Chapter 17: The Courthouse Steps

Caterina's POV

The story ran at six that morning, under a photo of me at my father's funeral.

HEIRESS UNDER FAMILY REVIEW, the headline said.

Beneath it was a paragraph about my "recent collapse" and a quote from a family source.

I knew whose voice the source was before I finished the first line.

It was my aunt's.

Ruggero's office had sold the story the night before the barrel hall, and nobody had pulled it.

The lender's text had reached Ottavio the night before: a cash buyer, Thursday noon, not Friday.

That gave me until noon to sign or lose my father's block.

By nine o'clock I was standing at the foot of the county courthouse steps with my lawyer.

I had on the black coat I wore to my father's funeral.

Four cameras faced the doors. Two reporters were arguing about who had arrived first.

Ruggero came out between two deputies, in yesterday's suit.

He had not shaved. He saw the cameras and tried a smile, but it kept slipping.

"Mr. Paoli," a reporter called. "Is it true you're still married to a woman in Reno?"

He didn't answer.

"Did you forge the signature of the Bellandi company's chief of finance?"

"Mr. Paoli is entitled to a lawyer," said the deputy beside him.

A third reporter swung toward me. "Miss Bellandi, are you well?"

"I've never been better," I said. "I was never ill."

"Your aunt told this paper otherwise."

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