Home / They Wanted a Confession. I Seized Their Ship / Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

All Chapters of They Wanted a Confession. I Seized Their Ship: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

50 Chapters

Chapter 21

Lucia happened to pass my door. Seeing my face, she stopped to ask.I didn’t tell her everything.Only, “Someone I’ve clearly ended a relationship with won’t stop contacting me.”She nodded.“I can tell reception to turn him away from now on, so they don’t need to ask you every time.”I stared at her.When I didn’t speak, she asked, “How would you prefer we handle it?”“Exactly like that.”She didn’t suggest I give him another chance.That afternoon, an email from Dario arrived in my work inbox.I didn’t know where he had found the address.The message was long.He said he had argued with my father and refused to keep collecting payments for the Morante family. He no longer wanted the warehouses. He only wanted to see me.The final line read:“I can lose everything, but I can’t lose you.”I stared at it and remembered what I had said on the pier.Dario, I don’t want to die.He hadn’t told me then that he could lose everything.He told me to hurry up and sign.I forwarded the email to t

Chapter 22

I had barely answered when another document arrived.From Dario’s lawyer.Not an apology.A list of financial claims.He demanded the return of every gift given during our engagement and an explanation of several sums described as “joint funds.”When I reached the final page, I understood why he had suddenly appeared at my door.One of the listed payments had never entered my account.Its recipient was Ferro’s consulting company.The amount was four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.The transfer had been made in the second month of our engagement.Its description read: Joint Premarital Investment.I stared at the words and remembered that Dario had indeed brought me paperwork around that time.He said he wanted to take over the south-shore warehouses and needed additional documents to establish his eligibility.I asked whether he needed an investment.He smiled and kissed my forehead.“Don’t worry. You don’t need to contribute any money. I only need you to confirm we’re engaged.”I

Chapter 23

Then, as though afraid of burdening me, he added, “Though you sit much more stiffly than she did.”Slowly, I unclasped my hands.Rosa didn’t begin with the accident.She asked about the consulting company.The old man’s expression changed at the name.“How did you find that?”The lawyer laid several payment records on the table.The accountant put on his glasses and examined them one by one.The longer he read, the darker his face became.“These aren’t ordinary consulting fees.”“Have you seen them before?”He didn’t answer immediately.Instead, he rose and went into another room.I heard a cabinet open, then the clink of keys.A few minutes later, he returned with an old document envelope.The seal had yellowed. My mother’s name was written across it.“Before she died, she asked me to keep a list of discrepancies for her.”My hands tightened.“Why didn’t you bring it forward before?”He lowered his head.“After she died, someone came to my house looking for things.”He glanced toward

Chapter 24

I stared at the photograph for a long time before I fully understood.“They wanted to use an engagement to make my mother stop investigating the accounts?”“Yes.”“Did she agree?”“No.”Rosa answered immediately.She turned the photograph over. My mother had written a date on the back and a short note.Refused to use Elia’s marriage as a condition of settlement.Her handwriting was clear.Whenever my mother wrote my name, the final letter dipped slightly downward, as though she feared it might slip off the page.I touched the words and remembered Dario’s first visit to the estate.That day, my father had unusually allowed me to leave work early and asked Viola to prepare my clothes.He said an old friend was bringing his son for dinner.I thought it had been a chance meeting.Later, Dario remembered my birthday, knew I disliked overly sweet wine, and brought dinner when I worked late.I had believed I’d finally met someone willing to truly know me.Looking back now, all those perfectly

Chapter 25

It was dark when we left the accountant’s home.Rosa walked me to the car.“I should have found a way to tell you sooner.”I looked at her.“Why didn’t you?”“Your father controlled the information you could access. He kept telling you we wanted to take what your mother left behind. You wouldn’t see me in those years.”I remembered.Once, she had waited outside the company. My father told me to leave through the underground garage.He said people like her only used my mother’s name to exploit me.And I believed him.Rosa didn’t defend herself.“But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have kept trying.”I stood for a moment, then hugged her.It wasn’t forgiveness for every omission.I simply didn’t want my father’s old words to keep deciding the distance between us.Back at the apartment, I opened Dario’s list of financial claims.The four hundred and eighty thousand dollars suddenly looked glaring.I asked the lawyer to request proof of the money’s source, its actual use, and my alleged rece

