Chapter 3: Nathan’s Last Secret
Enzo locked the room and sent the unconscious intruder to the basement.
Then he turned to Harper.
“Start talking.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, his jacket still around her shoulders.
“I met Nathan at a hospital fundraiser two years ago,” she said. “My father wanted me photographed beside wealthy donors. Nathan noticed bruises on my wrist.”
Enzo remembered his brother’s irritating habit of noticing people no one else saw.
“He asked if I needed help,” Harper continued. “I lied. He knew I was lying.”
“What did he do?”
“He gave me a phone number. Said I could call any time, no questions asked.”
Enzo looked away.
That sounded exactly like Nathan.
“I called him three weeks later,” Harper said. “My father had locked me in a storage room for two days. Nathan came with a doctor and a woman from a shelter.”
“Why didn’t he take you out?”
“He tried.”
“What stopped him?”
“My father had photographs of Nathan meeting with federal agents.”
Enzo’s eyes narrowed.
“My brother never worked with the government.”
“He wasn’t informing on your family. He was giving them proof of my father’s money laundering.”
That made more sense—and hurt worse.
Nathan had tried to bring Preston down legally before collecting the debt.
“What happened next?”
“My father found out Nathan was helping me. But Preston wasn’t the only one afraid of those records.”
Harper rose and crossed to the vanity. With trembling fingers, she removed the diamond comb from her hair.
She twisted one of the decorative stones.
A tiny memory card dropped into her palm.
Enzo stared at it.
“You carried that through the wedding?”
“My mother gave it to me before she died. She told me never to let my father find it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Copies of financial transfers. Payments to police officers, judges, companies, and political campaigns.”
“And Nathan?”
“He discovered one of the accounts belonged to a DeLuca-controlled corporation.”
Enzo’s face hardened.
“Which one?”
“Marino Shipping.”
Luca’s family company.
Enzo immediately rejected the conclusion.
“Luca has been beside me since we were children.”
“I didn’t say Luca.”
“His father is dead.”
“His uncle isn’t.”
Vittorio Marino.
A senior adviser to the DeLuca organization. Respected. Patient. Trusted by Enzo’s father and treated like family.
Harper looked at the memory card.
“Nathan believed Vittorio had been laundering Preston’s money for years. When Nathan confronted him, Vittorio warned him to stay silent.”
“And Nathan refused.”
“Yes.”
Enzo felt the old wound inside him tear open.
“Did Preston order the murder?”
“He approved it. Vittorio arranged the location and told the shooters where Nathan would be.”
Enzo moved closer.
“How do you know?”
“I heard them.”
“You were there?”
“In my father’s office. Behind a locked door.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
She gave him a hollow look.
“Who would have believed me?”
“I would have.”
“You married me to punish me for it.”
That silenced him.
Harper placed the memory card in his palm.
“If the files are still intact, they can destroy both men.”
Enzo studied her face.
“You’re giving this to me?”
“I’m tired of carrying it.”
His phone rang.
Luca.
Enzo answered.
“We have a problem,” Luca said. “The man Harper knocked out is dead.”
“How?”
“Poison capsule hidden in his tooth.”
Enzo’s gaze shifted to the locked door.
Luca continued.
“And Vittorio just arrived at the front gate.”
“Why?”
“He says Preston Whitcomb contacted him.”
Enzo closed his fist around the memory card.
“What does Vittorio want?”
“To speak with you privately.”
Harper stepped closer.
“Don’t let him know you have the card.”
Enzo looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because Nathan made that mistake.”
May you like
Downstairs, the mansion doors opened.
Vittorio Marino entered with six armed men.
