Chapter 6 - The Signature That Didn’t Belong
For two days, Naomi could not bear anything touching her neck.
Not a scarf.
Not a collar.
Not Luca’s lips when he bent to kiss her.
He learned without making her explain twice.
At home, he asked before entering the bathroom while she showered.
He stayed nearby when she wanted company.
He left when she needed quiet.
It was such ordinary consideration that she sometimes cried over it.
Tessa ran the bakery.
Marco brought supplies without pretending to check the house for threats every ten minutes.
Evelyn’s residence arranged a video call when Naomi could not manage the visit.
Her grandmother looked at her through the screen.
“You’re tired, sweetheart.”
“A little.”
“Then rest the dough.”
Naomi smiled.
“All right, Gran.”
The legal work continued around her, but not without her.
Her attorney explained the next steps in the assault matter and helped her request appropriate protections.
The bank dispute received renewed attention because Colin had brought documents to the café that he had previously refused to provide.
Some had been left on the table.
Others were obtained through formal requests.
An independent examiner compared signatures, document versions, and the records showing when files had been created and transmitted.
Naomi had expected the signature to be the whole case.
It was not.
The records surrounding it mattered just as much.
Where the loan proceeds went.
Which account received them.
Who communicated with the lender.
Which telephone number confirmed the instructions.
She sat beside the attorney while a timeline formed.
Then another name appeared.
Vincent Bellini.
Not on the loan itself.
On the company that received a substantial portion of the money shortly after Colin withdrew it.
Naomi stared at the page.
“Why would Colin send money to Luca’s cousin?”
The attorney did not speculate.
“We’re verifying that.”
Luca read the material separately with independent counsel.
When he came home, Naomi was waiting in the kitchen.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect?”
“Not this.”
She watched his face.
“Anything close to this?”
He took a breath.
“I knew Vincent opposed the company review. I knew there were transactions he didn’t want examined. I did not know he had any connection to Colin.”
The answer was difficult.
It was also direct.
She nodded.
“I need you to keep telling me the ugly parts.”
“I will.”
Over the next week, the connection became clearer.
Colin had done consulting work for a property company associated with Vincent before Naomi ever met Luca.
Some of the money taken from Second Rise had been used to cover Colin’s obligations to that company.
Later, Vincent learned whose wife Naomi had become.
He reached out to Colin.
The settlement was meant to do more than end the bakery dispute.
It would establish, on paper, that Naomi had authorized the transactions and accepted responsibility for them.
That document could damage her credibility.
It could also become useful in Vincent’s challenge against Luca.
Naomi read the relevant messages only after counsel confirmed how they had been obtained.
One sentence remained with her.
She needs to sign before she understands what the records connect.
For years, Colin had described her as incapable.
Apparently, her ignorance had required considerable effort to maintain.
That realization made her furious.
The fury helped.
She began sleeping more.
Eating properly.
Answering the bakery’s messages.
Then Luca received notice of an extraordinary meeting concerning his position at Bellini Atlantic.
Vincent intended to challenge the validity of the marriage arrangement.
He claimed Luca had used a private contract to deceive the family trust.
Naomi read the notice at the kitchen table.
Their original agreement lay beneath it.
Separate bedrooms.
One year.
Financial obligations.
The language felt distant now, like instructions written for two people who no longer existed.
“What happens?” she asked.
“We respond truthfully.”
“And if that costs you the chairmanship?”
He looked toward the ultrasound picture propped beside the fruit bowl.
“Then it costs me the chairmanship.”
She studied him.
Months earlier, she might have heard that as a romantic declaration.
Now she understood it as a practical choice with consequences.
“Are you sure?”
“No,” he admitted. “But I’m sure I won’t let Vincent use you to keep it.”
That evening, Naomi opened the bakery accounts.
The balance was modest.
The building was hers.
The business was recovering.
For the first time, she could imagine surviving even if every impressive thing about her husband disappeared.
When she told him, he smiled.
“Good.”
“You don’t find that insulting?”
May you like
He shook his head.
“I find it necessary.”
