Chapter 5 - The Man Vincent Trusted MostMarco DeLuca had been beside Vincent since they were nineteen.
He had been best man at Vincent’s wedding.
He had carried Isabella’s coffin.
He had taken bullets meant for Vincent.
Which was why Gabriel’s accusation was so effective.
It did not need to be believable.
It only needed to create doubt.
Back at the mansion, Vincent summoned Marco into the study.
Chelsea remained because she refused to leave.
Marco removed his gun and placed it on the desk.
Then his phone.
Then a knife.
Then another knife.
Chelsea stared.
“How many weapons do you carry?”
Marco looked at her.
“Depends on the day.”
Vincent ignored them.
“Gabriel said not to trust you.”
Marco nodded.
“I heard.”
“What does he know?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“That answer isn’t good enough.”
Marco’s expression changed.
Not anger.
Hurt.
“I buried your wife beside you.”
“I remember.”
“I hunted Gabriel for months.”
“I remember that too.”
“Then remember who I am.”
Vincent looked away.
Chelsea watched two men who had clearly survived almost everything together suddenly stand on opposite sides of suspicion.
She asked, “Marco, where were you when Isabella’s car exploded?”
Marco’s eyes shifted to her.
“At Vincent’s office.”
“Who can verify that?”
“Vincent.”
Chelsea looked at him.
Vincent nodded.
“He was with me.”
“Then why would Gabriel accuse him?”
Marco answered.
“To isolate Vincent.”
“Or because he knows something,” Chelsea said.
Marco did not object.
Instead he reached into his wallet.
Vincent immediately tensed.
Marco slowly removed an old piece of paper.
“I should have shown you this years ago.”
He placed it on the desk.
A letter.
Isabella’s handwriting.
Vincent recognized it instantly.
His hands began shaking.
“Where did you get this?”
“She gave it to me the day before she died.”
Vincent unfolded it.
Chelsea watched his face.
The message was short.
Marco, if something happens to me, don’t let Vincent destroy himself trying to avenge it. Tell him the danger comes from the old guard, not Gabriel. Gabriel knows more than he understands. Vincent will hate me for keeping this from him, but I was trying to protect him. — Isabella
Vincent looked up.
“Seven years.”
Marco said nothing.
“You had this for seven years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were destroying yourself.”
“You lied to me.”
“I kept a promise to her.”
“You watched me hunt my brother.”
“I stopped you from finding him.”
The room went silent.
Vincent’s face changed.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You helped Gabriel disappear?”
“I arranged the boat after his car went into the lake.”
Chelsea stared.
Vincent grabbed Marco by the jacket and slammed him against the wall.
“You let me believe he was dead!”
Marco did not fight back.
“He wanted to disappear.”
“You had no right!”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Isabella was right.”
Vincent’s breathing was ragged.
Marco looked directly at him.
“If you found Gabriel then, you would have killed him before he could explain anything.”
Vincent released him.
Marco straightened his shirt.
Chelsea said, “Explain what?”
Marco looked at her.
“Gabriel discovered that Isabella was investigating Vincent’s father.”
Vincent turned.
“You knew that?”
“Not until after she died.”
Marco continued.
“Gabriel thought he could use the information to blackmail your father’s old partners. Then Isabella convinced him to give her everything instead.”
“So Gabriel helped her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because whoever killed Isabella tried to kill him next.”
Vincent sat slowly.
Chelsea asked, “Who?”
Marco shook his head.
“That’s what I’ve spent seven years trying to learn.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You investigated behind my back?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Marco pulled a flash drive from his pocket.
“Three names keep appearing.”
He plugged it into the laptop.
Photographs appeared.
Gianni Moretti.
A retired judge named Raymond Sloan.
And Vincent’s consigliere, Dominic Russo.
Chelsea recognized Dominic.
He had been at the mansion twice since she arrived.
Quiet.
Polite.
Nearly sixty.
Vincent stared.
“Dominic was my father’s closest friend.”
“Exactly,” Marco said.
Chelsea’s stomach tightened.
“The old guard.”
Marco nodded.
Vincent rubbed his forehead.
“Why not tell me?”
“Because until yesterday, I couldn’t prove Gabriel was alive.”
Chelsea said, “He is now.”
