Chương 7
His eyes lowered.
“After that, you disappeared.”
“I went home.”
“You changed your number.”
“My aunt changed it.”
“I went to your apartment.”
Elena froze.
Adrian looked at her again.
“You were gone.”
“My aunt moved me.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
He glanced at Vincent.
“Because apparently somebody kept looking.”
Vincent shook his head.
“That wasn’t me.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The investigators were Dad’s.”
Elena looked between them.
Vincent seemed to realize he had said too much.
Adrian stepped closer.
“How long?”
Vincent said nothing.
“How long did he have her watched?”
Elena felt the last of the blood leave her face.
Madison whispered, “There are reports from years later.”
Adrian turned slowly toward the bride.
“How many years?”
Madison looked at Elena with visible shame.
“The most recent one is dated six months ago.”
Adrian’s face went completely still.
“Six months.”
Madison nodded once.
Elena stared at her.
“What did they want six months ago?”
Madison opened her mouth, but Vincent cut in.
“This isn’t useful.”
Elena turned toward him.
“It’s useful to me.”
“It’s an old corporate matter.”
“My mother is dead.”
Vincent flinched.
“My family was watched for eleven years.”
He looked away.
“You kept money in my name.”
“That wasn’t my decision.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you got married in the hotel where I work.”
“I didn’t choose the venue because of you.”
“But you checked whether I still worked here.”
Vincent said nothing.
Elena stepped closer.
“You checked.”
Madison answered instead.
“Yes.”
Vincent turned on her.
“Enough.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“You told me she was no longer assigned to weddings.”
Elena stared at them.
Madison looked sick.
“He said the staffing company rotated people.”
Vincent said, “Because that’s what the investigator told us.”
“You had someone check my schedule?”
“No.”
“You just said they checked.”
“They checked employment.”
“That includes where I work.”
Adrian’s voice cut through the argument.
“Who ordered the report six months ago?”
Vincent rubbed both hands over his face.
“Dad.”
Adrian looked toward the windows.
For the first time, Elena saw something like exhaustion overtake him.
“How?”
Vincent frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been dead eighteen months.”
The words dropped into the room.
Madison looked at Vincent.
Elena watched his face.
He had expected many questions.
Not that one.
“I didn’t mean he ordered it personally.”
Adrian turned back.
“What did you mean?”
“The standing instruction came from him.”
“Standing instruction for what?”
“To monitor unresolved claims.”
“Elena isn’t a claim.”
“I know that.”
“No, you don’t.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“You just spent twenty minutes describing her like a file that wouldn’t close.”
Vincent’s temper finally broke.
“Because that is how companies work.”
The sentence came out louder than he intended.
A few guests looked down.
Vincent lowered his voice.
“You want me to pretend there isn’t risk?”
Adrian stared at him.
“What risk?”
“The account.”
“Which belongs to her.”
“The disputed account.”
Elena said, “Disputed by who?”
Vincent did not answer.
She looked at Madison.
“By who?”
Madison’s eyes moved toward her future husband.
“Elena, there’s more.”
Vincent said her name sharply.
Madison ignored him.
“The man claiming to be your father didn’t just file paperwork.”
Elena felt pressure gather behind her ribs.
“What did he do?”
“He accepted part of the payment.”
The ballroom seemed to shrink around her.
“No.”
Madison nodded.
“He signed a release.”
“No.”
“There are notarized documents.”
“My father was dead.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Elena’s voice trembled now.
“You know a file.”
Madison absorbed that without defending herself.
“Yes.”
Elena turned to Vincent.
“How much did this man take?”
Vincent hesitated.
“One hundred thousand.”
Elena almost smiled.
Not because it was funny.
Because the number was absurd in a new direction.
“You paid a dead man one hundred thousand dollars.”
“The documents passed review.”
“Then your review was worthless.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“You think I don’t know that now?”
“I think you knew something was wrong and hid it.”
“We didn’t know he was dead.”
“You had investigators following me for eleven years but couldn’t find my father’s death certificate?”
That stopped him.
Adrian looked at Vincent with open disgust.
“Answer that.”
Vincent’s eyes moved between them.
“The file wasn’t handled by the same people.”
Elena laughed.
“Of course.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“You’re telling me departments.”
“That matters.”
“Not to my mother.”
Vincent’s mouth tightened.
Adrian said, “Who authorized the payment?”
“Mercer.”
“Only Mercer?”
Vincent looked down.
Adrian’s voice changed.
“Vincent.”
“It required an executive signature.”
“Whose?”
Silence.
Madison stepped away from him.
Elena watched.
Something had shifted in her before anyone spoke.
She already knew.
Adrian knew too.
“Whose signature?”
Vincent looked at his brother.
“Dad’s.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The answer seemed to take something physical from him.
Elena did not feel satisfaction.
She had expected to.
For years, anger toward the Moretti family had not even existed because she had not known where to place it.
Now there were too many places.
She wanted one clean villain.
Instead she had a dead father, two sons, a lawyer, an investigator, a bride who knew more than she should, and herself standing in a uniform under chandeliers while strangers listened.
Mr. Kim appeared again at the edge of the group.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
He glanced toward a phone raised near the dance floor.
“Someone is recording.”
Vincent swore.
Adrian turned.
A young man lowered his phone.
Another did not.
Vincent stepped toward the crowd.
“No recording.”
The second phone lowered.
Madison said, “You can’t order people.”
“I can ask them not to turn this into entertainment.”
“You were fine with entertainment when it was her.”
The line hit harder because Madison said it without anger.
Vincent looked at her.
She looked ashamed.
Not only of him.
Of herself.
Elena saw it.
Madison crossed her arms over the front of her gown.
“I started this.”
“No,” Elena said.
Madison looked at her.
“You made a joke.”
May you like
Elena’s voice was flat.
“This was here before you.”
