Chapter 4 - THE WARNINGS HE NEVER BOTHERED TO READ
The following morning, Elena arrived carrying a slim leather briefcase and a paper cup of coffee.
She noticed the Harbor Point file number written on Luca’s notepad before she sat down.
“Why are we discussing 2020?”
“I met the daughter of one of the men who died.”
Elena stopped removing papers from her case.
“Which employee?”
“Benjamin Bell.”
She exhaled slowly.
“I remember his family.”
“Did we respond to their questions?”
“The company responded through counsel.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Elena looked at him.
“No. Not adequately.”
Luca turned his chair toward the window.
“Why?”
“Because the company wanted the matter closed, and every answer created another question.”
“Did you agree with that?”
“I wasn’t the only lawyer advising you, Luca. Dominic controlled the operational records. I told you at the time that we needed an independent review.”
He looked back sharply.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“October 2020. Three weeks after the fire.”
Luca tried to remember.
There had been meetings with insurers, engineers, lenders, and regulators. The company was losing contracts. Newspapers were asking questions. Dominic had assured him the operations team was managing everything.
Elena watched his face.
“You don’t remember.”
“No.”
“You were told there were discrepancies in inspection records. You asked Dominic to resolve them.”
“Did he?”
“He said he did.”
“Did anybody verify that?”
“I requested verification. You authorized Dominic to handle it.”
The room became uncomfortably quiet.
Luca had imagined negligence as something committed by careless men far below him.
An electrician overlooking a warning.
A supervisor signing a checklist without inspecting a room.
A maintenance manager postponing a repair.
He had rarely considered that a man could be negligent from the top floor of a building simply by preferring a reassuring answer to an inconvenient question.
“I want the original records,” he said.
Elena’s expression was grave.
“Then we preserve everything before anyone starts looking. Emails, maintenance reports, the correspondence, all of it. And we don’t ask Dominic to assemble the only copy.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s the person who told you there was nothing more to investigate.”
Luca leaned back.
“Are you telling me you don’t trust him?”
“I’m telling you that a proper investigation doesn’t begin by allowing a potentially involved executive to decide which records matter.”
He considered that.
Then he nodded.
“Do it.”
Elena picked up her phone.
“And Luca?”
“Yes?”
“If the documents show you ignored warnings, I cannot make that disappear.”
“I know.”
“No,” she said quietly. “I don’t think you do yet.”
On Sunday afternoon, Sophie sat at the kitchen table in the blue house, carefully arranging seven crayons in a row.
June watched her from the doorway.
“You’re making something?”
“A calendar.”
“For what?”
“To count Saturdays.”
June’s heart sank a little.
Sophie had spent most of the weekend asking whether Mr. Moretti would visit again.
At breakfast, she had asked.
While June watered the porch flowers, she had asked.
Before bed, she had asked once more.
June understood the longing.
She also understood how easily a lonely child might mistake attention for security.
“Sweetheart,” she said, pulling out a chair, “Mr. Moretti came to your graduation because he wanted to do something kind.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s your daddy.”
“I know that, Nana.”
“And it doesn’t mean he’ll always be able to visit.”
Sophie placed the blue crayon beside the yellow one.
“Why not?”
“Because grown-ups have complicated lives.”
“Your life is complicated.”
June smiled faintly.
“It certainly is.”
“But you’re always here.”
“Because I’m your grandmother. Taking care of you is my responsibility.”
Sophie considered that.
“Could he learn to be responsible?”
June looked at her.
The question was too large for the small kitchen.
“I don’t know, sweetheart.”
Sophie picked up the purple crayon.
“Miss Harper says you can learn almost anything if you practice.”
June had no answer to that.
Later, when May came by with groceries, she found June sitting at the kitchen table staring at the calendar.
Sophie had marked the next Saturday with a blue star.
“She’s getting attached,” May said softly.
“I know.”
“Have you found out more about him?”
“Enough to be worried.”
May unpacked the groceries.
“Then don’t let him come.”
June looked toward the hallway.
It would have been the simplest answer.
But something about Luca’s reaction when she mentioned Ben remained with her.
He hadn’t denied knowing the warehouse.
He hadn’t pretended that his company was innocent.
He had looked ashamed.
June knew shame could be performed. She had encountered enough company representatives after the fire to recognize carefully rehearsed sympathy.
But Luca’s response had seemed unprepared.
That didn’t make him trustworthy.
It made him a question she wasn’t ready to answer.
“I told Sophie we’d decide after I learned more,” June said.
“And?”
“And I intend to keep that promise.”
May nodded.
“Then let’s learn more.”
The next Friday, Luca’s assistant informed him that a woman named June Bell had called.
“She asked whether you still intended to request another visit.”
Luca looked at the calendar.
He had blocked off Saturday afternoon but hadn’t asked June to agree.
“What did you tell her?”
“That I would ask you.”
“Call her back.”
June answered on the third ring.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Luca, please.”
“We’ll see.”
He nearly laughed.
“Fair enough.”
She continued without waiting.
“I’ve spoken to Miss Harper and checked your business records as best I can. May and I are willing to let you visit for an hour tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“Two o’clock. In the living room. With one of us present.”
“I’ll be there.”
“No expensive gifts.”
“Understood.”
“No employees arriving with you.”
“Understood.”
“And if you tell Sophie you’re coming, you must come.”
Luca glanced at the afternoon meeting already marked on his calendar.
He crossed it out.
“I will.”
June remained silent for a moment.
“Do you have children, Mr. Moretti?”
“No.”
“Then there’s something you should understand. Adults can learn to distrust a promise. Children usually have to be hurt by one first.”
Luca looked at the empty chair across from his desk.
“I understand that better than you might think.”
At 1:57 on Saturday, a black sedan stopped across the street from the blue house.
Luca stepped out alone.
He carried a picture book he had purchased at the school fundraiser.
No flowers.
No expensive toys.
No carefully wrapped presents intended to impress a child.
Sophie was already watching from the front window.
Before he reached the steps, the door opened.
“You’re early!”
“Three minutes.”
“That’s okay. Early counts as coming.”
June appeared behind her.
“Sophie, let him get to the porch.”
Sophie stepped aside.
Luca offered June the book.
“Would you mind checking this before I give it to her?”
June examined the cover.
A bear was searching for his missing hat.
She handed it to Sophie.
“That’s fine.”
Sophie immediately opened the book.
“You have to do the voices.”
Luca blinked.
“The voices?”
“For the animals.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You can learn.”
June sat in her usual chair.
May settled near the window with a basket of sewing.
And Luca Moretti, whose voice could silence a boardroom, spent the next forty minutes being instructed by a six-year-old on how a bear should sound.
His first attempt was too serious.
His second sounded like a tired businessman.
His third, according to Sophie, was “pretty good, but still a little angry.”
By the fourth page, he was using a ridiculous deep voice that made Sophie laugh so hard she had to put the book down.
June hid a smile behind her teacup.
Luca noticed.
It was the first time she had smiled at him.
He didn’t mention it.
When the hour ended, Sophie closed the book reluctantly.
“Next time we can make pancakes.”
Luca looked toward June.
June raised an eyebrow.
“Next time?”
“If there’s a next time,” Luca corrected.
Sophie sighed.
“You two make everything complicated.”
May you like
May laughed.
“Welcome to being a grown-up.”
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