Chapter 11 - The Wedding That Became a Trap
“Everybody stay where you are.”
Vincent handed Lucy to Marco.
Emma stepped beside him.
“What is this?”
The agent showed the warrant.
New evidence implicated Vincent in a homicide committed eight years earlier.
Vincent’s face went still.
“I didn’t kill him.”
The victim was Samuel Reed.
An accountant who had worked for Isabella.
Emma remembered the name from Evelyn’s files.
Someone had deliberately inserted evidence connecting Vincent to Reed’s death.
The timing was obvious.
The wedding was being used to humiliate him publicly and stop his cooperation.
Vincent was arrested.
Emma stood in her wedding dress as cameras gathered outside.
One reporter shouted:
“Did you know your fiancé was a murderer?”
Emma ignored him.
Another:
“Was the marriage about the inheritance?”
She kept walking.
Inside the car, she finally cried.
Then she stopped.
There would be time for grief later.
Now she needed evidence.
Rachel helped.
Anthony helped.
Even Celeste helped.
The breakthrough came from Lucy’s original surveillance archive.
Lorenzo had backed up footage from eight years earlier.
The recording showed Vincent in another city on the night Reed died.
More importantly, another camera captured Isabella meeting Reed.
The footage did not show the murder.
But it destroyed the timeline used against Vincent.
Then Emma found something else.
A reflection.
A car window captured the face of the person following Reed.
Mercer.
The specialist had been involved years earlier than anyone knew.
Prosecutors confronted him.
His deal collapsed.
Mercer finally confessed.
He had helped Isabella cover up Reed’s death.
He had later manipulated Lucy’s assessments because Isabella controlled him through that crime.
Vincent was released.
He returned to the mansion late at night.
Emma waited in the sitting room.
Still wearing her wedding ring.
But not a wedding band.
Vincent looked exhausted.
“I ruined your wedding.”
Emma stood.
“You were arrested.”
“At our wedding.”
“Technically before the vows.”
“That helps.”
“A little.”
He approached.
“Do you still want to marry me?”
Emma pretended to consider.
“Your scheduling is terrible.”
“Emma.”
She touched his face.
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
The following day, they decided not to reschedule the elaborate ceremony.
Instead, they would marry privately.
But first, Vincent had something to finish.
He announced complete withdrawal from the remaining criminal Moretti enterprises.
Assets linked to crimes would be surrendered.
Legitimate companies would be restructured.
Old allies revolted.
Vincent expected it.
What he did not expect was Anthony’s betrayal.
Security discovered that Anthony had withdrawn millions hours before the restructuring.
Vincent confronted him.
Anthony looked ashamed.
“I needed it.”
“For what?”
“I made a deal.”
“With whom?”
Anthony would not answer.
Then Vincent saw a message on his phone.
One sentence.
BRING EMMA TO THE OLD MORETTI ESTATE OR ANTHONY DIES.
Emma read it.
“Who sent that?”
Anthony whispered:
“Grandmother.”
Vincent stared.
“Grandmother is dead.”
Anthony shook his head.
“No.”
The room went silent.
Isabella had not built the system.
May you like
She had inherited it.
And the woman everyone had buried twelve years earlier was waiting for them.
