Chapter 2 - THE NECKLACE
Isabella ripped the pendant from her neck.
“This proves nothing.”
Vincent held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Isabella.”
Something in his voice changed.
For two years, she had known Vincent as controlled.
Quiet.
Distant.
This was different.
She placed the necklace in his palm.
Vincent recognized the weight immediately.
He had bought it in Florence for Sofia on their seventh anniversary.
Inside the clasp were two tiny engraved letters.
V.M.
He opened it.
The letters were there.
Vincent looked up.
“Where did you get this?”
Isabella’s face tightened.
“A jewelry dealer in Manhattan.”
“Name.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You bought my missing wife’s necklace and don’t remember where?”
“It was three years ago.”
“You told me last Christmas it belonged to your grandmother.”
She blinked.
For the first time, Vincent saw fear.
Bellamy stepped forward.
“This is becoming emotional. We should stop and handle this privately.”
Vincent looked at him.
“We are handling it privately.”
He turned to his security chief.
“Lock the gates.”
Isabella stared at him.
“You’re trapping me here?”
“I’m making sure nobody leaves until I know what happened to Sofia.”
Dominic approached.
“Vincent, think carefully.”
Vincent swung toward him.
“You too?”
Dominic stopped.
Vincent picked up the phone.
“How many recordings?”
Emily answered.
“I only heard part of one.”
Grace covered her mouth.
Vincent hit Play.
Sofia’s voice continued.
“Grace, I don’t know how much time I have. Bellamy changed the trust documents. He thinks I didn’t notice.”
Bellamy’s face lost color.
Vincent turned slowly.
Sofia continued.
“The continuity trust doesn’t protect Vincent. It transfers control if he remarries.”
Vincent glanced at the papers on the table.
Charles grabbed the folder.
Vincent’s guard blocked him.
“Hands off,” Vincent said.
Bellamy let go.
Vincent began reading.
The legal language was dense.
But halfway through the second page, he found it.
Upon marriage, a new beneficiary structure would activate.
Several Moretti companies would move into a holding trust.
Voting rights would be shared.
Isabella would receive temporary authority if Vincent became incapacitated.
Dominic would become operational trustee.
Bellamy would remain legal executor.
Vincent looked up.
All three of them were standing in the room.
“Interesting,” he said.
Dominic raised both hands.
“I didn’t know about that.”
Bellamy laughed nervously.
“This is standard estate planning.”
“No,” Vincent said. “It isn’t.”
He tore the signature page in half.
Then again.
And again.
Isabella’s composure finally cracked.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I’m starting to.”
She stepped closer.
“Vincent, Sofia left you. Whatever recording she made was three years ago. She was angry. She was unstable.”
Grace gasped.
Vincent’s eyes became ice.
“Don’t call my wife unstable.”
“Your wife?”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“She humiliated you. She disappeared. You spent three years chasing a woman who didn’t want you.”
Vincent stared at her.
Then Emily tugged his jacket.
“There’s another message.”
He looked down.
The phone screen showed a second audio file.
Unlike the first, it had no date.
Just one label.
FOR VINCENT ONLY.
He pressed Play.
For five seconds, there was nothing.
Then Sofia whispered:
“Vince, if you’re hearing this, they probably told you I left.”
May you like
Vincent shut his eyes.
“I didn’t.”
