Chương 7
"Like what?"
She looked at Luca.
"Like preparing for your own disappearance."
The room became silent.
Luca's eyes stayed on the screen.
"My father knew something was coming."
"Or he was planning something," Elena said.
The words were careful.
Too careful.
I noticed.
"You think he was involved?"
Elena did not answer.
That was an answer.
Luca finally looked away from the monitor.
"Everyone leaves something behind."
His voice was flat.
"Maybe this is just another thing."
I knew that tone.
It was the tone people used when they were trying to convince themselves not to care.
My father used it when he talked about the bakery.
He would say it was only a building.
Then I would find him standing outside it after closing, touching the old sign like he was saying goodbye.
People always pretended things mattered less than they did.
It was one of the most human lies.
"Can I see the documents from my father's side again?" I asked.
Luca looked at me.
"Why?"
"Because if your father created this plan before he got sick, then my father may have been involved before the debt existed."
Elena nodded slowly.
"That is possible."
"Then the question is not who owes money."
I looked at the screen.
"The question is what they were trying to hide."
Nobody disagreed.
The employee continued working on the encrypted file.
The rest of us moved to the conference room.
I was beginning to realize that expensive houses had one thing in common.
They always had rooms designed for conversations nobody wanted to have.
This one had a long table, leather chairs, and windows overlooking the mountains.
It looked like a place where people made decisions that changed other people's lives.
I hated that I was sitting there.
I hated more that I was getting used to it.
Luca placed the folder in front of me.
"You should not be involved in this."
I looked up.
"You said that already."
"And I was right."
"Maybe."
He seemed surprised.
I continued.
"But you are also forgetting something."
"What?"
"I was involved before I knew I was involved."
That stopped him.
Because it was true.
My name had been on the documents.
My family's bakery had been used.
My father had sent me here.
Someone had taken a normal part of my life and turned it into a piece of their plan.
There was no going back to being uninvolved.
Luca sat across from me.
"You are angry."
"Yes."
"At me?"
I thought about it.
"Sometimes."
He accepted that easier than I expected.
"Fair."
"You keep doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Accepting criticism like it does not hurt."
His expression changed slightly.
"It hurts."
The honesty surprised me.
"Then why don't you show it?"
"Because showing people where they can hurt you is dangerous."
I looked at him.
"And hiding everything isn't?"
"No."
He paused.
"It is just familiar."
That answer stayed between us.
A few minutes later, Elena returned with a tablet.
"The encryption team found something."
Luca stood immediately.
"What?"
"They cannot open the file yet."
"Then what did they find?"
She handed him the tablet.
"Metadata."
He read silently.
Then handed it to me.
I looked at the screen.
The file had been modified recently.
Not six years ago.
Not after Luca's father became ill.
Three days ago.
My arrival date.
My fingers tightened around the tablet.
"Someone opened this recently."
"Yes," Elena said.
"Who?"
"We do not know."
"Can you find out?"
"Maybe."
The uncertainty bothered me.
Everyone here was used to having answers.
Now they were surrounded by questions.
I looked at Luca.
"Someone knew I was coming."
He nodded.
"And they wanted us to find this."
That possibility changed everything.
Because a hidden file discovered by accident was one thing.
A hidden file placed where we would eventually find it was another.
"This is a message," I said.
Luca looked at me.
"To who?"
"To you."
The room went quiet.
"Why?"
I looked at the file.
"Because whoever did this wanted you to question your father."
Elena frowned.
"Why would someone want that?"
I looked at Luca.
Because I already knew the answer was the same reason someone wanted me here.
"Because your father's reputation is the only thing protecting whoever is behind this."
Luca did not respond.
But something in his face changed.
A memory.
A suspicion.
Something he had buried.
"What?" I asked.
He looked at the mountains through the window.
"When I was seventeen, my father told me something."
"What?"
"Never trust the person who benefits from your anger."
Elena stared at him.
"He said that?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Luca looked at her.
"Because I thought he was talking about enemies."
A silence followed.
Then Elena whispered.
"What if he was talking about himself?"
Nobody answered.
The thought was too uncomfortable.
The employee from security appeared at the door.
His face was pale.
"Mr. Moretti."
Luca turned.
"What?"
"We recovered part of the file."
Everyone stood still.
"Only part?"
"Yes."
"What does it say?"
The employee looked at the tablet in his hands.
Then at Luca.
"I think you should read it yourself."
He handed it over.
Luca looked down.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then his face changed.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Something worse.
Betrayal.
I stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
He did not answer immediately.
Finally, he turned the screen toward us.
There was only one paragraph.
A few lines.
But they were enough.
The first sentence was from his father.
If this plan is discovered, it means I failed to stop what I started.
The second sentence was worse.
Sophia Bennett cannot be allowed to become the next victim of my mistakes.
I looked at Luca.
He looked at me.
Neither of us spoke.
Because suddenly the marriage was no longer a debt.
It was a warning.
The warning remained on the screen for several seconds.
Nobody reacted the way people do in movies.
Nobody gasped.
May you like
Nobody shouted.
Real fear was quieter.
