Chapter 6 - The Dead Man’s File
For fourteen months, Valeria had believed her father died of heart failure. Now every detail looked rotten.
They found Maya in the archive room, not kidnapped but bleeding from the forehead.
“What happened?” Valeria demanded.
Maya sat against a cabinet, breathing hard. “Someone hit me from behind.”
“Did you see who?”
“No.”
“Why did you come here?”
Maya pointed to a file box.
“Your father made me promise that if anything ever happened to him and you began doubting the people closest to you, I should open this.”
Valeria stared at her.
“You had this for fourteen months?”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
Maya lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Inside the box were bank statements, photographs, and a handwritten letter.
Valeria recognized Carlo’s blocky handwriting immediately.
Val,
If you are reading this, somebody got closer to you than I could stop.
Do not trust the doctor.
Do not trust the marriage.
And whatever happens, protect the boy.
Valeria sat down.
The room tilted.
Tomas opened another folder.
Shell-company payments led to Serena, then Gregory, plus a transfer to Luca three weeks before Carlo’s death.
“No,” Valeria said.
Tomas did not argue.
Maya pulled a small recorder from the bottom of the box.
“I found this after your father died. I never listened to it.”
Valeria pressed play.
Static.
Then Carlo’s voice.
“If Gregory learns what I changed in Noah’s trust, he’ll move against Valeria first.”
A second voice answered.
Luca.
“What exactly did you change?”
Carlo said, “I made sure Gregory can never touch the Romano voting shares. Not through marriage. Not through custody. Not even if Valeria dies.”
A chair scraped on the recording.
May you like
Then Luca asked one question that made Valeria’s skin go cold.
“Then who gets control if something happens to both of them?”
