Chapter 6 - THE BRIDE'S CONFESSION
Vivien looked smaller in a hospital bed.
No silk.
No diamonds.
No carefully arranged blond hair.
Just a pale woman beneath white blankets with an IV in her arm.
I stood in the doorway for several seconds.
She opened her eyes.
“You came.”
“Emma is safe.”
Vivien exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“Gabriel is in custody.”
She closed her eyes again.
This time, I saw relief.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“Start at the beginning.”
She looked toward the window.
“My father sent me to you.”
The sentence still hurt even after Gabriel told me.
“When?”
“The charity dinner.”
“So the champagne accident?”
“Not an accident.”
“Of course.”
“I was supposed to become useful.”
“To Marco.”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“Access to Ravenwood.”
“The archive.”
She nodded.
“You knew it existed.”
“Only because my mother told me years ago.”
“Why tell Marco?”
“I didn’t.”
I stared.
“He already knew from Gabriel.”
That rearranged things.
“So why send you?”
“Because Gabriel couldn’t find the entrance.”
“And Marco thought I would show my fiancée.”
“Yes.”
“Did you plan to marry me from the beginning?”
“No.”
She almost smiled sadly.
“I was supposed to date you for three months.”
“What happened?”
“You were inconvenient.”
I said nothing.
“You weren’t what my father described.”
“What did he describe?”
“A monster.”
Fair.
“Then?”
“I kept delaying.”
“Because you loved me?”
“Yes.”
“Or because you liked Ravenwood?”
Her eyes filled.
“You have every right to say that.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I loved you.”
She swallowed.
“I still do.”
“Why were you in my safe?”
“To find proof of what Gabriel changed.”
“You could have told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of what you would do to him.”
I laughed once.
“Everyone assumes I kill people before breakfast.”
“You have a reputation.”
“A reputation partly created by men like your father.”
“I know.”
“What did you photograph?”
“Trust drafts.”
“Why?”
“Gabriel told Marco he had changed the spousal provisions. I wanted to know how.”
“Did you know about the insurance policy?”
“No.”
“Your mother was beneficiary.”
“Someone used her old trust.”
“Yes.”
Vivien’s face changed.
“That was Marco.”
“You’re sure?”
“He knew the trust details.”
“Why insure me?”
“To make it look as though I planned your death.”
Exactly what Victoria suspected.
“What was supposed to happen after you died?”
“I wasn’t supposed to die.”
“Gabriel says he only meant to sedate you.”
“That’s what he told me too.”
“You spoke to him?”
“This morning.”
My jaw tightened.
“What did he say?”
“He wanted me to leave you.”
“Why?”
“Because if I married you, Marco was going to stop supporting Gabriel.”
That surprised me.
“Marco was helping him?”
“Financially. Politically. Whatever Gabriel needed.”
“Why would your father stop?”
“Because I told him the revenge was over.”
“You told Marco about Antonio?”
“Yes.”
I stared.
“You broke your mother’s promise.”
“I had to.”
“What happened?”
“My father didn’t believe me.”
“Of course.”
“So I brought him to my mother.”
“That must have been pleasant.”
“It was horrible.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Vivien continued.
“Victoria told him Antonio survived. She showed him letters.”
“Then Marco stopped blackmailing Gabriel.”
“Yes.”
“And Gabriel panicked.”
“Because without Marco, he couldn’t keep hiding the money he stole.”
Now the shape of it was complete.
Gabriel’s original problem was debt.
Then he discovered the archive could give him permanent power.
When Marco withdrew, Gabriel accelerated.
“He needed the wedding,” I said.
Vivien nodded.
“Why?”
“Because Ravenwood’s estate structure changes after marriage.”
“What?”
She looked surprised.
“You don’t know?”
“Apparently I know nothing about my own house.”
“Gabriel showed me an old clause.”
My grandfather’s estate plan.
If the head of the Rossi family married and then died without children, control of Ravenwood temporarily passed to the next adult male Rossi until questions of inheritance were settled.
Gabriel.
“So he wanted me married.”
“Yes.”
“Then dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“Vivien.”
“I don’t.”
She started crying.
