Chapter 17
Matteo did not call Luca.
He wanted to.
Instead he called Belladonna’s board counsel.
“Am I entitled to the information?”
“No.”
Excellent.
“Is Posy?”
“No.”
Also excellent.
“Then tell Luca not to discuss transactions with my daughter.”
“I can communicate that.”
Matteo hung up.
Then realized what he had almost done.
Control Luca through a lawyer because Posy’s feelings frightened him.
He called back.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell him that.”
Silence.
“What changed?”
“My daughter is twelve. I can tell Luca directly that business information isn’t appropriate. I don’t need corporate counsel parenting my brother.”
The lawyer probably wrote something down.
Matteo hated lawyers.
That evening he spoke to Posy.
“Luca should’ve been more careful telling you.”
“He didn’t tell me numbers.”
“Still.”
“I asked.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Matteo stopped.
There it was.
Posy had asked.
He could dislike the answer without converting her question into Luca’s wrongdoing.
“Fair.”
She looked suspicious.
“You agree?”
“Occasionally.”
Then:
“Are they selling?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you stop it?”
“No.”
“You could scare them.”
“No.”
“Could.”
Matteo looked at her.
“That would be exactly the problem.”
Posy knew.
She had been testing him.
Good.
Belladonna’s board began a formal strategic review.
The Arcwell offer:
$128 million for the real estate company.
Casino operations would receive a three-year leaseback at market rent.
After three years, Arcwell could redevelop subject to ordinary zoning approvals.
No bridge debt.
No hidden enforcement route.
No Honora compensation.
No related Arden Peak forecast.
Independent valuation:
$122 million to $139 million.
The offer was not absurd.
Luca hated it.
That mattered too.
He told the board:
“I do not want to sell.”
The chair answered:
“Noted.”
Luca’s face hardened.
Five years earlier, “noted” would have been an insult.
Now it was governance.
He still owned significant equity.
His view mattered.
It no longer ended the discussion.
The institutional investors wanted a market check.
They had survived bankruptcy.
Their holdings remained impaired compared with what they had expected years earlier.
A clean sale at a premium deserved evaluation.
The board retained an independent investment bank.
Not Crane.
Not anyone who had worked for Arcwell within five years.
Every conflict disclosed.
Matteo’s old secured real-estate loan appeared in the review.
Outstanding principal:
$4.2 million.
Legitimate.
Documented.
Above water.
If Belladonna sold the property, Matteo would be repaid.
Posy found out because Matteo told her.
Not because she needed the financial detail.
Because he did not want her discovering later and thinking he had hidden a benefit.
“You get money?”
“My loan gets repaid.”
“So you benefit.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want them to sell?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like Arcwell.”
“That’s not financial.”
“No.”
“Would you get the money if someone else bought?”
“Yes.”
“If they don’t sell?”
“They keep paying under the loan.”
“So either way you get paid.”
“That is generally how loans work.”
She rolled her eyes.
Then became serious.
“Can you vote?”
“No.”
“Can Uncle Luca?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell him what to do?”
“I can tell him what I think.”
“That’s basically telling.”
“No.”
“In this family it is.”
Matteo almost laughed.
Uncomfortably accurate.
He decided not to lobby Luca privately.
Instead, he submitted the same written comment any disclosed lender could provide.
His preference:
Maintain current ownership if financially reasonable.
His conflict:
Sale would repay his loan.
His lack of formal authority:
Explicit.
The board filed it.
Nothing more.
Then the market check produced two other interested buyers.
Harbor Crown Gaming Properties.
$119 million.
Long-term casino lease.
No immediate redevelopment.
Merritt Coastal Capital.
$124 million.
Ten-year lease with purchase options tied to performance.
And Arcwell raised its offer.
$134 million.
Three-year lease.
Then land.
Posy read none of the board papers.
But she knew the broad choices from Luca’s next letter, which Dr. Ames screened before giving it to her.
Luca wrote:
You were right to be angry that I mentioned Arcwell at lunch. You asked me a question, but I gave you an adult business problem before we finished the family problem we were actually discussing.
I am sorry.
I also want to tell you one thing because I don’t want you hearing it later and thinking I lied.
I am voting against the Arcwell offer.
Not because selling to Arcwell would prove Honora right.
It would not.
I am voting against it because I still believe Belladonna can earn more by remaining where it is.
The board may disagree.
Posy read the line twice.
“The board can sell even if he says no?”
“Potentially,” Matteo said.
“That’s his casino.”
“Partly.”
“His building.”
“Owned by a company.”
“He built it.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Matteo looked at her.
“That does not make every future decision his.”
Posy frowned.
“Would you be mad?”
“If people sold something I built?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Would you stop them?”
“If I had lawful authority, maybe.”
“And if you didn’t?”
Matteo hesitated.
She smiled.
“Exactly.”
He hated raising intelligent children.
Then Belladonna’s board received a new engineering report.
Routine property diligence.
Not commissioned by Arcwell.
Not connected to any bidder.
The waterfront seawall beneath the western terrace had deteriorated faster than expected.
No immediate danger.
But within five years, substantial work would be required.
Estimated cost:
$18 million to $23 million.
Luca read the report and immediately suspected timing.
Then stopped himself.
He had learned that lesson too.
The engineer was independent.
The damage was real.
The casino’s land had become more valuable—
May you like
and more expensive to keep.
👉 Arcwell did not need to sabotage Belladonna anymore; an ordinary seawall problem had suddenly made selling the property financially more attractive than Honora’s hidden scheme ever managed to make it.
