Chapter 6 - THE BRIDE STOLE MORE THAN A FIANCÉ
Vivien denied everything.
For approximately thirty seconds.
Then Dante told hotel security to preserve footage from Elena’s apartment building from the night Marcus returned the ring.
Vivien’s confidence cracked.
“You can’t do that.”
Dante looked almost bored.
“The building belongs to one of my companies.”
Elena turned sharply.
“You own my building?”
“Twenty-six percent.”
“This city is exhausting.”
Despite everything, Marcus almost laughed.
Vivien did not.
Her voice sharpened.
“This is my wedding.”
Elena looked at her.
“No. This is the part after your wedding where people start telling the truth.”
Vivien stared at Marcus.
“Are you going to let her speak to me like that?”
For years, that line would have worked.
Marcus would have smoothed things over.
Protected appearances.
Avoided conflict.
This time he said:
“Where is Elena’s ring?”
Vivien’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
Dante’s security chief entered with a tablet.
“We pulled hallway footage from Ms. Reyes’s building.”
He turned the screen.
The timestamp showed three months earlier.
Marcus left Elena’s apartment at 8:42 p.m.
Vivien arrived at 8:51.
Elena remembered that night.
She had gone downstairs to cry in her car.
Vivien still had a spare key because they were supposedly best friends.
The video showed her entering.
Seven minutes later, she left.
Something small was visible in her hand.
Marcus went white.
“You were there?”
Vivien said nothing.
Elena stepped closer.
“You took my ring.”
“It was ugly.”
The cruelty came automatically.
Then Vivien realized what she had admitted.
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Jesus Christ.”
“Where is it?” Elena asked.
Vivien folded her arms.
“I threw it away.”
Dante studied her.
“No.”
“What?”
“You don’t steal something you consider worthless and hide the theft for three months.”
Vivien’s father entered the room at that exact moment.
Victor Laurent.
When Dante told him which ring they were discussing, Victor’s reaction gave them the answer.
He knew.
Elena saw it.
“You’ve seen it.”
Victor said nothing.
Dante walked toward him.
“Where?”
Victor smiled thinly.
“You are making accusations at my daughter’s wedding.”
Dante’s expression did not change.
“And you are delaying.”
Vivien suddenly shouted:
“Dad, don’t!”
Everyone turned.
Too late.
Victor had already revealed that Vivien had given him the ring.
Elena felt something cold move through her.
“Why?”
Vivien’s eyes filled with anger.
Not shame.
Anger.
“Because my father recognized it.”
Victor finally spoke.
“The ring has a removable setting.”
Elena stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He sighed.
“Your father was clever.”
From inside his jacket, Victor removed a tiny velvet pouch.
He opened it.
Elena’s grandmother’s ring lay inside.
Victor pressed beneath the stone.
The setting lifted.
Hidden inside the band was a narrow brass key.
And engraved along the metal were three numbers.
Dante looked at the key.
Then at Victor.
His voice became quiet.
“You knew exactly what Miguel had done.”
Victor smiled.
“For sixteen years.”
May you like
Then he added:
“And you still don’t know what 417 opens.”
