Chapter 9 - SEVENTEEN CALLS
Vincent looked at Nora’s phone.
“Put him on speaker.”
Nora did.
Michael laughed.
“Hello, cousin.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“You killed Anthony and Dominic Bertinelli.”
“They were liabilities.”
“You burned Saint Agnes.”
“A calculated distraction.”
“You’re admitting this on a phone?”
“You think I care anymore?”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“Where are you?”
“Not where you’ll find me.”
“Then why call?”
“To keep you from trusting the wrong man.”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“You mean the way you trusted yourself?”
Michael ignored him.
“Ask Vincent about the calls.”
Lorenzo looked at his cousin.
Vincent did not look away.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“I spoke to Pierce that night.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Seventeen?”
“Maybe.”
Matteo stared.
“Why?”
Vincent rubbed his jaw.
“Because Carlo asked me to audit a set of insurance transfers.”
“Why Pierce?”
“His company handled them.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That the transfers were routine.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
Nora listened carefully.
“Then what did you do?”
“I told Carlo.”
Michael laughed through the speaker.
“Liar.”
Vincent stepped toward the phone.
“Come say it here.”
“I already did six years ago.”
Vincent froze.
Nora caught it.
“What happened six years ago?”
Michael’s voice became amused.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?”
Lorenzo looked at Vincent.
“Tell me what?”
Vincent exhaled.
“After Matteo died, I confronted Michael.”
“And?”
“We fought.”
“About?”
“Pierce.”
Michael interrupted.
“He tried to kill me.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“You pulled a gun first.”
“Details.”
Lorenzo’s face darkened.
“You never told me.”
“You were burying your brother.”
“You never told me.”
“No.”
Another secret.
Nora could feel Lorenzo withdrawing behind that cold expression.
She stepped closer.
“Why?”
Vincent looked at him.
“Because I thought Michael caused the fire. I thought if I told you, you’d start a war before we knew what happened.”
Lorenzo laughed without humor.
“Everyone keeps protecting me with lies.”
Nobody answered.
Michael’s voice came through.
“Ask him about Rachel.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“What about Rachel?”
Vincent looked troubled.
“I found her after the fire.”
Rachel stared.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The next morning.”
Rachel’s face changed.
“You were the man outside my apartment.”
Vincent nodded.
“I told you to leave Chicago.”
Matteo stared.
“You sent her away?”
“I thought Michael would come after her.”
“You knew she was pregnant?”
“No.”
Rachel whispered:
“I didn’t know yet either.”
Michael laughed softly.
“Such noble idiots.”
Nora hated him.
He had spent years turning partial truths into weapons.
“What do you actually want?” she asked.
“Good question.”
Michael’s tone changed.
“I want the archive.”
“You said it’s incomplete.”
“I want the part Matteo accessed.”
“You already had six years to force the password from him.”
“He never gave it.”
Matteo smiled grimly.
“Still won’t.”
Michael ignored him.
“But now Nora can reconstruct what’s missing.”
“Why would I?”
“Because I have something you want.”
Nora looked at Lorenzo.
“What?”
“Greg Fowler’s original files.”
“I have his laptop.”
“You have the copy I wanted you to find.”
Her stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
“The real files contain evidence that can clear your name.”
“My name?”
Nora froze.
Michael laughed softly.
“You don’t know yet.”
Lorenzo’s expression sharpened.
“Know what?”
“Police are about to discover twelve million dollars in fraudulent compliance approvals issued under Nora Hayes’s credentials.”
Her skin went cold.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
“I never approved anything for Costa Atlantic.”
“No. But your company’s authentication system says you did.”
Nora’s breathing changed.
Her employer.
Her corporate credentials.
Greg had access to her personal information.
Possibly her work devices.
“Oh God.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“Nora.”
“Greg used my login.”
Michael continued.
“Or someone did.”
“You framed me.”
“Not personally.”
“Who?”
“That is what the full archive reveals.”
Then the line went dead.
Nora stood frozen.
Within eleven minutes, her clean phone rang again.
This time her employer.
She answered.
“Nora?”
Her supervisor sounded shaken.
“Where are you?”
“I’m on medical leave.”
“We have investigators here.”
“What investigators?”
“Federal.”
Her stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
“They’re asking about you.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then:
“They found your credentials attached to shipping-risk waivers.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
“Dollar value?”
“About twelve million.”
Exactly what Michael said.
“Nora, they think you approved them.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
But his voice contained uncertainty.
That hurt more than accusation.
“Do they have a warrant?”
“Yes.”
“For me?”
“No. Not yet.”
Yet.
When the call ended, Lorenzo immediately summoned attorneys.
Nora raised a hand.
“No.”
He stopped.
“I need my own lawyer.”
“I can provide one.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Nora—”
“This is exactly where boundaries matter.”
She forced herself to stay calm.
“If your company is connected to the fraud, your lawyer has a conflict.”
He stared at her.
Then nodded.
“You’re right.”
