Chapter 7 - THE BOARDROOM WHERE ELENA WALKED IN AS AN OWNER
Three months later, Elena entered Marchetti Group headquarters.
Same woman who had worn maid uniform.
Different clothes.
Simple black suit.
Crescent necklace.
No diamonds.
Board members stood.
She hated that.
“Please sit.”
They did.
Her Bellandi trust rights had been validated provisionally.
She controlled 12% of joint holding company.
Not enough to run it.
Enough that nobody could pretend she was invisible.
Lorenzo sat at far end.
He had resigned executive roles.
Still shareholder pending civil restitution.
Elena looked at him.
He lowered eyes.
Enzo chaired meeting but recused from Bellandi settlement votes because personal conflict.
Good governance.
Independent directors presented restitution proposal.
Return portions of Bellandi vineyards.
Cash compensation for land impossible to return.
Equity correction.
Employee protections.
Estimated recovery around $190 million, less than headline $310 because valuations/claims.
Elena did not argue for maximum destruction.
She asked:
“How many employees would lose jobs if assets transferred immediately?”
Director answered.
“Potentially six hundred.”
“Then structure transfer.”
Lorenzo looked up.
“You would do that?”
She stared.
“My mother didn’t die so I could create six hundred unrelated victims.”
That silenced room.
Then Ashford settlement.
Edmund agreed to surrender disputed land and fund compensation.
Camilla waived personal claims.
Civil penalties.
Criminal investigation into historical fire had limits due deceased Malcolm, but Graham faced charges based confession and evidence.
Lorenzo faced financial/fiduciary consequences for payments and concealment, though not arson.
Then board reviewed Camilla’s modern payment to Graham.
Could amount obstruction/conspiracy.
She entered plea/cooperation eventually.
Not prison necessarily? Five million to locate/heir and attempted evidence suppression serious. Let's say she faced fraud/obstruction charges and entered negotiated sentence including probation/home confinement and financial penalties, because no evidence she ordered violence. Enough.
Edmund faced obstruction and historical cover-up-related current crimes? Statutes maybe. Avoid details.
Then Elena found something among returned Bellandi documents.
Her mother Sofia Bellandi had left letter.
Recovered from archive Graham stole.
To Elena.
She read alone first.
Then with Enzo.
Mother wrote:
You and Enzo are children. The adults keep calling you promised because they like imagining families can organize love like property. Ignore us.
Elena laughed.
Enzo too.
Then:
If one day you love each other, let it be inconveniently your idea.
Elena cried.
Enzo looked at her.
“So apparently our mothers had more sense.”
“Apparently.”
He did not propose.
Good.
They began spending time together.
Not childhood destiny.
Adult discovery.
Coffee.
Walks.
Arguments.
Elena learned Enzo hates olives.
Enzo learned Elena loves terrible detective novels.
She teased his security obsession.
He teased her about hiding keys in earrings.
One evening she asked:
“Did you really mean it?”
“What?”
“When you were nine. Marry me anyway.”
He groaned.
“You remember?”
“Unfortunately.”
“I was an idiot.”
“You still are.”
Good.
Then serious:
“I mourned you.”
She looked at him.
“I know.”
“For years.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
Then:
“I think part of me turned you into perfect memory.”
She nodded.
“That’s not me.”
“I know.”
Good.
Real relationship separates person from ghost.
Then Enzo discovered Camilla had sent one final sealed file before sentencing.
Inside:
A photograph taken six months before Elena was hired.
Elena and her father Matteo.
But Matteo had died three years earlier.
Impossible.
Elena stared.
“That’s not my father.”
Same face almost.
Maybe Matteo had identical brother?
On back:
MATTEO BELLANDI — or the man who used his name?
Another twist.
Could undermine too much. Need coherent.
Better photo showed Matteo meeting Edmund three years before his death, unknown to Elena. Date maybe four years earlier. Not impossible. Camilla found. It reveals father had negotiated. Let's do.
Photograph dated four years earlier.
Matteo meeting Edmund Ashford secretly.
Elena froze.
“My father told me he never contacted them.”
He had.
Why?
File contained draft settlement.
Matteo offered silence in exchange for safe restoration of Elena identity and return portion land.
Edmund refused.
Then Matteo went back into hiding.
That explained engraving date added around then as warning.
But there was another signature on settlement witness line:
Lorenzo Marchetti.
He had known Matteo was alive years before he claimed.
Enzo looked at uncle.
May you like
Again.
Lorenzo had one more lie.
