Chapter 4

Nobody in the ballroom touched a glass after that.

I didn't begin by announcing the size of my equity stake. Instead, I invoked an old Moretti rule and asked for three minutes to speak.

"If you're going to use family rules to lock me up, then use all of them." I had Nora set the materials on the long table. "Hearing first. Then you decide."

One by one, the screen displayed the digitally signed audit notice, the frozen $1.2 million transfer, the hospital photographs, and the link between Northshore Stage Equipment and Vivian's relative.

Vivian said right away that the money was what I had used to buy off employees, and that my injuries came from forcing my way into the club with my own men. She had the ledger and the handgun set on the table, then leaned close to Luca's ear and reminded him, "If you back down tonight, everyone in this room will know the real power in Grey Harbor isn't you."

Luca's face went dark, but he didn't stop her.

I removed the founder's ring and slid it beneath the scanner. The screen displayed its serial number, identified me as the trust's trustee, and showed the reference number for this audit.

Muted murmurs rippled through the guests.

Then I pointed at the gun. "Its wax-seal number belongs to the family evidence vault from three years ago. Someone who just arrived from Lisbon could never have obtained it. Only someone with access to the club's storage could have taken it."

Vivian's lips went white.

Only then did Luca see the brace on my right hand, and the fabric at my side soaked through with blood. "You had her beaten?"

"I only told Marcus to scare her." Vivian gripped his hand. "Luca, she walked out three years ago and stayed gone, and the first thing she does when she comes back is investigate you and strip my authority. Are you protecting your fiancee, or are you letting her take control of you all over again?"

I didn't ask Luca to believe the whole audit on the spot.

"Stop the authorization, open the doors, and let the police take everyone involved in for questioning. You and I can settle our accounts tomorrow."

That was the bare minimum.

Dominic put the live authorization page on the screen and reminded Luca that one tap on pause would send every original Black Psalm record straight to an independent third party for preservation, where no one could alter it unilaterally. Luca saw it. So did the guests. He didn't have to choose between his sister and his fiancee. He only had to allow the facts to be examined.

Police lights came on outside the estate. The gatehouse rang through on the internal line and asked whether to let them in.

Luca looked at the room full of guests, then at Vivian hiding behind him. He had already recognized me, he had seen the injuries, and he knew the gun couldn't have come from me. He picked up the gate intercom anyway.

"Lock it down," he said. "Vivian is the woman I'm about to marry. Nobody takes her out of here tonight."

The heavy estate doors closed behind me.

At that moment, I wasn't heartbroken, and I didn't ask him why again.

At seventeen, I was the one who added three-year-old Luca, my father's illegitimate son, to the Moretti trust. Later, I handed him the position of heir apparent, the house, and the security detail. All along, I had told myself he simply hadn't learned to shoulder responsibility, not that he genuinely didn't care who paid the price.

Now I had my answer.

I had Dominic open the channel to every security team. "Confirm the current highest authority over the estate."

"The Moretti trust." His voice carried across the ballroom. "Not the heir apparent."

I called Nora and triggered the emergency suspension.

"What do we execute first?" she asked.

I looked at the house Luca was standing in, a house held by the trust, a house he was at that moment using to keep the police out.

"Start by taking back the estate he's using to imprison me."