That mattered more than she expected.
Rachel, watching from the kitchen doorway, seemed to notice too.
Nora called an attorney she knew professionally.
Dana Whitaker.
Within an hour, Dana arrived.
Sharp suit.
Sharper eyes.
She took one look at Lorenzo.
“You.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“Me?”
“You stay out of my conversation with my client.”
Nora smiled for the first time all night.
Lorenzo looked offended.
“This is my house.”
“Then enjoy another room.”
Vincent laughed.
Lorenzo left.
Dana listened to everything.
Then:
“Do not delete anything. Do not access your employer’s systems. Do not contact Greg without counsel. Cooperate only through me.”
Nora nodded.
“Can they arrest me?”
“If they believe you knowingly approved fraudulent waivers, yes.”
“I didn’t.”
“I believe you.”
“Can we prove it?”
“That is the question.”
They needed logs.
Device records.
Location data.
Evidence someone used Nora’s credentials when she was elsewhere.
Elise helped only after Dana established clear boundaries between private investigation and legal evidence preservation.
For the first time, Lorenzo’s world moved according to rules Nora trusted.
By morning, they found the first break.
One fraudulent approval occurred while Nora was presenting at a compliance conference in Boston.
Another while she was at her mother’s funeral anniversary service.
A third while she was in urgent care for pneumonia.
Strong alibis.
But not enough to identify the real user.
Then Elise found the authentication device.
A hardware token cloned from Nora’s work laptop.
Who had access?
Greg.
And one other person.
Nora’s former coworker.
Rachel Pierce.
Everyone froze.
Rachel stared.
“What?”
Nora looked at her.
“You worked at Mercer Compliance?”
Rachel’s face drained.
“Six years ago.”
“That company merged into mine.”
“I left before the merger.”
“Did you know Greg?”
“No.”
“Peter?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Peter handled insurance clients that overlapped with Mercer.”
Nora felt the pieces turning.
Peter Pierce had access to corporate compliance systems years before Greg.
Greg may have inherited an operation already built.
Vincent leaned forward.
“Then Nora wasn’t chosen because she dated Greg.”
Nora looked at him.
“What?”
“You may have been targeted first.”
Silence.
Greg had entered Nora’s life three years earlier.
He claimed they met accidentally at a fundraiser.
What if it wasn’t accidental?
Nora felt sick.
“Find the fundraiser guest list.”
Elise did.
Greg’s invitation came through Pierce Risk Management.
Nora’s name appeared on a compliance panel.
Peter Pierce had been there.
So had Michael.
Lorenzo looked at her.
“They put Greg near you.”
Her stomach turned.
“To access my company.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
“Peter did this.”
Nora looked at her.
“Did he ever talk about Mercer Compliance?”
“All the time.”
“Why?”
Rachel’s voice shook.
“He said compliance firms were the future of financial control. Nobody watched the people who watched everyone else.”
That sentence explained everything.
Michael and Pierce built a system using trusted professionals’ credentials to approve fraudulent operations.
Nora had been one target.
Greg had been the bridge.
He began dating her to gain access.
Maybe somewhere along the way he developed real feelings.
Maybe not.
It did not matter.
The relationship itself had begun as manipulation.
Nora walked outside.
Cold air hit her face.
Lorenzo followed but stayed several feet away.
She stared toward the gates.
“My entire relationship was a setup.”
“Possibly.”
“He targeted me.”
“Yes.”
“I lived with him.”
“I know.”
“I loved him.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
She turned.
“That is the humiliating part.”
“No.”
“I loved someone who chose me as an assignment.”
“That says something about him.”
“It says something about me.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him sharply.
He continued:
“It says you were capable of trusting someone before he gave you reason not to.”
Her eyes filled.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because I won’t let you turn his deception into evidence against yourself.”
The words landed hard.
Nora looked away.
Then, slowly, she nodded.
Behind them, the estate door opened.
Matteo stepped outside.
“Lorenzo.”
“What?”
“Rachel found something.”
They returned.
Rachel held an old phone.
Peter’s backup device.
She had kept it because she never trusted him completely.
One message thread remained.
PETER: Greg is unstable.
MICHAEL: Keep him useful.
PETER: Nora suspects financial irregularities at her company.
MICHAEL: Then accelerate.
PETER: Vincent is asking questions again.
MICHAEL: If Vincent gets close, blame him.
Nora looked at Vincent.
He exhaled.
Then Rachel scrolled.
One final message.
PETER: Carlo’s original archive contains the Shepherd list.
MICHAEL: Delete it.
PETER: Can’t. Teresa has physical backup.
Every eye turned toward Teresa.
She stood in the doorway.
Pale.
“What physical backup?” Lorenzo asked.
Teresa closed her eyes.
“The one Carlo told me never to open unless both his sons were in danger.”
Matteo stared.
“Both?”
Teresa nodded.
May you like
Then looked at Lorenzo.
“It’s hidden beneath your mother’s grave.”
