Chapter 5 – THE MONEY ANNA NEVER TOOK
“Nobody took money from your family,” Bianca said.
Marco looked at the payment summary.
“Then explain this.”
“It was a business advance.”
“Paid to whom?”
Bianca hesitated.
“To my company.”
Anna was standing beside a box of her mother’s books.
She set it down carefully.
“Your company?”
“Romano Events,” Bianca answered. “Westbridge hired us to evaluate a possible hospitality project. We were paid for preliminary work.”
Marco frowned.
“Since when does an events company arrange property acquisitions?”
“We’ve expanded into venue development. I’ve told you about it.”
“You told me you were consulting on a private property.”
“I was.”
“You didn’t mention it was my mother’s house.”
Bianca looked at him.
“Because you would have refused before considering the numbers.”
“That’s usually what an owner gets to do.”
There was a hard silence.
I could see the effort it took Bianca not to say something cruel.
Then she turned toward Anna.
“The payment wasn’t taken from you. It was paid for work my company performed.”
“Work on my house,” Anna replied.
“Potential work.”
“And you needed me to sign away my right to make decisions before you could finish it.”
Bianca didn’t answer.
That frightened me more than another argument would have.
Marco folded the summary and slipped it into his jacket pocket.
“We’re going home.”
Anna touched the box beside her.
“Can I take these?”
“Of course.”
“And the recipe tin?”
“Whatever you want.”
She looked at him.
“I don’t want to empty the house, Marco.”
He stopped.
“I know.”
“I want to know what’s mine before someone decides it’s worthless.”
Marco nodded.
“You’re right.”
He carried the books himself.
Back at the mansion, it was nearly two in the morning.
The dining room had been cleaned. The flowers were still on the table, but the champagne glasses were gone.
I brought fresh coffee for Marco and Bianca and made peppermint tea for Anna.
She gave me a grateful smile.
“Sorry you’re still awake.”
“I’m glad I stayed.”
She touched my wrist.
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Marco heard her.
“Katie, you’re free to go home whenever you want. You’ve already done more than enough.”
I thought of my grandmother waiting for her call.
Then I looked at Anna.
“I’d like to stay a little longer, if that’s all right.”
Marco nodded.
“Then you stay because you choose to.”
It was such an ordinary thing to say.
After everything that had happened, it felt important.
Bianca retrieved another folder from her office.
This one contained business proposals, repair estimates, and correspondence with Westbridge.
Marco read slowly.
The preliminary agreement described Romano Events as an independent consultant. Payment did not transfer ownership of the property, and any purchase required authorization from the lawful owners.
Bianca pointed to that paragraph.
“You see? There was no sale.”
“Not yet,” Marco said.
“Exactly.”
“But you were trying to obtain Anna’s authorization.”
“I was trying to get the project ready.”
Anna sat across from her.
“Then why did you tell me I’d stolen money?”
Bianca looked exhausted.
“I believed there were unresolved financial issues connected to your recovery.”
“From whom?”
She glanced at Marco.
He didn’t help her.
“From things I’d heard.”
Anna smiled sadly.
“It’s strange, isn’t it? You heard so much about me from people who apparently never existed.”
Bianca stared at her coffee.
Nobody spoke.
Then Anna reached into her purse.
“There’s something else.”
She removed a pale-green envelope.
It had been folded so often that the corners had softened.
“I wasn’t going to show you this, Marco.”
He reached for it, but she held it back.
“Before I do, I need you to understand something.”
“Anything.”
“I like my job.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
“I’ve worked at the school library for seven years. I know which children need a quiet place during lunch, which ones have trouble reading aloud, and which families can’t afford books at home.”
Her voice became unsteady.
“I’ve worked hard to be someone people can depend on.”
Marco waited.
Anna handed him the envelope.
“Last Friday, the district office asked me to attend a meeting about a concern that had been raised.”
He opened it.
His eyes moved down the page.
Then he looked up.
“What kind of concern?”
Anna’s fingers tightened around her teacup.
“Someone told them I’d started drinking again.”
I felt sick.
Bianca looked toward the window.
Marco read the notice again.
It described an allegation of recent alcohol misuse and possible impaired judgment. The district had not made any finding, but wanted Anna’s response before deciding whether further review was necessary.
“Who reported this?” Marco asked.
“The letter doesn’t say.”
“When is the meeting?”
“Wednesday.”
Three days before she was supposed to celebrate ten years of sobriety.
Anna looked at her brother.
“I was going to ask you to come. But then I thought maybe you believed it too.”
Marco set the paper down.
“I don’t believe it now.”
She looked away.
“That’s not the same as never believing it.”
He accepted the distinction without arguing.
Bianca spoke cautiously.
“A school has a responsibility to investigate concerns involving children.”
Anna turned toward her.
“Of course it does.”
“I didn’t say they were right.”
“Then tell me how they heard I was drinking.”
Bianca said nothing.
Marco studied the notice again.
His eyes stopped on the final paragraph.
He read the allegation aloud.
“According to the reporting individual, Ms. Vitale appeared intoxicated while attending a family gathering on Christmas Eve.”
Anna sat perfectly still.
Then she shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
Marco looked at her.
“Why?”
She stared at the paper.
“Because I wasn’t at a family gathering on Christmas Eve.”
Bianca shifted in her chair.
Anna turned slowly toward her.
“I spent that entire evening at the library’s holiday book drive.”
Then she said something that made Marco put the letter down.
“And Bianca knew that. She’s the person I told when I explained why I couldn’t come to Christmas dinner.”
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