Chapter 10 - The Wedding Rehearsal
While Dante listened to his brother’s recorded warning beneath the lake house, more than two hundred guests waited inside the Vale Grand Hotel.
The rehearsal dinner had been arranged beneath crystal chandeliers and walls of white roses.
No one knew where the groom had gone.
Bianca returned alone.
She entered through a service corridor, changed into a dark coat, and instructed her mother to tell the guests that Dante had been delayed by a family emergency.
Her mother followed her into the dressing room.
“What happened?”
“Dante found the security room.”
“You said it had been cleared.”
“Marco was supposed to clear it.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Bianca opened a locked jewelry case and removed a second phone.
Three calls to Marco went unanswered.
Her mother watched her.
“Cancel everything.”
“No.”
“Bianca.”
“We are too close.”
“The wedding cannot proceed without the groom.”
“He will come back.”
“Why would he?”
“Because Sophia is still his weakness.”
Bianca opened a message and typed rapidly.
Her mother read over her shoulder.
You have the girl. Bring her to the hotel and make Dante choose.
Her mother grabbed the phone.
“You cannot involve the child.”
“She is already involved.”
“This was supposed to be a financial arrangement.”
“It was supposed to be a correction.”
“Call it whatever helps you sleep, but Dante knows.”
Bianca took back the phone.
“He knows what Marco allowed him to find.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we give him someone worse to blame.”
At the lake house, Adrian’s recording continued.
“Marco began moving money through security contracts three years ago. I believed he was acting alone. Camila discovered that the contracts were authorized through a board account.”
Dante stood beside the desk, listening to the voice of a brother he had not heard in two years.
Adrian continued.
“I confronted Marco. He told me the transfers were necessary to protect Vale Holdings from a hostile takeover. He claimed the orders came from Director Halden.”
Miriam looked at Dante.
“Victor Halden?”
Dante nodded.
Halden was the longest-serving member of the board and had been Adrian’s mentor.
Adrian’s voice became quieter.
“I did not believe him. Halden had no access to the account. Only Dante and I did.”
Dante closed his eyes.
The recording went on.
“Then I discovered authorization bearing Dante’s signature.”
Elena looked at him.
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
Adrian answered as though he had heard the question.
“The signature was copied from the Lisbon acquisition. Dante does not know.”
Dante stared at the speaker.
“I should have seen it.”
“You were meant not to,” Miriam said.
Adrian described the sealed clause, the emergency guardianship, and the evidence stored inside the cabinets.
Then his tone changed.
“There is one more truth.”
Static interrupted the message.
Dante adjusted the system.
Adrian’s words returned in fragments.
“The accident years ago… the car… Marco was there before you…”
The recording distorted again.
Dante replayed the section.
Only broken words remained.
Marco.
Car.
Before you.
Sophia stood beside him.
“What does that mean?”
Dante looked at the watch on his wrist.
The date engraved on it represented the night he had saved Adrian.
Dante had believed the accident was caused by a mechanical failure.
Marco had been a junior security officer then.
He claimed he arrived after Dante pulled Adrian from the water.
Adrian’s recording suggested otherwise.
The security director opened a cabinet.
Inside were financial records, photographs, and copies of internal communications.
Miriam found the original bank documents connecting Northstar Meridian to a private trust.
The name of the beneficiary had been redacted.
Dante searched another drawer.
He found a file marked BRIDAL ASSET AGREEMENT.
Inside was a plan outlining his marriage to Bianca, the transfer of temporary authority, and a staged incapacity petition.
Bianca’s signature appeared on the final page.
Below it was another signature.
Marco Bell.
Sophia pointed to a handwritten note in the margin.
“He wrote something.”
Dante read it.
After the ceremony, Dante remains useful for ninety days.
No one spoke.
Elena looked at Dante.
“What happened after ninety days?”
He turned the page.
The following page was missing.
The security director’s phone rang.
“The hotel is calling,” he said. “Bianca returned.”
Dante’s face became unreadable.
“Is she leaving?”
“No. She told the guests the wedding is proceeding tomorrow.”
Miriam stared at him.
“She cannot believe you will still marry her.”
Dante closed the file.
“She doesn’t.”
“Then why continue?”
“Because the hotel is full of board members, investors, and reporters.”
Elena understood.
“She wants to control the story.”
Dante nodded.
“If I disappear before the ceremony, she will say grief made me unstable. If Sophia remains missing, she will say Elena and I created a family crisis.”
Miriam held up the evidence.
“We can release this.”
“Not yet.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Why not?”
“Because Marco is still missing, and Rook said Bianca is not in control.”
Dante looked toward the stairs.
“If we expose her tonight, the person above her disappears.”
“What are you planning?”
Dante handed Sophia the recorder.
“Tomorrow, Bianca will walk into a ballroom expecting me to protect her.”
May you like
He looked at Elena.
“Instead, we make her believe she has won.”
