Chapter 13 - Derek Finally Cracks.
Derek refused to speak to police until Luca arrived.
He sat in a small consultation room near the emergency department with his blue jacket folded over one arm.
Without it, he looked younger.
Smaller.
Less certain.
There was a red mark along his wrist from the corridor confrontation, but otherwise he appeared unharmed.
Luca stayed near the door.
"Talk."
Derek looked past him.
"Where is Leah?"
"Safe."
"I need to tell her myself."
"You lost the privilege of asking for private conversations when you tried to take her child."
Derek flinched.
"I wasn't going to hurt Emma."
"You were grabbing a newborn from a frightened woman."
"My mother said Leah was unstable."
Luca's expression did not change.
"And you believed her."
Derek looked down.
"I believed what I needed to believe."
That was the first honest sentence Luca had heard from him.
Upstairs, Leah listened through a secure video connection with Nora beside her.
She had refused Derek's request to meet in person.
She had also refused Luca's suggestion that she avoid the conversation entirely.
"I want to hear him."
Now she did.
Derek rubbed both hands over his face.
"The trust was never supposed to become a custody fight."
Luca leaned against the wall.
"Then what was it supposed to become?"
"Leah was supposed to sign management authority over to Sloan Holdings."
Leah whispered at the screen.
"Never."
Derek continued.
"My mother said we would tell Leah the shares were too complicated and that we could protect the value for Emma."
"And when Leah refused help after Ethan's funeral?"
"My mother changed the plan."
Derek's voice became quieter.
"She started documenting everything Leah did."
"Calls."
"Messages."
"Times she cried."
"Times she missed appointments."
Leah felt humiliation burn through her.
Her grief had been turned into a spreadsheet.
"Porter?"
Luca asked.
Derek nodded.
"My mother hired her."
"The chart changes?"
"I don't know."
"The fake transport team?"
Derek looked away.
Luca stepped closer.
"Derek."
"I arranged them."
Upstairs, Leah closed her eyes.
Nora placed a hand near hers but did not touch without permission.
"Why?"
Luca's voice became harder.
"To move Emma to another floor where my mother had an evaluator waiting."
"You were going to separate a newborn from her mother to create evidence."
Derek's eyes filled with shame.
"I told myself it would only be for an hour."
Luca's jaw clenched.
"People tell themselves many things when they want to live with what they're doing."
Derek looked up.
"I didn't know about Ethan."
Luca went still.
"What about Ethan?"
"My mother knew he was investigating old accounts."
"How?"
"Richard Vale told her."
"The hospital executive?"
"He accessed Ethan's appointments."
Derek's voice shook now.
"They knew when he was meeting someone the night of the crash."
Leah leaned toward the laptop.
"Who was he meeting?"
Derek could not hear her, but Luca asked the same question.
"Who?"
Derek looked directly at the camera in the corner of the room.
For the first time, he seemed to realize Leah might be watching.
"Luca."
Luca's face hardened.
"He wasn't meeting me."
Derek shook his head.
"Not you."
He swallowed.
"Your father."
Luca stopped moving.
Leah had never seen him look shocked before.
May you like
Derek continued.
"Ethan was going to meet Antonio Moretti the night he crashed."
