CHAPTER 6 — BLOOD NEVER LIES
CHAPTER 6 — BLOOD NEVER LIES
The next morning, Bellandi Tower resembled a fortress.
Armed guards stood at every entrance.
Executive employees passed through facial recognition checkpoints.
No visitor entered without Luca's personal approval.
Grace arrived under security escort.
She felt every pair of eyes following her.
Yesterday she had been invisible.
Today she was the most protected woman in the building.
And she hated it.
Luca called an emergency meeting with only five people present.
Grace.
His security chief.
His forensic accountant.
His family attorney.
And his uncle...
Matteo Bellandi.
Grace immediately noticed something strange.
The moment Matteo entered the room, Luca's expression changed.
Not fear.
Distrust.
Family tension filled the air.
Matteo smiled politely.
"I hear a secretary has become our newest detective."
Grace forced an awkward smile.
"I've just been lucky."
"Lucky people don't survive long around this family."
Luca interrupted.
"Enough."
The meeting began.
The forensic accountant projected financial records onto the screen.
Millions of dollars had quietly disappeared over the past four years.
Never enough to trigger an audit.
Always small amounts.
Always perfectly hidden.
Someone had been stealing from the Bellandi empire for years.
Grace stared at the spreadsheet.
Something bothered her.
She couldn't explain why.
Then she noticed it.
"Can you zoom in?"
The accountant enlarged one transaction.
Grace leaned forward.
"There."
Everyone looked.
"The approval codes."
"What about them?" Matteo asked.
"They're out of sequence."
The accountant frowned.
"They shouldn't be."
Grace nodded.
"Exactly."
"The software automatically numbers approvals."
"But these skipped every seventh entry."
The accountant typed rapidly.
His face slowly turned pale.
"My God..."
"What?" Luca asked.
"There aren't missing approvals..."
"There are missing companies."
One by one, hidden shell corporations appeared on the screen.
Dozens.
Each secretly owned by the same anonymous trust.
Together...
They had siphoned nearly $480 million from Bellandi Group over four years.
The room fell completely silent.
Then the attorney spoke.
"Who owns the trust?"
The accountant searched the registration records.
The beneficiary field finally appeared.
Everyone stared.
Instead of a name...
There was only one line.
AUTHORIZED BY: M. BELLANDI
Grace slowly looked across the table.
So did everyone else.
Matteo Bellandi smiled.
Then...
He calmly stood up.
"I'm afraid," he said softly,
"you're looking at the wrong Bellandi."
At that exact moment—
The conference room lights went black.
Gunshots echoed from somewhere deep inside the tower.
Then came a scream from the hallway.
When the emergency lights flickered on again...
May you like
Matteo Bellandi was gone.
And so was Grace.
