Chapter 9 - Vanessa’s Betrayal
Dominic kicked the door open.
The smoke came from a burning wastebasket.
Mason extinguished it.
A diversion.
Downstairs, the ledgers were gone.
So was Vanessa.
Elena stared at the empty safe.
“No.”
Security footage showed Vanessa opening it.
She knew the code.
Elena had given it to her years ago for her event business and foolishly reused it.
Dominic watched Elena’s face.
“I’m sorry.”
“She betrayed me.”
This time there was no alternative explanation.
Vanessa had taken the evidence.
Her phone was off.
Police were notified.
Dominic contacted people Elena preferred not to know existed.
Hours passed.
Then Vanessa called.
“Elena.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I had to take them.”
“Why?”
“Marla has my mother.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Another hostage.
Another secret.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Vanessa—”
“She told me to leave the ledgers at St. Matthew’s.”
“When?”
“Wedding day.”
Elena understood.
The wedding had become the exchange.
“Come back.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“She’ll kill my mother.”
“And she may kill you.”
Vanessa cried.
“I’m tired of people dying because of Bellamy.”
“So am I.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“Come home.”
Silence.
Then Vanessa whispered an address.
Mason found her twenty minutes later.
The ledgers were still with her.
They created copies.
Dozens.
Encrypted digital scans.
Copies with attorneys.
Copies with federal investigators.
For the first time, the evidence could not disappear in one fire.
Marla’s leverage vanished.
Vanessa returned to Elena’s apartment.
“I don’t deserve to stand beside you at the wedding.”
“No,” Elena said.
Vanessa flinched.
“Not yet.”
“I understand.”
“But you’re coming.”
Vanessa looked up.
“Why?”
“Because fear has taken enough.”
The night before the wedding, Dominic gave Elena a small box.
Inside was the pearl button.
E.B.
Set inside a simple gold pendant.
“You kept it?”
“Yes.”
She touched it.
“The worst moment of my life.”
“No.”
He fastened the chain around her neck.
“The moment you stopped paying people to respect you.”
Elena looked at him.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“That was terrible.”
“I love you too.”
“Better.”
They laughed.
For several seconds they were simply a couple about to marry.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
Margaret.
Her voice was frantic.
“Elena isn’t safe.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
“She’s here.”
“No. Listen to me. Marla isn't working alone.”
“Who?”
“I remembered the third person.”
Elena moved closer.
“Mom?”
Margaret whispered, “It was Daniel.”
Elena froze.
“My father?”
“Daniel Brooks.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He helped hide the money.”
“My father is dead.”
Margaret began crying.
“No, Elena.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“I lied about that too.”
Elena’s entire body went cold.
Daniel Brooks had supposedly died seven years earlier after a car accident.
Elena had identified his belongings.
Not his body.
Closed casket.
Severe burns.
She remembered every detail.
“Where is he?”
Margaret whispered, “I don’t know.”
A knock came from Elena’s apartment door.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Dominic looked at Mason.
“That’s your signal.”
Mason shook his head.
“I’m standing here.”
The knock repeated.
Elena approached the security monitor.
An older man stood outside.
Gray hair.
Familiar shoulders.
A face she had mourned for seven years.
Her father looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then Daniel Brooks said:
“Leni, open the door. We need to talk before you marry him...”
