Chapter 3 - The Man Inside Her Company
Elena watched the security feed twice.
Samuel entered first.
Julian followed.
Neither man looked surprised to see the other.
That was all Elena needed.
“No,” she whispered.
Dante took the tablet.
Samuel Reed had helped Elena build Hart Studio from a borrowed room above a bakery into a respected architectural practice with twenty-three employees.
He had attended her wedding.
He had toasted Dante.
He knew where Elena kept original contracts.
He knew the backup systems.
He knew every weakness in Haven Point.
And now Julian stood inside their office beside him.
Dante looked at Elena carefully.
“You don’t have to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
On the screen, Samuel crossed the main studio floor.
Julian followed him into Elena’s private office.
The feed had no audio.
Samuel opened a cabinet.
Elena knew exactly what was inside.
Original Haven Point calculations.
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Can we record this?”
Mara nodded.
“Already downloading.”
Nora moved toward the door.
“I told you.”
Elena turned.
“How long have you known Samuel was involved?”
“I didn’t know his name.”
“You said someone inside my company.”
“I saw payments.”
“To Samuel?”
“To a company connected to him.”
Elena pressed both hands against the table.
For a moment, the room tilted.
Betrayal had a strange physical weight.
It did not hurt where she expected.
Not in the heart.
In the stomach.
In the throat.
In the fingertips.
Dante stood beside her without speaking.
He knew better than to tell Elena what she should feel.
After a moment, she straightened.
“What happens if we call the police?”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“Vale knows half the department.”
Dante looked at her.
“Not half.”
Nora understood.
“You have someone.”
“I know people who prefer public corruption cases to remain public.”
Elena looked at him.
“Federal?”
“Yes.”
“You trust them?”
“One of them arrested my uncle.”
She blinked.
“That’s your recommendation?”
“He was guilty.”
Despite everything, Elena almost laughed.
Dante called someone.
He spoke for less than thirty seconds.
No names.
No details.
Then disconnected.
“Someone is coming.”
Nora looked nervous.
“Here?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t stay.”
“You can.”
“No.”
Elena stepped toward her.
“Nora, if you leave alone tonight, you’re exactly where Julian wants you.”
Nora stared at her.
“He’ll destroy you too.”
“He’s been trying.”
“You don’t understand what he’s capable of.”
Elena looked through the glass toward the ballroom.
“I understand enough.”
Ten minutes later, Special Agent Marcus Hale entered through the hotel’s private service corridor.
He was broad-shouldered, gray-haired, and carried himself like a man who had spent thirty years listening to lies for a living.
He shook Dante’s hand.
“Moretti.”
“Hale.”
Then he looked at Elena.
“Mrs. Moretti.”
“Elena Hart.”
One eyebrow lifted.
Dante said, “She kept her name.”
Hale nodded.
“Smart.”
Elena liked him immediately.
Nora did not.
She backed toward the wall.
Hale saw her.
“Nora Bell.”
She froze.
“You know me?”
“I read your complaint.”
“Then why didn’t anyone call?”
“Because the agent assigned to it is under investigation.”
Silence.
Nora’s face drained.
Hale continued.
“Your evidence didn’t disappear.”
Dante folded his arms.
“Where is it?”
“Locked.”
“Why?”
“Because someone inside our office tried accessing it without authorization.”
Nora sank into a chair.
Hale looked at Elena.
“If what I was told is accurate, we now have attempted procurement fraud, evidence tampering, computer intrusion, possible bribery, and potentially manslaughter connected to the Westgate case.”
Julian had believed he was ruining a competitor.
He had reopened a death investigation.
Elena handed Hale the tablet.
“Samuel Reed.”
Hale studied the video.
“You trust him?”
“I did.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Elena looked at the screen.
“No.”
Hale nodded.
“Good.”
He asked Mara for copies of server logs, timestamps, emails, and surveillance recordings.
Dante remained near Elena.
Not controlling the room.
Watching it.
Hale noticed.
“You’ve gotten quieter.”
Dante smiled faintly.
“My wife says it’s healthier.”
Elena looked at him.
“I said threatening fewer people would be healthier.”
“Same concept.”
Hale almost smiled.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Everyone became silent.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Secure it.”
He hung up.
Nora stood.
“What happened?”
Hale looked directly at her.
“The investigator assigned to your original complaint was found dead forty minutes ago.”
Nora stopped breathing.
Elena felt Dante move closer.
Hale raised one hand.
“Apparent suicide.”
“Apparent?” Dante asked.
“I don’t believe in convenient timing.”
Nora began shaking.
“I have to go.”
Elena caught her arm.
“No.”
“They’re killing people.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do!”
Her voice cracked.
The room fell silent.
Nora covered her mouth.
Hale stepped closer.
“What do you know?”
Nora stared at him.
Then at Elena.
“Westgate wasn’t the first.”
Elena’s stomach turned.
Nora opened her bag again.
She removed a small flash drive.
“I copied Julian’s private ledger.”
Hale reached for it.
Nora pulled back.
“No.”
“You came here because you wanted protection.”
“I came because I wanted Elena to know.”
“Know what?”
Nora looked at her.