Chapter 26

Why had that money been described as a joint investment?Where had my signature come from?Those questions didn’t disappear because Dario stopped demanding repayment.That morning, I returned to the port services company.Lucia placed a progress schedule on my desk and asked whether I could attend the system handover that afternoon.“Yes.”“You’ve had a lot going on. If you need to adjust anything—”“I don’t.” I paused. “But if I do, I’ll tell you.”She smiled and nodded without asking more.I spent the morning reconciling discrepancies for three warehouses.One had previously worked with the Morante logistics company.The charges were ordinary, but two handover forms were missing from the attachments.I requested them through the usual process.That afternoon, the reply came: the originals were held by the former operator, whom they had contacted without success.The former operator was Dario’s father.Staring at the words, I realized that I had spent years reconciling their accounts

Chapter 27

“That night at the old harbor, Enzo booked an ambulance in advance.”I tightened my grip on the phone.Dario paused, as though deciding whether finishing the thought was worth it.“Later, Livia had it canceled.”I didn’t reply to Dario immediately.First, I sent the recording to the lawyer.In the past, if Dario said even one thing in my defense, I rushed to believe him.Now I needed to know whether facts supported it.The investigation wasn’t as simple as his account.The ambulance belonged to a private medical service. The booking didn’t include my name. It stated only that someone might be injured at the old harbor and a crew should be on standby.The booking call came from a Morante security employee.The cancellation came from another number.That number had been registered to a secondary SIM card Livia regularly used.When the lawyer explained what they had confirmed, he drew no conclusion.But I remembered Enzo’s words.People were keeping the fire under control.They had antici

Chapter 28

I held the phone without speaking.At last, she grew frantic.“Elia, you know that isn’t what he said! He knew about the confession. He knew you were going ashore! You can’t let them investigate only me!”“I haven’t asked them to investigate only you.”“But you only showed the things that made me look bad!”I looked at the lawyer.He gave me no instruction.So I asked, “When you took the money, did you think about whose name would end up on the confession?”Silence.“I was only borrowing it.”“Then why not use your own name?”She burst into tears.“Because you could fix it! You always fixed everything!”I closed my eyes.So that was their faith in me.Not faith in my character.Faith that I would bear the consequences for them.“Livia, this time you have to explain for yourself.”When I ended the call, my palms were soaked with sweat.That evening, she submitted a new statement through her lawyer.It said the arrangements at the old harbor hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment idea.The con

Chapter 29

When the police arrived, I explained that I had never signed the authorization or hired anyone.At first, the man insisted he was following his employer’s instructions.When asked who his employer was, he stopped talking.I left the company in a different car.The streets were familiar, yet suddenly strange.Every vehicle behind us made me turn around.Rosa didn’t tell me not to be afraid.She walked me through the arrangements, one at a time.Where we were going.Who would be there.How to contact them.Only as I listened to those concrete details did my breathing begin to settle.That evening, my father finally sent a message.“Now do you understand that the world outside isn’t as safe as you imagined?”My fingertips slowly went cold.Then another.“Come home. You don’t need to repeat your mother’s mistake.”I handed the phone to Rosa.Her expression hardened.“Send it to the lawyer.”“Is he telling me he sent that man?”“We won’t explain his words for him. Let him answer.”I didn’t

Chapter 30

A number and two letters.My mother’s initials.I stared at the digits, disappointed at first, then embarrassed by myself.I had expected her to prepare the answers for me across more than a decade.The watchmaker was very old and wore thick glasses.After examining the number, he slowly remembered it wasn’t a repair reference.“Your mother brought in a safekeeping receipt and asked me to engrave the number.”“What kind of safekeeping receipt?”“I didn’t ask. She said paper could be lost, but something she wore would be easier to find.”Beside me, Rosa suddenly lifted her head.My mother had indeed used an independent document-storage service.Later, my father took over the estate administration and told everyone all her private papers had been collected.But Rosa had seen only some of the transfer inventories.The lawyer contacted the storage company immediately.Verifying identities and old records took an entire week.During that week, I went to work every day.Not because I wasn’t

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