Chapter 2 - The Clause Worth More Than Love)
The Moretti family fortune had never belonged to one person.
That was the story Sebastian told journalists.
The truth was that almost everything important belonged to a trust created by his grandfather, Enzo Moretti.
Hotels.
Shipping terminals.
Commercial properties.
A private investment company.
Thirty-one percent of a regional bank.
The trust was designed to prevent any one descendant from selling the family's core assets.
Control moved according to a complicated set of rules.
And one rule mattered more than the others.
Adrian Moretti held the controlling vote.
Unless he reached forty-five without a legally recognized descendant.
Then the controlling vote would pass permanently to Sebastian's branch of the family.
Adrian was forty.
Sebastian had spent years waiting.
Five more years, Bianca often said.
Five years and no mistakes.
Then Adrian disappeared from public life after a car accident in northern Italy.
The family's lawyers said he was recovering privately.
Sebastian said almost nothing.
Bianca had smiled more during those months than Mara had ever seen her smile before.
Three days after Mara discovered her pregnancy, Bianca entered Sebastian's study and locked the door.
"He may have a child."
Sebastian looked up from his laptop.
"What?"
Bianca placed a small plastic bag on his desk.
Inside was the pregnancy test.
Sebastian stared at it.
"Whose is that?"
"The maid's."
He leaned back.
For a moment he almost looked amused.
"So?"
Bianca did not smile.
"Count backward."
He frowned.
"Bianca."
"Count."
"Mara has been here nine months."
"And before that?"
"How would I know?"
"I do."
Sebastian's amusement disappeared.
Bianca opened a folder.
Inside were copies of hotel guest records.
One name had been highlighted.
Adrian Cole.
Sebastian's face changed.
"Where did you get this?"
"You told me to keep track of him."
"Not her."
"She worked evenings at the Ashford Hotel before she came here."
Sebastian looked down.
"You're saying Adrian knew Mara?"
"I'm saying he spent six weeks in the same hotel where she worked."
"That proves nothing."
Bianca pulled out a photograph.
It showed Mara and Adrian seated in the corner of a small late-night diner.
Mara was laughing.
Adrian was looking at her as though he had forgotten the rest of the room existed.
Sebastian swore.
Bianca whispered, "If the baby is his, everything changes."
"He doesn't even know she's pregnant."
"Yet."
Sebastian stood.
"No."
Bianca blinked.
"No what?"
"We aren't touching a pregnant woman."
"I didn't say touch her."
"You didn't have to."
Bianca stepped closer.
"We have spent eleven years being treated like the backup branch of this family. Your grandfather trusted Adrian more. Your father trusted Adrian more. Every board member waits for Adrian before breathing."
Sebastian's jaw tightened.
"And if he has a child," Bianca continued, "that child becomes the next protected line."
"Not immediately."
"Eventually is enough."
Sebastian turned away.
"We need facts."
Bianca watched him.
Then she said, "I already have one."
She placed another document on the desk.
A copy of Mara's original employment application.
Emergency contact.
Eleanor Collins.
Deceased.
Previous employment.
Ashford Hotel.
Bianca tapped the page.
"She didn't come here by accident."
Sebastian looked sharply at her.
"What are you implying?"
"Maybe Adrian placed her here."
"He was unconscious for nearly three weeks after the accident."
"Before that."
Sebastian began pacing.
"This is insane."
"No. Insane is waiting five years for control and losing it because Adrian had a romantic little adventure with a housemaid."
"Stop calling her that."
Bianca's eyes narrowed.
"Interesting."
"What?"
"You defend her."
Sebastian stared.
Then laughed once.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous."
Bianca's expression changed.
A thought entered her mind.
A useful thought.
If Mara became a threat, Bianca needed a story.
Stories mattered more than truth inside powerful families.
A pregnant employee.
A married employer.
Private conversations.
Money.
A scandal could be manufactured from less.
She looked toward the window where Mara crossed the courtyard carrying folded linens.
"Maybe ridiculous is exactly what we need."
That afternoon Sebastian found Mara in the library.
She was dusting shelves.
"Mara."
She turned.
"Sir."
"Don't call me sir."
She said nothing.
Sebastian held out an envelope.
"This came to the estate office for you."
Mara took it.
The sender was a law firm she recognized from her mother's probate case.
Her fingers tightened.
"Thank you."
Sebastian did not leave.
"Is everything all right?"
"Yes."
"You look upset."
"I'm not."
"Your mother's estate?"
Mara nodded.
"Mostly debt."
He seemed uncomfortable.
"My mother died when I was nineteen."
Mara looked at him.
For the first time, he seemed almost human.
"I'm sorry."
"So am I."
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Bianca appeared.
She saw Mara holding an envelope.
She saw Sebastian standing too close.
And she smiled.
Not because she believed anything improper had happened.
Because she had just found the first photograph her future lie would need.
Later that night Bianca asked one of the security men to send her the hallway camera footage.
She selected a still image.
Sebastian facing Mara.
Mara holding an envelope.
Bianca saved it.
Then she opened a locked drawer.
Inside was another envelope.
Older.
Cream colored.
Addressed by hand.
Mara Collins.
It had arrived seven months earlier.
Bianca had intercepted it before Mara's first day at the estate.
The return address belonged to Adrian Moretti's private attorney.
Bianca had never opened it.
She had not needed to.
Now she held it over the fireplace.
May you like
For several seconds she watched the flames.
Then she let the envelope fall.
