Chapter 6 - THE SHIPPING CONTAINER WITH NO OWNER
The trouble began at Pier Seventeen.
A cargo container arrived without proper ownership documentation.
Its shipping records had been altered.
And the company listed as the importer did not exist.
Matteo's legal compliance team flagged the shipment.
But before the container could be inspected, someone attempted to move it.
Gabriel brought the report to Matteo.
He read it twice.
Then signed:
Who authorized the transfer?
Gabriel hesitated.
“Your cousin.”
Matteo went still.
Lorenzo Rienzi.
His father's nephew.
A man Matteo had trusted with warehouse operations for nearly ten years.
The container was secured.
Authorities were notified.
An independent inspection was arranged.
Inside were counterfeit electronics and evidence of a larger smuggling operation.
Matteo stared at the photographs.
His family's name appeared throughout the paperwork.
And Lorenzo had apparently been using legitimate shipping routes to conceal illegal activity.
The discovery threatened everything Matteo had spent years building.
His legitimate contracts.
His employees.
His reputation.
And the future he had begun imagining with Isla.
When Isla heard about the investigation through the news, she called him using a video relay service.
He answered immediately.
She signed:
Is it true?
Matteo looked exhausted.
Some of it.
Were you involved?
He shook his head.
Not in this shipment.
Isla stared.
That isn't the same as saying you've never been involved.
His eyes closed.
Then he nodded.
You're right.
For the first time, Matteo told her about his past.
The violence after his father's death.
The alliances he had inherited.
The compromises he had made to keep control.
The people he had allowed to remain around him because he believed removing them would cause more violence.
Isla listened.
Then signed:
You can't build a better life while protecting the people destroying it.
Matteo stared at her.
Her hands trembled.
And I can't love someone who refuses to choose.
Silence.
Then Matteo signed:
I understand.
She ended the call.
And cried.
Because she had finally admitted something she had been trying not to feel.
May you like
She loved him.
But love was not enough to make danger disappear.
