”
Frank’s expression changed.
He knew the name.
Vantage Risk was not a legitimate security company. It was a shell business used by men who specialized in coercion, intimidation, and making inconvenient people disappear from negotiations.
Marco’s face went pale.
Evelyn placed the document before Luca.
“Three payments were made in the past four months. The first coincided with a dockworkers’ union dispute. The second came two days before a city licensing inspector withdrew an investigation into Bellini Maritime. The third was made last week.”
Luca looked at the date.
His jaw tightened.
“Last week?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What happened last week?”
Evelyn held his gaze.
“Someone began sending anonymous messages to me.”
Marco stood abruptly.
“She is lying.”
Frank forced him back into his chair.
Evelyn did not look away.
“The messages mentioned tonight’s dinner. They called me ‘the bookworm.’ They said I should bring cash.”
Luca’s expression became dangerous.
Marco’s voice rose.
“I didn’t send anything.”
“Maybe not personally,” Evelyn said. “But the phone number was paid through an account connected to Vantage Risk.”
Marco laughed, but the sound was thin.
“This is insane.”
Luca slowly turned toward him.
“Why would anyone threaten Evelyn?”
Marco said nothing.
Luca’s gaze sharpened.
“Why would anyone know she found page forty-three?”
The answer arrived in the silence.
Marco had been in the meeting.
Marco had watched Evelyn slide the ledger toward Luca.
Marco had laughed.
And Marco had understood, before anyone else, that the discrepancy could expose him.
Luca looked back at Evelyn.
“You should have told me about the messages.”
“I did not believe you wanted to hear from me unless I was arranging your calendar.”
The sentence struck him harder than it should have.
Luca had never considered Evelyn fragile.
He had considered her efficient.
Dependable.
Quiet.
He had assumed those things were enough.
But he had mistaken restraint for acceptance.
And now she stood before him in black velvet, holding evidence that could expose an internal betrayal he had failed to see.
“I want protection assigned to her,” Luca said.
Evelyn’s expression cooled.
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“No?”
“I do not want guards following me because Marco’s behavior became inconvenient for you.”
“It is not inconvenient.”
“It is dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Then handle it.”
Luca took one step toward her.
“Evelyn—”
“Mr. Moretti.”
The formal address stopped him.
She lifted the resignation envelope.
“My work ends tonight. I am not accepting personal protection. I am not accepting a raise. I am not accepting an apology designed to make you feel better about the fact that you let men insult me in rooms where I was the only person doing my job.”
The room held its breath.
Luca had faced armed rivals without blinking.
But Evelyn Carter’s calm refusal made him feel something far more unfamiliar.
Regret.
“Then what do you want?” he asked.
She looked toward the rain-streaked windows.
“Nothing from you.”
That answer hurt more than anger would have.
Frank led Marco away.
The remaining men left one by one, suddenly eager to be anywhere else.
Within minutes, Aurelio’s private dining room held only Luca and Evelyn.
The untouched dinner cooled between them.
Luca looked at the chair she had chosen at the far end of the table.
“Why did you come tonight?” he asked.
Evelyn put her glasses back on.
“Because I do not run from rooms where men underestimate me.”
“And the dress?”
For the first time, something softer moved through her expression.
“The dress is mine. I wore it because I wanted to.”
Luca looked at her for a long moment.
Then he said, “You were never plain.”
Evelyn’s eyes met his.
“No,” she replied. “You just never bothered to look.”
She picked up her bag.
May you like
And before Luca could stop her, she walked away from the table he had expected her to sit at quietly.
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