Chapter 9 - Clarissa'S Bargain
Lucia did not sleep after learning that Emilio was not Giovanni's first son.
She sat in the rear bedroom of the Via Bellini house until sunrise and stared at the name on the back of the photograph.
MATTEO MORETTI.
Her father refused to explain more while Emilio was in the room.
Emilio refused to leave.
Carlo refused to stop smiling at the discomfort he had created.
By seven, everyone hated everyone else enough that Marco ended the conversation.
He moved Lucia to another secure location and sent Giovanni back to the estate with Emilio.
Carlo disappeared before anyone decided whether to stop him.
Lucia spent the morning reviewing Helena's ledger again.
The entries seemed different now.
M.M. appeared three times.
She had assumed the initials referred to Moretti Maritime.
Now she was not sure.
At ten eighteen, a message arrived on the secure phone Marco had given her.
The sender was unknown.
YOUR MOTHER WAS RIGHT ABOUT EMILIO.
A second message appeared.
SHE WAS WRONG ABOUT ME.
Lucia did not need a signature.
"Clarissa."
Marco looked up from the kitchen table.
"Do not answer."
Lucia was already typing.
PROVE IT.
The reply came immediately.
NO GUARDS.
Lucia almost laughed.
Marco did not.
"Absolutely not."
Another message arrived.
NO GIOVANNI.
Then another.
NO EMILIO.
Then the final one.
PUBLIC PLACE.
Lucia showed Marco.
"She wants to talk."
"She wants control of the setting."
"That does not mean we refuse."
"It means you do not go alone."
Lucia typed one word.
WHERE.
Clarissa chose the Metropolitan Museum of Art at noon.
Marco disliked crowds.
Lucia pointed out that Clarissa disliked being arrested more.
They compromised.
Lucia would enter alone.
Marco and two plainclothes security officers would remain within sight but out of hearing range.
Martin notified law enforcement that Lucia was meeting a potential witness in Helena's financial investigation.
Giovanni was not told until Lucia was already inside the museum.
He called twelve times.
Lucia silenced the phone.
She almost understood why Helena had done the same thing to him.
Clarissa waited in the American Wing near a marble fountain.
She wore a gray coat, no sunglasses, and almost no makeup.
For the first time, she looked younger than Lucia.
She also looked exhausted.
"You came."
"You sound disappointed."
Clarissa glanced toward the distant gallery entrance.
"Marco is here."
"Of course he is."
"I said no guards."
"You also had three passports."
Clarissa's mouth tightened.
"Fair."
Lucia did not sit.
"Talk."
Clarissa looked toward the fountain.
"Your mother thought I wanted to destroy Emilio."
"Did you?"
"At first."
Lucia went still.
Clarissa gave a humorless smile.
"You wanted honesty."
"I want useful honesty."
"Then sit down."
Lucia sat on the stone bench opposite her.
Clarissa kept her hands visible.
"My mother was Sofia Vassallo."
"Sofia Bellandi."
Clarissa's eyes sharpened.
"You found the house."
"How do you know about it?"
"My mother told me."
"Carlo says she left Sicily alive."
"She did."
"And?"
"And she spent the rest of her life believing Helena Moretti stole everything from her."
Lucia felt anger rise.
"Mother saved my father from being killed."
"That is Giovanni's version."
"Carlo confirmed it."
Clarissa laughed softly.
"Carlo confirms whatever keeps Carlo important."
Lucia did not disagree.
Clarissa continued.
"My mother's brother planned violence against Giovanni."
"So Helena was right."
"About him, yes."
"Then what did Helena steal?"
Clarissa's face changed.
"Her daughter."
Lucia stared.
"You?"
"No."
Clarissa looked away.
"My older sister."
Lucia felt the story twist again.
"What older sister?"
"She died as an infant."
"What does Mother have to do with that?"
"My mother believed Helena caused the separation that led to the baby's death."
Lucia frowned.
"That is not the same as stealing a child."
"Grief is not careful with grammar."
That sentence sounded too much like something Helena might have said.
Lucia hated Clarissa for it.
"Why did you get close to Emilio?"
Clarissa's jaw tightened.
"Because Carlo found me."
Lucia stared at her.
"Carlo recruited you?"
"He contacted me three years ago."
"He said he only learned who you were four months ago."
"Carlo lies better when he is offended."
Lucia felt a burst of vindication and then immediately hated herself for it.
"What did he want?"
"Access to Emilio."
"Why?"
"Because Emilio was angry enough to betray his parents but vain enough to think it was independence."
Lucia looked away.
The cruelty of the description did not make it false.
"And you agreed."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I hated your family."
"Past tense?"
Clarissa's eyes moved to the floor.
"People become harder to hate when they start being human in front of you."
Lucia felt no sympathy.
"Did you fall in love with him?"
Clarissa did not answer quickly enough.
"That is not relevant."
"It is if you expect me to believe you."
Clarissa leaned back.
"I cared about him enough to warn Helena."
"You threatened Mother outside Venn's clinic."
"No."
"We have her notes."
"Then read them carefully."
"She wrote that you offered Emilio for the evidence."
Clarissa's eyes narrowed.
"She misunderstood the first conversation."
"Convenient."
"I told her Carlo would sacrifice Emilio if she continued gathering proof."
