Chapter 7 - The Confession That Made No SenseClaire read the confession four times.
Each reading made less sense.
Thomas admitted everything.
The threatening photograph.
The fire.
The payments.
He claimed he wanted Claire dead because her death would trigger a clause in the marital agreement transferring a financial settlement to him.
There was only one problem.
No such clause existed.
Claire knew because she had read every page before signing.
“This is fake,” she said.
Inspector Luca Ferraro watched her carefully.
“The handwriting is your father’s.”
“I’m not saying he didn’t write it.”
“He also had sedatives in his system.”
“So someone forced him.”
“Possibly.”
Vittorio stood across the interrogation room.
Claire had not spoken directly to him since leaving the villa.
But when police called, he arrived before she did.
Thomas remained unconscious at the hospital.
Doctors expected recovery.
Ferraro slid photographs across the table.
The warehouse belonged to a company connected to Carlo Rossetti.
Bianca’s brother.
Claire frowned.
“Carlo is in custody.”
“Yes.”
“Then Bianca?”
Ferraro looked toward Vittorio.
Vittorio said, “Bianca controls several Rossetti companies while Carlo is detained.”
Claire remembered the wedding.
Nothing involving Vittorio is temporary once he decides it belongs to him.
“Why would Bianca care whether I live?”
Vittorio’s expression was grim.
“She may not care about you personally.”
“That’s comforting.”
“She cares about Moretti Holdings.”
Ferraro explained.
The family trust did more than transfer property after Vittorio married.
It also consolidated voting rights.
Before the wedding, several minority investors had a chance to challenge his control.
Afterward, that opportunity disappeared.
One investor group had been quietly buying shares.
Rossetti International.
Claire understood.
“My marriage cost them control.”
“Potential control,” Vittorio said.
“So they tried to frighten me into leaving.”
“Perhaps.”
“And when that didn’t work…”
The fire.
Claire felt cold.
“But why frame my father?”
Vittorio’s eyes hardened.
“Because Thomas knows something.”
They found out the next morning.
Thomas woke.
Claire entered his hospital room alone.
Her father cried the moment he saw her.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire stood near the foot of the bed.
“I need the truth.”
“I know.”
“All of it.”
Thomas nodded.
He told her everything.
Two years earlier, he had joined an American investment group seeking to purchase distressed Italian hotels.
A consultant approached him.
Bianca Rossetti.
She promised extraordinary returns if Thomas helped move money through shell companies.
At first, the transactions were legal.
Then they were not.
Thomas panicked.
He borrowed money from Vittorio to cover losses before auditors noticed.
Bianca discovered it and used the debt as leverage.
“She knew Vittorio needed to marry,” Thomas said.
“How?”
“Everyone in that circle knew rumors about the trust.”
“So whose idea was it to offer me?”
Thomas cried harder.
“Mine.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because I thought you would say no.”
Her eyes snapped open.
“You brought me to Italy expecting me to refuse?”
“I thought if I could prove I had offered a solution, Vittorio would give me more time.”
“Did you know he would accept?”
“No.”
“And when he did?”
“I panicked.”
“Yet you still brought me.”
“Yes.”
Claire stared at him.
“I don’t know who you are anymore.”
“I don’t either.”
Thomas explained the hidden money.
He had moved funds not to steal them but because Bianca ordered him to create accounts she could later use against Moretti companies.
Then he tried to back out.
That was when threats began.
“Why didn’t you tell Vittorio?”
“I thought he would kill me.”
Claire almost laughed.
“You know what’s insane? He might be the most honest person in this entire disaster.”
Thomas looked away.
“Bianca contacted me after your wedding. She wanted details about the agreement.”
“And you gave them?”
“Some.”
Claire’s anger returned.
“She tried to kill me.”
“I didn’t know that would happen!”
“You kept talking to her!”
“I was scared!”
“You’re always scared!”
The words echoed.
Thomas began crying.
Claire felt cruel.
She also felt exhausted.
Fear had become her father’s excuse for destroying everything around him.
“I love you,” she said quietly. “But loving you cannot mean saving you from every consequence.”
Thomas nodded.
“I know.”
“No more lies.”
“No more.”
“If police charge you for fraud, I won’t ask Vittorio to fix it.”
“I understand.”
Claire left.
Vittorio waited in the corridor.
For once, he did not speak.
Claire sat on a bench.
He sat beside her.
“My entire marriage began because two men and one woman treated me like a chess piece.”
Vittorio looked down.
“Yes.”
“And somehow I fell in love with one of them.”
His head turned sharply.
Claire realized what she had said.
There was no taking it back.
“I love you,” she repeated.
Vittorio looked as if someone had struck him.
Claire laughed through tears.
“Say something.”
His voice was rough.
“You should not.”
“That’s not exactly romantic.”
“I lied to you.”
“You did.”
“I brought you into danger.”
“You did.”
“I am twenty-six years older than you.”
“I can subtract.”
Vittorio almost smiled.
Claire looked at him.
“I’m not saying everything is forgiven. It isn’t. I’m saying the feelings are real.”
Vittorio’s eyes filled.
It was the first time she had ever seen him close to tears.
“I love you too.”
Claire’s heart broke open.
He reached for her.
This time she let him.
They kissed in a hospital corridor beneath terrible fluorescent lights.
No photographers.
No wedding guests.
No contract.
Just two flawed people choosing something dangerous.
When they separated, Inspector Ferraro approached.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
His expression told Claire the danger was not finished.
“We searched Bianca Rossetti’s residence.”
“And?”
“She is gone.”
Vittorio stood.
Ferraro continued.
“We found passports, cash, and travel records.”
“Where is she going?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Ferraro looked directly at Claire.
“But we found another photograph of you.”
Claire’s blood turned cold.
This photograph was different.
It showed Claire standing outside the hospital.
May you like
Taken less than twenty minutes earlier.
Bianca was still watching.
