Chapter 13 - The Name on the Account
Luca read the report three times.
Grant Mercer was in custody. His company had been dissolved. The Moretti
estate had terminated every contract connected to him. Yet the dormant
account still listed him as an authorized signatory.
“Can he access it from prison?” Luca asked.
Rebecca shook her head. “Not without someone helping him. The account
has not moved money in months, but the authorization was never removed.”
“Who can change it?”
“The trustee, with independent approval.”
“Then change it.”
“Not yet. I want to know who kept it active.”
Luca leaned over the report. “You think someone inside the family office
did it?”
“I think someone had a reason to leave the door open.”
He hated that phrase. The house had been full of locked doors, hidden
rooms, and people who believed secrecy was protection. He had promised
himself there would be no more.
“Find the person,” he said.
Rebecca gave him a warning look. “I am a lawyer, Luca. I investigate
records. I do not send people to frighten witnesses.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He looked away.
At breakfast, Lily was drawing a house with a large yellow window.
Hannah sat beside her, helping her spell the word garden.
“Can the garden be bigger than the house?” Lily asked.
“Of course.”
“Then it can have room for everyone.”
Hannah smiled. “That’s a good idea.”
Luca entered and kissed the top of Lily’s head.
“What are we building?”
“A house where nobody gets locked in.”
His smile faded, but he kept his voice gentle. “I like that.”
Lily held up the picture. “Can we put it in the hall?”
“Absolutely.”
After breakfast, Luca met with Rebecca and the new head of the family
office, Daniel Price. Daniel had been hired after the trial and had no
connection to the old administration. He looked uncomfortable as Rebecca
explained the account.
“I reviewed the vendor files when I joined,” Daniel said. “I didn’t see
an active payment schedule.”
“Did you see the signatory list?” Luca asked.
“Yes, but I assumed it was being closed by legal.”
“Never assume that again.”
Daniel nodded.
Rebecca placed a second document on the table. “The authorization was
renewed electronically six weeks ago.”
Luca looked up. “Six weeks ago?”
“Yes. The login came from a device registered to the family office.”
“Whose device?”
Daniel read the number and went pale.
“Mine.”
The silence was immediate.
Luca stared at him. “Explain.”
“I didn’t renew anything. I swear.”
“Your login did.”
“I use a shared terminal in the records room. Several administrators
have access.”
Rebecca closed the folder. “Then we have a security problem.”
Daniel looked frightened. “I have been trying to clean up the office. I
didn’t know anyone was still using the old credentials.”
Luca’s first instinct was to accuse him. He forced himself to stop.
“Change every password. Freeze the account. Preserve the access logs.
Nobody deletes anything.”
Daniel nodded quickly.
Rebecca added, “And no one discusses this outside the legal team.”
Luca glanced toward the hallway. “Hannah needs to know enough to keep
Lily’s routine safe.”
“Agreed,” Rebecca said. “But we don’t expose her to details she doesn’t
need.”
That afternoon, Hannah noticed a car parked outside the estate gate. It
was a dark sedan with tinted windows. The driver did not approach the
guard station. He simply remained there.
She mentioned it to the security supervisor, who checked the gate
cameras. The car left before anyone could identify the driver.
When Luca heard, he ordered a review of the perimeter logs. Hannah
disliked the sudden tension in the house.
“Is Lily in danger?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“I won’t lie to you.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
He explained the account, the unauthorized login, and the possibility
that someone still had access to old family records.
Hannah listened. “Does this have anything to do with Lily’s trust?”
“Yes.”
“Then I want to know what precautions you’re taking.”
He listed them: new access credentials, an independent audit, additional
checks at the gate, and a rule that no visitor could approach Lily
without being confirmed by both Luca and Hannah.
“Good,” she said. “And don’t tell Lily frightening things she doesn’t
need to know.”
“I won’t.”
That evening, Lily asked why the front gate had a new guard.
“Just a change in the schedule,” Luca told her.
“Did someone bad come back?”
He crouched beside her. “No one is coming into this house without
permission. The grown-ups are checking the locks because that’s our
job.”