"And what did you want?"
"I wanted Helena to give me the evidence so I could use it to get Emilio out."
"Out of what?"
"The Bellandi deal."
Lucia leaned closer.
"What was the deal?"
Clarissa looked toward Marco.
Then she lowered her voice.
"Control of two terminals for ten years."
Lucia's stomach tightened.
"That is not a minority investment."
"No."
"Emilio signed it?"
"Not the final agreement."
"Did he know?"
"He knew he was giving outside investors operational rights."
"Bellandi rights?"
"No."
"You expect me to believe that?"
Clarissa looked directly at her.
"Your brother is selfish, not suicidal."
Lucia hated how accurately everyone seemed to understand Emilio except Emilio.
"Why Cayman Brac?"
"Adrian Cross wanted the final signature offshore."
"Why?"
"Because Carlo needed Emilio out of New York while Helena met Daniel Reeve for the third time."
Lucia froze.
"There was a third meeting?"
Clarissa nodded.
"It was scheduled for the morning Helena collapsed."
"How do you know?"
"Carlo knew."
"How?"
"He had someone inside Reeve's office."
Lucia thought of the federal prosecutor's number in Helena's call records.
"Did Helena make it to the meeting?"
"No."
"Because of the sedative?"
Clarissa's eyes filled with something close to fear.
"I did not give her that medication."
"You took her to Venn's clinic."
"She asked me to."
"Mother hated you."
"She distrusted me."
"She told Father you were not allowed in the house."
"Which is why we met elsewhere."
Lucia stared at her.
"Why would she ask you for help?"
"Because she had already discovered who I was."
"And?"
"Because she knew I was trying to get Emilio away from Carlo."
Lucia shook her head.
"You cannot be both the person who seduced him into the scheme and the person who saved him from it."
Clarissa's expression became bitter.
"People change after they start a bad thing."
Lucia thought of Giovanni forgiving Emilio for decades.
She thought of Helena protecting him while building a case around him.
She thought of herself meeting Clarissa instead of having her arrested.
"What happened at Venn's clinic?"
Clarissa reached into her coat.
Marco moved instantly from across the gallery.
Lucia raised a hand.
Clarissa slowly removed a sealed plastic envelope.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
"Venn had security cameras."
"The clinic says the footage was erased."
"It was."
"Then what is that?"
"A copy."
Lucia stared at it.
"Why do you have it?"
"Because Helena told me to make one."
Lucia did not take it.
"What is on it?"
"Your mother refusing the sedative."
Lucia's breathing changed.
"Then the prescription was fake."
"Yes."
"Who wrote it?"
"The camera does not show that."
"Then what does it show?"
Clarissa looked at her.
"Someone entering Venn's office after Helena left."
Lucia extended her hand.
Clarissa pulled the envelope back.
"Not yet."
Anger flashed through Lucia.
"You invited me here to bargain."
"Yes."
"Name your price."
"Protection."
"From Carlo?"
"From everyone."
"That includes Emilio?"
Clarissa hesitated.
"Especially Emilio if he learns why I first approached him."
Lucia almost laughed.
"You think he is more dangerous than Carlo?"
"No."
"Then why especially him?"
Clarissa's eyes filled with guilt.
"Because Emilio did answer Helena's last call."
Lucia went still.
"The carrier record says the call connected."
"Yes."
"He says he never heard it."
"He did not."
"Then who answered?"
Clarissa looked down at the memory card.
"I did."
Lucia's anger became physical.
"What did my mother say?"
Clarissa closed her eyes.
"She asked for Emilio."
"And?"
"I told her he was asleep."
"Was he?"
"No."
"Where was he?"
"At the bar with Adrian Cross."
Lucia's voice shook.
"What did Mother say after that?"
Clarissa looked at her.
"She said, 'Tell my son the woman beside him is not the danger he thinks she is.'"
Lucia stared.
Clarissa continued.
"Then she said, 'Tell him to look at the man he calls uncle.'"
Lucia felt the museum disappear around her.
"Why did you delete the call?"
Clarissa's eyes filled.
"Because Carlo was standing behind me when I answered it."
Lucia stopped breathing.
"Carlo was in the Cayman Islands?"
Clarissa nodded once.
"He was in Emilio's hotel suite when your mother called."
Lucia ended the meeting without promising Clarissa anything.
That angered Clarissa more than a refusal would have.
"I gave you Carlo."
"You gave me a story about Carlo."
"And the memory card."
"You have not handed it over yet."
Clarissa looked at the sealed envelope in her own hand.
Then she gave it to Lucia.
"There."
Lucia passed it directly to Marco without opening it.
Clarissa watched the movement.
"You really do not trust anyone."
Lucia looked at her.
"I trusted my brother to come to our mother's funeral."
Clarissa flinched.
"I deserved that."
"Probably."
Lucia stood.
"If the card is real, I will help arrange lawful protection."
"And if it is not?"
"Then you will have wasted the last kindness I have available for you."
Clarissa lowered her eyes.
As Lucia walked away, Clarissa called after her.
"Lucia."
She turned.
"Carlo was not the only person on the island who knew Helena was meeting Reeve."
Lucia stopped.
"Who else?"
Clarissa looked toward the museum crowd.
May you like
"Someone from your father's table."
