Chapter 5 - THE ENGAGEMENT WAS NEVER THE REAL TRAP
Z
They left the lake house before sunrise.
Noah cried when Alessandro told him they had to move again.
“Did I do something bad?”
The question crushed the room.
Alessandro crouched in front of him.
“No.”
“Then why do we keep leaving?”
“Because some adults are stupid.”
Noah frowned.
“My teacher says we shouldn’t call people stupid.”
Alessandro glanced toward Elena.
“Your teacher is probably a better person than I am.”
That earned a tiny smile.
Elena knelt beside them.
“We’re playing a game, okay? A very boring game where we go somewhere safe and eat pancakes.”
“With chocolate chips?”
“Obviously.”
Alessandro looked offended.
“Chocolate chips ruin pancakes.”
Noah gasped.
Elena pointed at Alessandro.
“See? Stupid adult.”
For a few precious seconds, the fear disappeared.
They moved to an apartment above one of Marcus Vale’s legitimate restaurants in Manhattan.
The irony was not lost on Alessandro.
Three years trying to kill the man, and now he was trusting Marcus with the only living piece of his brother.
Marcus arrived with surveillance reports.
“Victor’s gone.”
Alessandro looked up.
“When?”
“Left his Westchester home forty minutes after the engagement party collapsed.”
“Victoria?”
“Back with Charles Hale.”
Elena folded her arms.
“So Victoria was working with Victor and her father?”
“Possibly,” Marcus said. “Or Victor was working around Charles.”
Alessandro studied the security still of Victor kissing Victoria.
“Victoria is thirty-one. Victor is sixty.”
Elena raised an eyebrow.
“Power has made stranger couples.”
Alessandro almost smiled.
Then Marcus placed another folder on the table.
“Moretti Development has been purchasing abandoned industrial properties through shell companies. The money originates from Hale Security subsidiaries.”
“How much?”
“Eighty-seven million over three years.”
Alessandro’s face became unreadable.
“Matteo found it.”
“Yes.”
“Victor killed him.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I know.”
Elena stepped closer.
“No, you feel.”
His gaze met hers.
There was anger there.
But it was not directed at her.
“You really enjoy correcting me.”
“Somebody has to.”
Marcus quietly moved away from the table.
Alessandro noticed.
“Don’t leave.”
“I’m not leaving. I’m giving the two of you space before one of you either kisses or murders the other.”
Elena’s cheeks heated.
Alessandro gave Marcus a murderous look.
Marcus smiled.
“See? Difficult to tell.”
That afternoon, Dominic arrived.
Alessandro ordered everyone except Elena out of the room.
Dominic closed the door.
“You suspect me.”
Alessandro did not deny it.
“Matteo said the betrayal came from someone I trusted completely.”
“I know.”
“You had access to shipping routes.”
“Yes.”
“Development records?”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the engagement operation.”
“Parts.”
Dominic looked wounded but calm.
“If you need to search my accounts, do it.”
“I already did.”
Dominic’s mouth twitched.
“Of course you did.”
“Nothing unusual.”
“Because I didn’t betray you.”
Alessandro stared at his friend.
Dominic continued.
“Victor recommended me to your father when I was nineteen. If Victor is compromised, he may have placed people around you for years.”
“You?”
“No.”
“How do I know?”
“You don’t.”
That answer earned Dominic a little credibility.
A liar would have begged to be believed.
Dominic set down his weapon.
“If you decide I’m the traitor, I won’t run.”
Elena watched Alessandro.
This was leadership stripped of glamour.
Trusting nobody.
Questioning people who had bled for you.
Being wrong could mean death.
Being suspicious could destroy loyalty just as efficiently.
Alessandro pushed the weapon back.
“Pick it up.”
Dominic did.
“I don’t think it’s you.”
“Comforting.”
“But until we know—”
“I understand.”
Dominic left.
Elena waited.
“That hurt you.”
“I don’t have the luxury of hurt.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
“You just don’t have the luxury of letting it control you.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“You sound like Matteo.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It was.”
Silence settled between them.
Then Alessandro removed the engagement ring box from his pocket.
Elena stiffened.
He placed it on the table.
“I bought this three months ago.”
She looked away.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because you deserve the entire truth.”
He opened the box.
The diamond was enormous.
Cold.
Perfect.
“I chose it because Victoria once told Rosa she wanted an emerald-cut stone larger than three carats. I wanted her to believe the proposal was real.”
Elena forced herself to look.
“Romantic.”
“I hated buying it.”
“That must have been difficult for your bank account.”
His mouth almost moved.
“I had another ring made two weeks later.”
Her eyes returned to him.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Elena’s heart stopped.
“Alessandro.”
“I’m not proposing.”
He placed a second small box beside the first.
Inside was a simple gold ring.
No giant diamond.
No spectacle.
Set into the band was one tiny blue stone.
Elena stared.
“My mother had a ring like that.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You described it once.”
“In the library?”
“Yes.”
“That was a year ago.”
“I remember everything you tell me.”
Her eyes burned.
“Why did you make this?”
Alessandro looked almost uncomfortable.
“Because I wanted to know what it would look like.”
“On me?”
“Yes.”
“You were planning to propose?”
“No.”
That surprised her.
“Then why?”
“Because imagining a future with you became the only peaceful thing in my life.”
Elena looked at the ring.
He closed the box.
“I’m not asking for anything. I only wanted you to understand something.”
“What?”
“When I placed that diamond on Victoria’s hand tonight, I knew exactly which woman I wished I was giving a ring to.”
Elena’s breath trembled.
“That doesn’t make what you did fair.”
“I know.”
“It doesn’t make me ready.”
“I know.”
“And this is emotional manipulation.”
“Probably.”
She almost laughed despite herself.
Alessandro moved the gold ring away from her.
“I’ll put it somewhere you never have to see it again.”
Her hand moved before she could stop herself.
She touched the box.
“Don’t.”
His gaze lifted.
“I didn’t say I wanted it.”
“I know.”
“But don’t throw it away.”
Something warm entered his eyes.
“All right.”
Before either could say more, Marcus entered holding a tablet.
“You both need to see this.”
A news alert filled the screen.
VICTOR SALERNO, MORETTI EXECUTIVE, FOUND DEAD IN BROOKLYN WAREHOUSE.
Alessandro stared.
The article reported an apparent suicide.
Beside Victor’s body, police had discovered a handwritten confession.
In it, Victor admitted arranging Matteo Moretti’s murder.
Case closed.
Too clean.
Too fast.
Elena looked at Alessandro.
“You don’t believe it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
He pointed at the confession.
“Victor never wrote by hand.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“Arthritis. Severe. For five years he’s dictated every note.”
Alessandro’s eyes went cold.
“Someone murdered Victor.”
He looked at the engagement ring.
May you like
Then at Elena.
“And whoever did it wants me to stop looking at the Hales.”