“Can I check my door?”
“Of course.”
He walked with her to the rabbit room. Lily opened the door, closed it,
then opened it again.
“See?” she said. “It works.”
“It does.”
“Can it stay open at night?”
“Always.”
She climbed onto the bed and arranged Mr. Carrot beside her pillow.
Hannah watched from the doorway. Luca looked up at her, and she
understood that both of them were trying not to let fear become the
center of Lily’s world again.
At midnight, Rebecca called.
They had traced the unauthorized login to a laptop that had been
reported stolen from the family office before Daniel joined. The device
had connected to a private network registered to an apartment building
in downtown Chicago.
The building belonged to a company controlled by Carlo Bellini’s former
attorney.
Luca sat upright.
“Is the attorney involved?”
“Not necessarily,” Rebecca said. “But I found something else. The
account’s last attempted transfer was for fifty thousand dollars. The
recipient was a private investigator.”
“Who hired him?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“Could he be watching the house?”
“Possibly.”
“Then find out who he is.”
Rebecca paused. “Luca, we need to do this legally.”
“I know.”
He ended the call and went to the rabbit room. Lily was asleep, the door
open, the hallway lamp glowing.
He stood there until his breathing slowed.
Then he returned to his office and found an envelope on his desk.
No return address.
Inside was a single photograph of Hannah leaving the estate.
On the back, someone had written:
Daniel Price returned to the office with a printed access report and a
list of everyone who had used the records terminal during the previous
six weeks. The list included three administrators, a temporary IT
technician, and a former employee whose credentials had supposedly been
disabled.
“His name is Robert Keane,” Daniel said. “He left before I was hired. I
don’t know why his access is still active.”
Rebecca studied the dates. “He accessed the archive the night the
authorization was renewed.”
Luca looked at Daniel. “Did you approve his access?”
“No. I didn’t even know he was still in the system.”
“Then we have two failures. The old credentials were never removed, and
nobody checked the access list when you took over.”
Daniel nodded, accepting the criticism.
“I’ll prepare a complete list of former employees and outside
contractors,” he said. “Every account will be reviewed.”
“Not by you alone,” Rebecca replied. “An outside cybersecurity firm will
do it.”
Daniel looked uncomfortable, but he agreed.
That afternoon, Hannah took Lily to a small art class near the estate.
The instructor had been recommended by the school and specialized in
helping children use drawing to express feelings they could not yet
explain. Lily chose blue and yellow paint.
“What are you making?” Hannah asked.
“A door.”
“Where does it go?”
“Outside.”
“What’s on the other side?”
Lily dipped her brush into the yellow paint. “A place where I can run.”
Hannah smiled. “That sounds wonderful.”
Lily painted a wide yellow path leading away from a small house. Then
she added a garden, a tree, and a dog that looked more like a bear.
When the class ended, the instructor asked whether Hannah had noticed
any changes in Lily’s sleep. Hannah described the progress and the
occasional bad dream. The instructor recommended keeping the routine
predictable and allowing Lily to choose when to talk about the
frightening memories.
“She doesn’t need adults to ask her to be brave every day,” the
instructor said. “She needs to know she can be ordinary.”
Hannah carried that sentence home.
That evening, she told Luca about the art class.
“I want her to have more afternoons like that,” he said.
“Then protect them. Don’t let the investigation take over every room.”
“I’ll try.”
“Not try. Put it on the calendar.”
He laughed softly and opened his phone.
They blocked out two afternoons each week for Lily’s activities, with no
business meetings, no legal calls, and no visitors unless they were part
of her routine. It was a small decision, but it gave the house a shape
that was not defined by the latest threat.
Later, Luca received a message from the bank confirming that the dormant
account had been frozen. The attempted transfer had not gone through.
The bank had also identified a second payment request that had been
submitted but never approved.
The recipient was a private investigator’s office.
The amount was smaller, but the description was unmistakable:
surveillance and background review.
Luca looked at the date.
May you like
The request had been made the morning after Hannah broke the portrait.
You should have kept the housekeeper out of it.
