Chapter 3 - WHAT DANIEL LEFT BEHINDLuca returned at three in the morning.
He was bleeding.
Claire noticed immediately.
"Sit down."
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding."
"Hardly."
"Sit."
He sat.
Claire cleaned the wound on his shoulder while Luca watched her in silence.
Then he told her what Grant had said.
She has Daniel's copy.
Claire froze.
"I don't have anything."
"Think."
She searched her memory.
Daniel's clothes.
His wallet.
His wedding ring.
Then she remembered the old blue lunchbox.
She found it in the closet.
It looked empty.
Luca examined the bottom.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a microSD card.
Claire stopped breathing.
They inserted it into a laptop.
The first file was a video.
Daniel appeared on screen.
Alive.
Smiling sadly.
Claire covered her mouth.
"Claire," he said, "if you're watching this, it means I was right to be scared."
Three months of grief broke open.
Daniel explained everything.
Grant had accepted bribes to ignore dangerous construction violations.
Daniel had discovered falsified inspection reports.
He had copied financial records.
He had planned to expose the corruption.
And he had been afraid.
Not for himself.
For Claire.
For the baby.
"If something happens to me," Daniel said, "don't trust Grant."
Claire sobbed.
Then Daniel looked directly into the camera.
"Take care of our boy."
The video ended.
Claire bent over the table, crying.
Luca did not tell her to stop.
He did not tell her everything would be okay.
He simply stayed.
When she finally looked up, her grief had become something harder.
Purpose.
The files showed that the scaffold Daniel worked on had been declared safe despite clear evidence that its load-bearing brackets were damaged.
Grant had signed the inspection.
The morning Daniel died, the brackets were still broken.
Claire whispered:
"He knew."
Luca nodded.
"Yes."
Then police arrived.
Vincent had already begun constructing a new story.
Claire was no longer simply a grieving widow.
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She was now being accused of stealing corporate records.
And the entire Bellini machine was preparing to make her look guilty.
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