Chapter 2

The next morning, Luca set a shipping authorization down in front of Serafina.

The long table in the estate dining room seated twenty. Today there were only the two of them. Luca was reading the port report on his phone and had not touched his breakfast.

"A blizzard hit up north, and two hospitals need the Foundation's relief supplies," he said. "It has to clear by noon today."

Serafina opened the file.

The batch numbers were sequential with those of the irregular shipments in the prosecutor's letter, differing only in the final two digits. The authorization listed medical frames and low-temperature storage cases, but the carrier was the dock logistics company Enzo controlled.

Someone was waiting for her to add a real signature, so it would paper over the forgeries that came before.

"Why does the Foundation have to sign?" she asked.

"The hospital supplies are listed under a charity project. The paperwork moves faster."

"What's inside them?"

Luca finally looked up. "Since when do you care what's in a container?"

For ten years she had vetted every piece of art that went into the Foundation warehouse for him. Now he was calling her expertise beside the point.

"If you're going to use my name, I should at least know."

"Serafina, the hospitals can't wait on your feelings."

He pushed the pen toward her. The gesture was casual, as though every document she had signed for him over the past ten years had been no more than a routine duty of marriage.

Serafina picked up the pen and left one stroke of the hidden code out of her signature.

It was not a letter anyone could catch by eye. It was the stroke the seal authorization system used to verify that she was present in person. When she finished, she handed the file to the clerk waiting at the door.

"Scan it now."

The clerk glanced at Luca, then took out his portable terminal anyway. The red warning came up fast.

"The signature code is incomplete. The system is asking for reverification."

The dining room went quiet for two seconds.

Serafina watched Luca, waiting for him to hand the file back.

All he asked was, "What time does the cargo have to leave port?"

"Before noon, Don Moretti."

"Clear it on verbal authorization. Have the publicity account backfill whatever's missing."

Serafina's fingers stilled around her coffee cup.

"You know the verification failed."

"System errors happen all the time." Luca leaned back in his chair. "You never used to make trouble for me over details like this."

"And if it isn't a system error?"

"Then it's still on me."

But the legal officer of record on that document was her.

Before Serafina could speak, heels sounded in the hallway. Gianna did not wait to be announced. She walked straight in. She had changed into a cream suit and the seal was gone from her throat, but there was a black and silver cufflink in her hand.

"Sorry to interrupt." She set the cufflink down in front of Luca. "You left this at my place last night."

Luca's expression darkened. "Gianna."

She acted as if she had not heard the warning and turned to Serafina. "The publicity crisis ran too late last night, so the Don drove me home himself. Young people can handle late nights. You should get your rest, ma'am."

Serafina looked at the cufflink. She had picked out many pairs for Luca, and this one was not his. It was a cheap knockoff Gianna had bought on purpose, just to leave a trace.

"Are you bringing me something like this because you couldn't get anything that matters?"

Gianna's smile froze for an instant. "Such as?"

"Such as the real wife's seal."

Luca closed the file. "Enough."

Gianna lifted her chin instead. "In Black Harbor, it doesn't matter who wears the seal. Whoever can get the cargo through is the one who deserves to be called Donna."

"Then you'd better remember what you said today," Serafina said. "Because when the cargo goes wrong, the person who cleared it will leave their name behind too."

Gianna stared at her, and for the first time something guarded flickered in her eyes.

Luca stood and swept the cufflink into a drawer. "Neither of you is going to turn a relief shipment into a private quarrel. Gianna, go do the backfill. Serafina, I'll be home for dinner tonight."

He left as soon as he said it, without even waiting for her to agree.

At eleven forty-seven, the irregular file was cleared.

Mara pulled the full record off the independent scanning server. After the clerk uploaded the signature with the missing code, Luca used a Don's voice authorization to bypass verification. Seven minutes later, Gianna's publicity account backfilled the electronic wife's seal. Every step had a timestamp.

"This is enough to prove he knew the verification failed," Mara said.

"He'll say he was only trusting the publicity team."

"Which is why we still need the source of the forged seal and the money trail."

Serafina saved the record to an encrypted drive. On the screen, Luca's voice authorization had been transcribed into one cold line. Clear it, responsibility stays as written in the original file.

She had thought Gianna had stolen her husband.

Only now did she understand that Gianna dared to steal her name because Luca had handed that name over himself.