Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Burgundy Dress
Clare did not go home.
Police did.
Her apartment had been searched.
Nothing valuable was missing.
The intruder had left a folder on her bed.
Inside were photographs of Clare.
Leaving work.
Buying groceries.
Visiting her mother.
Walking into the gala.
Someone had been watching her for weeks.
Leandro saw the photographs and went silent.
Clare knew that silence now.
It was anger.
“Don't,” she said.
“Don't what?”
“Decide this is your fault.”
“It is.”
“No. Dominic's choices are Dominic's fault.”
“If you hadn't met me—”
“He was following me before I met you.”
That stopped him.
She pointed to a photograph dated three weeks earlier.
“This started because of North Star.”
Leandro looked at it.
She was right.
The discovery changed their strategy.
Clare wasn't collateral damage.
She had been a target independently.
North Star had found the financial trail.
Leandro possessed the corporate history.
Together, they could prove the entire scheme.
Which meant Dominic needed them separated.
They decided to do the opposite.
Vitali Construction's board meeting began at three.
Dominic arrived with attorneys and a carefully prepared story.
Leandro had known North Meridian was controlled by his family.
Leandro had concealed defective materials.
Leandro's crash was unrelated.
The accusations were serious enough for the board to consider placing him on temporary leave.
Then Clare entered.
She wasn't supposed to speak.
But she carried the North Star records.
“Before you vote,” she said, “you should see the dates.”
She demonstrated that Leandro's engineering team had flagged the defective concrete before he could have discovered the hidden ownership.
Then she produced Alessandro's letters.
Dominic's face changed.
Tiny.
But visible.
“You stole private family documents,” he said.
“They were found in your abandoned residence during an active investigation,” Leandro replied.
Dominic recovered quickly.
“Letters can be fabricated.”
“So can signatures,” Clare said.
Dominic looked at her.
For the first time, she saw what lay beneath the polished older man's expression.
Contempt.
“You've inserted yourself into something you don't understand.”
Clare met his gaze.
“I understand dates.”
Several board members almost smiled.
Dominic didn't.
The meeting ended without removing Leandro.
Dominic left furious.
But the victory was temporary.
The evidence still wasn't enough to prove he ordered the tampering.
Then Blair called Clare.
“I found Wesley.”
“Where?”
“He's with me.”
Wesley had been hiding at a family cabin.
Not because he feared Leandro.
Because he feared Charles Kensington and Dominic.
When Clare and Leandro arrived with police nearby, Wesley looked nothing like the arrogant man from the gala.
He looked exhausted.
“I deserve what you think of me,” he told Clare.
“That narrows nothing down.”
He winced.
“I moved your place card once.”
Clare stared.
“What?”
“Earlier that afternoon. Blair and I thought it would be funny.”
Leandro's expression hardened.
Wesley continued quickly.
“But someone changed it back. Then later it was moved again. We assumed Blair had done it.”
Blair shook her head.
“I didn't.”
“So the original joke was real,” Clare said.
“Yes.”
“And Dominic later used the same idea.”
“Yes.”
Clare almost laughed at the absurdity.
Wesley looked ashamed.
“What I said about Leandro's eye…”
“Was cruel,” Clare said.
“Yes.”
“Not clever. Not funny.”
“I know.”
“You know now.”
“Yes.”
Leandro remained silent.
Wesley looked at him.
“I saw my father and Charles with your SUV that night.”
Leandro's gaze sharpened.
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“I tried.”
He had confronted them.
Richard Harkort told his son it was merely intimidation.
Wesley didn't believe him.
He drove after Leandro.
But by the time he reached Highway Seven, the crash had happened.
“I called emergency services anonymously.”
Leandro stared.
“You called?”
“Yes.”
That explained why rescuers arrived quickly despite the isolated road.
“You saved my life.”
Wesley looked away.
“I helped create the situation that nearly took it.”
“No,” Clare said. “You knew something dangerous was happening and didn't report it until afterward. That's serious. But don't rewrite facts.”
Wesley nodded.
Then handed Leandro a flash drive.
“I recorded my father two days after the crash.”
Leandro inserted it into a laptop.
Richard Harkort's voice filled the room.
“We were supposed to scare him.”
Another voice.
Charles Kensington.
“Dominic said the steering would hold long enough.”
Leandro stopped breathing.
Then Dominic's voice appeared.
“You two need to stop panicking. Leandro survived. The insurance report will disappear.”
Silence consumed the room.
There it was.
The proof.
But the recording continued.
Richard asked, “What happens if Alessandro's letter surfaces?”
Dominic replied:
“It won't. I put it where nobody will ever look.”
Leandro paused the audio.
“What letter?”
Wesley shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Clare thought about Alessandro's box.
They had found several letters.
Maybe not all.
The recording offered one clue.
Richard asked where Dominic had hidden it.
Dominic laughed.
“Inside the only thing Leandro refuses to touch.”
Leandro's expression changed.
Clare noticed.
“What?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he stood.
“My father's workshop.”
They drove to the old Vitali family property outside Minneapolis.
Leandro hadn't entered the workshop since Alessandro's funeral.
Everything remained almost untouched.
Tools.
Blueprints.
Woodworking benches.
A half-finished chair.
Clare watched Leandro move through the room.
For once, she didn't fill the silence.
He stopped beside his father's drafting table.
“My father taught me to draw plans here.”
Clare touched his hand.
He turned it over and held hers.
No words.
They searched.
Nothing.
Then Clare looked at the unfinished chair.
“The only thing you refuse to touch.”
Leandro followed her gaze.
He approached.
Turned it over.
Underneath the seat was a narrow compartment.
Inside was an envelope.
Leandro opened it.
A handwritten letter.
My son,
If you are reading this, Dominic has done something I could not stop.
Leandro's eyes filled.
Clare stayed beside him.
The letter described everything.
The unauthorized investment.
Dominic's alliance with Harkort and Kensington.
Alessandro's intention to expose them.
And one final revelation.
I have placed evidence with someone I trust. If anything happens to me, she knows where it is.
Leandro frowned.
“She?”
At the bottom was a name.
Margaret Donnelly.
Clare's heart stopped.
“My mother's name.”
Leandro stared at her.
“That isn't possible.”
Clare reached for her phone.
Her mother answered on the third ring.
“Mom.”
A pause.
“Clare?”
“Did you know Alessandro Vitali?”
Silence.
Long silence.
Then her mother whispered:
“Where are you?”
“In his workshop.”
Her mother inhaled sharply.
“Leave.”
“Mom—”
“Clare, leave right now.”
“Why?”
“Because if you've found Alessandro's letter, Dominic knows.”
A sound came from outside.
Tires on gravel.
Leandro moved toward the window.
A black sedan had stopped beside Clare's car.
The driver's door opened.
Margaret Donnelly stepped out.
Clare lowered the phone.
Her mother wasn't alone.
May you like
Dominic Vitali climbed out of the passenger side.
And Margaret was carrying a metal box Clare had never seen before.
