Chapter 3 - The Woman Elias Never Knew
Leonard Voss arrived aboard the Sovereign at eleven.
He expected to meet Damiano.
He did not expect to see me.
The moment he entered the salon, he stopped.
“Serena?”
I took a sip of coffee.
“Hello, Leonard.”
His gaze shifted between Damiano and me.
“What are you doing here?”
Damiano leaned against the bar.
“You might want to reconsider your tone.”
Leonard's face changed.
Slowly.
“No.”
I placed my cup down.
“Yes.”
“You're a Moretti?”
“My birth certificate certainly thinks so.”
Damiano smiled.
Leonard didn't.
He had come seeking Moretti financing for a massive port redevelopment deal involving Voss Capital and Mercer Group.
The irony was almost impressive.
Leonard opened his briefcase.
“Perhaps we should discuss business.”
“We are,” Damiano said.
“Then I'd prefer privacy.”
“You have it.”
Leonard looked at me.
“I mean—”
“I know what you mean,” I said.
Damiano's voice hardened.
“My sister stays.”
Leonard sat.
“Sister.”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
“No,” I said. “Inconvenient.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You understand this deal involves your former husband.”
“I do now.”
“Then surely you can separate personal feelings from business.”
Damiano laughed.
Leonard looked at him.
“Something amusing?”
“You spent a year telling Mercer my sister wasn't useful enough for his ambitions.”
Leonard's face tightened.
“I never—”
“Don't lie on my boat.”
Silence.
I opened the proposal.
Numbers.
Terminal leases.
Warehouse acquisitions.
Shipping guarantees.
Then I noticed something.
“Page forty-seven.”
Leonard stiffened.
“What about it?”
“The freight projections.”
“They're conservative.”
“No.”
I pushed the document toward Damiano.
“They're impossible.”
Leonard smiled.
“With respect, Serena—”
“Don't.”
He stopped.
I pointed at the figures.
“You're calculating capacity based on terminals you don't control.”
“We have preliminary agreements.”
“No, you don't.”
“You've been away from the industry.”
“I spent twenty-two years around shipping before I left.”
Damiano pulled the document closer.
I continued.
“Pier Nine is under environmental review. Terminal Four can't support this volume without expansion, and the rail connection Voss Capital listed here doesn't exist.”
Leonard's smile disappeared.
Damiano looked at him.
“Doesn't exist?”
“Not yet.”
“But your proposal says operational.”
“A technical distinction.”
“Fraud is also a technical distinction.”
Leonard stood.
“This meeting is over.”
“No,” I said.
He turned toward me.
“It just became useful.”
---
At Mercer Group, Elias received Leonard's call ten minutes later.
“What happened?”
“Your wife happened.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Whatever she is, she's a Moretti.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
Leonard cursed.
“Why didn't you know?”
Elias's voice hardened.
“Careful.”
“You were married to her for four years!”
“I said careful.”
Leonard lowered his voice.
“We need the Moretti guarantee or the harbor project collapses.”
Elias looked toward Claudia.
She had been sitting in his office for the last hour.
“What did Serena say?”
“That the numbers are false.”
Elias went still.
“Are they?”
“They're projections.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Silence.
Elias slowly stood.
“Leonard.”
“The deal works if financing closes.”
“Are the numbers false?”
Leonard hung up.
Elias stared at his phone.
Claudia crossed her arms.
“My uncle knows what he's doing.”
“Does he?”
“Don't start doubting him because Serena suddenly has a rich family.”
“This isn't about Serena.”
“Everything has been about Serena since that yacht arrived.”
Elias looked at her.
Claudia realized too late what she had said.
“Elias—”
“Get out.”
“What?”
“I need to work.”
She stared at him.
Then grabbed her purse.
“Don't come crawling back to me because you're embarrassed your little nobody wife turned out to be an heiress.”
Elias's expression changed.
“That's what you thought of her?”
Claudia laughed.
“It's what you thought of her.”
That landed.
Hard.
She left.
Elias remained beside the window.
Below, the black yacht still dominated the harbor.
His phone contained dozens of old photographs of me.
Serena Moretti at seventeen beside European royalty.
Serena at twenty attending a maritime summit.
Serena beside her father at the launch of a cargo vessel.
But one photograph held him.
I was twenty-one.
Damiano stood beside me.
The caption read:
Serena Moretti credited with identifying accounting irregularities that saved family subsidiary from $80 million acquisition loss.
Elias sat down.
Four years.
Four years he'd believed I knew nothing about business because I never interrupted him when he complained about work.
His phone rang.
Marcus.
“Elias, we have a problem.”
“What now?”
“Moretti Maritime just suspended negotiations on the Voss project.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“How bad?”
“If they walk?”
Marcus paused.
“Very.”
“Get me a meeting.”
“With Damiano?”
“No.”
Elias looked toward the yacht.
May you like
“With Serena.”
---
