Chapter 7
Bernadette demanded an explanation.
Luciano still refused to give her only half of one.
Instead, he asked the accountants to complete the old transfer trail.
That decision cost him.
Bernadette interpreted his silence as manipulation and stopped cooperating with the museum review.
Without her help, several collection records became harder to reconstruct.
Meanwhile, Marcus began calling relatives.
His version was simple.
Luciano had always controlled everything.
Now he was using the museum audit to punish anyone who challenged him.
Some relatives believed it.
They had reasons.
Luciano was intimidating.
He made decisions alone.
He expected compliance.
He had rarely explained himself because nobody demanded explanations from men like him.
Marcus was using a reputation Luciano had spent decades building.
The realization irritated him because it was fair.
Then Claire found another pattern.
The questionable collection transfers often occurred shortly before Marcus’s major debt payments.
But Bernadette’s signatures did not appear on every sale.
Sometimes she signed only an internal form stating that an object belonged to “Venturi family holdings.”
Marcus later used that designation to move the piece.
Luciano looked at Claire.
“She may not have known they were being sold.”
“Maybe not all of them.”
That mattered.
Bernadette had done wrong.
But perhaps not the wrong Luciano first assumed.
Then another missing item surfaced at an auction house.
The route ledger.
The seller paperwork listed a family holding company Marcus controlled.
The auction house had asked for proof of ownership.
Marcus provided a signed statement from Bernadette.
Luciano showed it to her.
She stared at her own signature.
“I never signed this.”
“You sure?”
“I know my signature.”
The document looked convincing.
But the date made it impossible.
Bernadette had been in Boston with Felix for a school medical evaluation that entire week.
Credit-card records and appointment records confirmed it.
Someone had copied her signature.
Marcus.
Bernadette sat down.
For the first time, anger gave way to uncertainty.
“He told me you were taking things back.”
“What things?”
“The pieces we moved.”
“Why?”
“Because he said you’d decided our branch of the family had gotten too much.”
Luciano stared at her.
Every explanation Marcus gave Bernadette had the same shape.
Luciano is taking something from you.
Luciano doesn't value Felix.
May you like
Luciano thinks everything is his.
The resentment had been manufactured one sentence at a time.