“Julian didn’t start following you after Haven Point became a finalist.”
Elena frowned.
“He’s been watching your company for years.”
“Why?”
“Because of Dante.”
Dante went still.
Elena looked between them.
“What does Dante have to do with this?”
Nora swallowed.
“Moretti Holdings owns thirty-two acres near the waterfront redevelopment zone.”
Elena knew that.
Dante had told her.
He had inherited the land.
He had also recused his company from every financial decision involving Haven Point because Elena refused to let their marriage influence the proposal.
Nora continued.
“Julian needs those parcels.”
“For what?”
“Access.”
Dante’s expression changed.
He knew.
“Elena,” he said quietly.
She turned.
“What?”
“My land sits between the proposed luxury towers and the cargo access road.”
Julian’s plan could not reach its projected commercial value without those parcels.
Elena understood.
“He needs you to sell.”
“I refused twice.”
“When?”
“Before you submitted Haven Point.”
Nora nodded.
“Then Julian learned Elena was your wife.”
Dante stared at her.
“How?”
Nora pointed to the flash drive.
“Payment records.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know the real identity. Code name only.”
Elena whispered, “What code name?”
Nora hesitated.
“White Rose.”
Elena’s face changed.
Dante saw it.
“You know that name.”
She did.
White roses had been delivered to Hart Studio three times during the previous year.
No card.
No sender.
Elena had assumed they were from a client.
The first bouquet arrived after Haven Point qualified for the competition.
The second arrived after Dante rejected Mercer’s offer to buy his land.
The third arrived two days before the gala.
Elena whispered, “Someone sent me flowers.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“That wasn’t a gift.”
“What was it?”
“A warning.”
Hale took the flash drive.
This time Nora let him.
“What does the ledger say about White Rose?”
“Transfers. Surveillance. Information purchases.”
“From whom?”
Nora shook her head.
“The account routes through five companies.”
Mara looked up from her computer.
“I can trace corporate ownership.”
Hale handed her the drive.
“Offline machine.”
She nodded.
Dante turned toward Elena.
“You’re leaving.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“Haven Point presentation starts in forty minutes.”
“This is bigger than a contract.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it.”
She looked at him.
The words hung between them.
Dante regretted them immediately.
Elena stepped closer.
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Decide for me because you’re scared.”
His face softened.
“I am scared.”
The admission surprised everyone except Elena.
Dante Moretti rarely said those words.
She touched his hand.
“So am I.”
“Then come home.”
“No.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“You are impossible.”
“You knew that before the wedding.”
“I thought it was charming.”
“It still is.”
“Debatable.”
Hale interrupted.
“She can stay.”
Dante looked at him.
Hale continued.
“But nobody leaves this secured section without my approval.”
Dante considered it.
“Fine.”
Elena smiled.
He pointed at her.
“That was not a victory.”
“It felt like one.”
Mara suddenly spoke.
“I found something.”
Everyone turned.
She had opened the ledger.
Rows of dates and coded transfers filled the screen.
“White Rose received payments from Mercer Development.”
“How much?” Hale asked.
“Over six years? Almost nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Elena felt ill.
“For what?”
Mara scrolled.
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Employee files. Bids. Private meetings.”
She stopped.
Her face went pale.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“There are photographs.”
She opened a folder.
Elena and Dante at a restaurant.
Elena leaving her apartment.
Elena visiting a doctor.
Dante entering Hart Studio late at night.
Their wedding.
Elena stared.
The wedding had been private.
Twenty-two guests.
No media.
No public announcement.
Someone had photographed it through a window.
Dante’s voice became ice.
“Who took these?”
Mara scrolled to the metadata.
Most files had been stripped.
One had not.
Photographer identification.
Initials.
S.R.
Elena stepped back.
Samuel Reed.
Her business partner had photographed her wedding.
Hale swore under his breath.
Then Mara opened the most recent image.
Taken that morning.
Elena standing outside the Grand Aurelia.
Beneath it was a note.
FINAL OPPORTUNITY TONIGHT.
Dante looked at Hale.
“We’re done.”
But Elena kept reading.
“There’s another file.”
She clicked.
A scanned contract appeared.
MERCER DEVELOPMENT / MORETTI HOLDINGS LAND OPTION AGREEMENT.
Dante stared.
“I never signed this.”
Elena looked at the signature.
It resembled his perfectly.
“They forged it.”
Hale leaned over the screen.
“If this gets filed—”
“They can claim purchase rights to my land.”
Mara scrolled to the bottom.
A witness signature appeared.
ELENA HART MORETTI.
Elena went cold.
Her own signature.
Forged.
Then someone knocked on the conference room door.
Three slow knocks.
Dante signaled everyone to stay quiet.
Hale drew his weapon.
Another knock.
Then a woman’s voice came through the door.
“Elena?”
Elena recognized it.
Camille Rhodes.
Dante opened the door two inches.
Camille stood alone.
Her lipstick was gone.
Her hair had loosened.
And there was blood on the front of her champagne dress.
She looked directly at Elena.
“Julian knows Nora is here.”
Elena stepped forward.
May you like
Camille whispered the next words.
“And he just ordered Samuel to kill her.”