“He told me he only wanted access to the archive. Then I found the insurance draft.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“The first time Emma saw you in my study.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I photographed it.”
“You left it there?”
“I needed Gabriel to think I hadn’t found it.”
“Who were you talking to?”
“My mother.”
“She said you won’t find out.”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
“About Marco.”
“Why?”
“Because we were trying to move him somewhere safe after he confronted Gabriel.”
I rubbed my face.
Every secret had another secret inside it.
“And today?”
“I went back for the trust amendments.”
“Why?”
“I was trying to understand what Gabriel planned after Saturday.”
“You said, ‘I’ll handle Luca.’”
Vivien looked embarrassed.
“My mother told me to tell you.”
“And?”
“I said I would handle you.”
“That sounds healthy.”
“I meant emotionally.”
For the first time in hours, I laughed.
It escaped before I could stop it.
Vivien laughed too.
Then winced because her ribs hurt.
The absurdity of the entire situation sat between us.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“Before the engagement.”
“I know.”
“Before moving into Ravenwood.”
“I know.”
“Before touching my safe.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She looked at me.
“Because every day I waited made the truth uglier.”
That I understood.
Delay turns fear into architecture.
“Are you still marrying me Saturday?”
The question came softly.
I looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
She nodded.
No argument.
Good.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“That’s not enough.”
“I know.”
Also good.
I stood.
“There’s something else.”
Her eyes followed me.
“My father’s archive.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of dead men deciding what living people become.”
Vivien stared.
Then slowly smiled.
“That sounds like something I should have learned sooner.”
“Probably.”
I left the hospital.
Outside, dawn was beginning.
Wedding day was now less than twenty-four hours away.
Technically, there was still a ceremony scheduled.
Guests still believed there would be vows.
Florists were still working.
Caterers were still preparing food.
The press expected photographs.
But by sunrise, federal agents had taken Gabriel into custody.
Marco voluntarily surrendered records connected to his blackmail scheme.
Victoria agreed to testify.
Alessandro confessed his role in hiding information.
My family was cracking open.
At Ravenwood, Nora sat in the kitchen drinking coffee with Emma asleep against her chest.
Bunny had been washed and placed beside her.
“You should take the week off,” I told Nora.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“Then fire me.”
I stared.
She stared back.
Interesting.
“You’re not staying here after someone kidnapped your daughter.”
“I’m not leaving while she thinks this house is scary.”
I looked at Emma.
“Fair.”
Nora adjusted the blanket around her.
“Are you still getting married?”
“Everyone keeps asking that.”
“It’s a reasonable question.”
“I don’t know.”
She nodded.
Then said something surprising.
“Miss Vivien loves you.”
“You know that?”
“I know what she looks like when you leave a room.”
That was not evidence I could use in court.
It still mattered.
“And Gabriel?”
Nora’s expression hardened.
“He looks at this house like he’s calculating how much it weighs.”
Also useful.
At nine, Adrian arrived.
“Federal agents want the archive.”
“No.”
“They have a warrant application underway.”
“Then they can come with a warrant.”
“You know they’ll get one.”
“Yes.”
“Are you planning to destroy anything?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He sat.
“Then what are you planning?”
I looked toward the gardens.
Workers were arranging chairs.
“You know what Gabriel wants most?”
“The archive.”
“No.”
“Recognition.”
Adrian waited.
“He spent his entire life believing I got everything.”
“You did get most things.”
“Exactly.”
I looked toward the chapel.
“He wants the family to know he beat me.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Saturday still needs a ceremony.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re not actually going to marry Vivien as part of a trap.”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I’m going to hold a wedding.”
“That sounds similar.”
“Without vows.”
“For what?”
I looked at the guest list.
Every important Rossi relative was coming.
So were several Morettis.
People Gabriel wanted to impress.
People Marco had blackmailed.
People who deserved to hear what happened.
“I’m going to give Gabriel exactly what he wanted.”
Adrian sighed.
“Which is?”
“An audience.”
Because tomorrow, instead of watching me marry Vivien—
the Rossi family was going to learn what Gabriel had done.
And Vivien would have one choice left.
May you like
Tell the truth publicly.
Or walk away from me forever.
