“Delete My Number,” She Said—Then Six Men Stepped Aside for the Crime Lord She’d Been Secretly Writing To
Chapter 2
Clara stared at him.
“No.”
Matteo said nothing.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“My father would never—”
“He already paid for it.”
The words landed harder than a slap.
Clara pushed away from the table.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Matteo reached into his coat.
He placed a folded document on the table.
Clara recognized her father’s seal.
The order was brief.
Her name was written at the bottom.
Clara Bennett.
Matteo watched her face.
“The carriage accident is supposed to happen tomorrow.”
Clara’s hands went cold.
She read the page again.
Then again.
“Why would my father want me dead?”
“Because you found something.”
“What?”
Matteo looked at her.
“You tell me.”
Clara couldn’t answer.
For weeks, she had suspected something was wrong at her father’s trading house.
Shipments disappeared.
Accounts changed.
Servants were dismissed without explanation.
Then she found a ledger hidden behind a false panel.
It contained payments made to magistrates, guards, and river captains.
She had copied several pages.
And without knowing his identity, she had written to M.
She had told him everything.
Matteo understood immediately.
“You sent me the pages.”
Clara nodded slowly.
“You knew?”
“I knew someone inside the Bennett house had discovered the truth.”
“You knew it was me?”
“Not at first.”
“Then why did you keep writing?”
Matteo’s expression changed.
“Because your letters became more important than the ledger.”
Clara looked away.
She could not understand why those words affected her.
A crime lord.
A murderer, according to every rumor.
And yet the man in front of her had been the one person who listened when she was afraid.
The door opened again.
A servant rushed in.
“Lord Belladonna, forgive me. A message from the Bennett estate.”
Matteo took it.
His eyes hardened.
“What?”
Clara whispered.
“Another order.”
He handed her the paper.
Only four words were written.
The girl knows too much.
Clara looked up.
“Who gave you this?”
Matteo’s voice was quiet.
“My father.”