Marco looked at her.
“And he has been close enough to photograph you sleeping.”
The reminder chilled her.
Vincent immediately stood.
“He doesn’t get near her again.”
Marco asked, “Even if he’s trying to protect her?”
Vincent looked toward him.
“He pointed a gun in her direction.”
“To kill someone behind you.”
“I don’t care.”
Chelsea stood.
“I do.”
Vincent frowned.
“I want to meet Gabriel.”
“No.”
“Vincent—”
“No.”
“He has answers.”
“He also has an obsession with you.”
“Because I remind him of Isabella.”
“That makes him more dangerous, not less.”
Chelsea stepped closer.
“You don’t get to lock me away.”
“I can if it keeps you alive.”
Her face hardened.
“Try.”
Vincent’s mouth opened.
Rosa walked past the study doorway.
Without slowing, she called, “She’ll win.”
Chelsea smiled.
Vincent looked exhausted.
That night, Chelsea could not sleep.
Around midnight, she went downstairs for water.
The mansion was nearly silent.
She passed Vincent’s office and saw light beneath the door.
He was sitting alone with Isabella’s letter.
Chelsea knocked.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She entered anyway.
Vincent looked at the paper.
“She was afraid and never told me.”
“She was protecting you.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“No.”
“I should have known.”
“Maybe she was very good at hiding it.”
He looked at Chelsea.
“You hide things.”
She frowned.
“What things?”
“How bad your life has been.”
Chelsea crossed her arms.
“You ran a background check?”
“I had someone check basic information.”
“Basic?”
“Debt. Employment. Family.”
“You investigated me?”
“You had a quarter-million-dollar bounty on your head.”
She wanted to be angry.
Instead, embarrassment hit.
“So you know.”
“About the medical debt?”
Chelsea looked away.
Her mother’s cancer had left behind bills long after it took her life.
“Thirty-eight thousand dollars,” Vincent said quietly.
“Don’t.”
“I could pay it tomorrow.”
“No.”
“You’d rather spend years working it off?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because then I don’t owe you anything.”
Vincent stood.
“I would never use money to own you.”
“Maybe you wouldn’t mean to.”
He absorbed that.
Chelsea continued.
“People with money think giving solves everything. Sometimes it just changes who has power.”
Vincent studied her.
“You don’t trust me.”
“I kissed you before I trusted you. I’m realizing the order may have been backward.”
His gaze dropped briefly to her mouth.
The air changed.
Chelsea felt it.
Vincent stepped closer.
“You regret it?”
She should have said yes.
Instead:
“No.”
His breathing slowed.
“Chelsea.”
“What?”
“If I kiss you now, it will not be because I’m injured.”
“I know.”
“And not because you feel sorry for me.”
“I definitely don’t feel sorry for you.”
The corner of his mouth moved.
Then he kissed her.
Not like the desperate two-second kiss in the restaurant.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Giving her every chance to stop.
Chelsea’s fingers curled into his shirt.
Vincent touched her face.
For seven years, he had believed that part of himself was buried beside Isabella.
Then Chelsea kissed him back.
A phone vibrated.
Vincent ignored it.
It vibrated again.
Chelsea pulled away.
“You should answer.”
“I hate phones.”
She laughed softly.
Vincent checked the screen.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
He showed her.
A photograph had arrived from an unknown number.
It had been taken seconds earlier.
Through the office window.
Chelsea and Vincent kissing.
Beneath it:
SECOND CHANCES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL.
LET’S SEE HOW LONG THIS ONE LIVES.
Chelsea’s blood ran cold.
Vincent ran toward the window.
Security flooded the grounds.
They found no intruder.
Only one object lying beneath the tree outside.
A small silver music box.
Vincent recognized it.
Isabella’s.
He opened the lid.
Inside was a memory card.
Marco loaded it onto a secure laptop.
A video appeared.
Isabella sat in front of the camera.
Alive.
Pregnant.
Terrified.
Vincent stopped breathing.
Isabella spoke directly into the lens.
“If Vincent is watching this, then I failed.”
Chelsea looked at him.
Tears filled his eyes.
May you like
Then Isabella said the sentence that changed everything.
“The person planning to kill me is Dominic Russo.”
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