Chapter 5
Salvatore wanted Gregory removed from every Marconi-connected business immediately.
Clara refused.
“Not yet.”
Her father stared at her across his office.
“You think keeping him comfortable helps?”
“I think if he believes I’m still confused, he might keep making mistakes.”
Salvatore leaned back.
“You sound like me.”
“That is not currently reassuring.”
He almost smiled.
Then Clara told him about Vale Holdings.
The debt.
The shareholder agreement.
The proposed amendment.
Salvatore’s expression changed as the picture became financial instead of romantic.
“Twelve million.”
“That was my investment.”
“It was your trust.”
“It was my decision.”
“I told you not to do it.”
Clara stood.
“We are not revisiting a three-year-old argument because Gregory may have lied.”
Salvatore stopped.
She sat again.
“I need something from you.”
“What?”
“Do nothing.”
He looked personally offended.
“Nothing?”
“No pressure on Vale lenders. No calls to bankers. No men visiting Gregory. No threats.”
“Clara—”
“If anyone can say the Vale company failed because Salvatore Marconi retaliated against his son-in-law, I lose the clean evidence.”
That silenced him.
Clara continued.
“I need to know what they were planning before you scare everybody into destroying records.”
Salvatore hated it.
Which meant he understood it.
“Fine.”
“Promise.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You’re twenty-five.”
“And?”
“You’re making me promise things now.”
“Yes.”
Salvatore gave her a long look.
“Fine.”
The next clue came from the jeweler.
Eleanor had purchased the ring personally.
But she had not selected the size.
Gregory had.
The sales associate remembered him clearly because he returned two days after Eleanor’s purchase to have the ring resized.
Clara asked the obvious question.
“To whose size?”
The jeweler could not identify the woman.
But the size was significantly smaller than Clara’s.
Gregory had knowingly prepared the ring for someone else.
When Rebecca confronted Gregory’s attorney, the response was immediate.
The ring was part of a “private family arrangement unrelated to infidelity.”
No name.
No explanation.
Clara read the statement twice.
Then she noticed the wording.
Not romance.
Not personal.
Family arrangement.
The phrase sounded like Eleanor.
May you like
It also sounded like something involving more than Gregory’s marriage.
Clara began wondering whether the ring had ever been intended to represent love at all.
