Chapter 10 - THE PRICE OF A BROKEN MARRIAGE
Elena watched the video of Dante's arrest three times.
Each time, she noticed something different.
The officers.
The reporters.
The way Dante kept his hands visible.
And Bianca standing behind him, smiling as though she had finally won.
But there was one detail nobody seemed to notice.
Bianca wore a ring identical to Elena's.
Not merely similar.
Identical.
Elena enlarged the photograph.
The inscription inside the band couldn't be seen.
But the diamond setting was unmistakable.
Rachel frowned.
“Are you sure that's yours?”
Elena shook her head.
“No. Dante has mine.”
“Then why would Bianca wear a copy?”
Elena thought carefully.
“Because she wants someone to believe she has the original.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Victor.”
Elena nodded.
“She hasn't delivered what she promised him.”
The revelation changed everything.
Bianca wasn't acting out of loyalty to Victor.
She was attempting to deceive him too.
Meanwhile, Dante sat in an interview room with his attorney.
He had been accused of ordering a murder he knew nothing about.
His businesses were under scrutiny.
His reputation was collapsing.
But his thoughts kept returning to Elena.
His attorney laid the evidence on the table.
“The prosecution believes you instructed Marco DeLuca to arrange the killing.”
“Marco betrayed me.”
“We know. But the records show your company paid the victim shortly before his death.”
“Then someone used my accounts.”
The attorney nodded.
“Your wife suspected that months ago.”
Dante looked down.
Of course she had.
Elena had tried to warn him.
And he had laughed with Bianca instead of listening.
“Has anyone contacted her?”
“Her attorney.”
“Is she safe?”
“As far as we know.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Good.”
The attorney studied him.
“Your marriage is making the headlines.”
“I don't care about headlines.”
“She's considering divorce.”
Dante swallowed.
“I know.”
“Do you want me to contact her?”
Dante stared at the wedding ring resting in an evidence bag beside the documents.
“No.”
His attorney looked surprised.
“Why not?”
“Because for eight years, I made every decision about our lives without asking what she wanted.”
He lowered his head.
“I won't do that again.”
Hours later, Elena received a letter delivered through Rachel.
It was handwritten.
Dante's unmistakable slanted script.
Elena, I won't ask you to return.
I won't tell you that I didn't mean what I said. I said it, and I knew it would impress the people listening.
You deserved a husband who defended you when you weren't in the room.
I wasn't that man.
Whatever happens to me, the legal separation you requested will be respected.
You owe me nothing.
Dante.
Elena read it twice.
Then she folded it carefully.
For the first time since the gala, she cried without trying to stop herself.
Rachel waited.
Finally, Elena looked up.
“I want to clear his name.”
“Because you still love him?”
Elena shook her head.
“Because he's innocent.”
She stood.
“And because I refuse to let Bianca decide the ending of my story.”
Rachel opened a new document.
“We may have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“Victor has scheduled an emergency shareholders' meeting tomorrow.”
Elena looked at the screen.
The meeting agenda contained one item.
REMOVE DANTE MORETTI AS CHAIRMAN AND APPOINT BIANCA RUSSO.
May you like
But the proxy votes had already been counted.
And someone had submitted Elena's entire ownership stake in Bianca's favor.
