Chapter 3 - The Broken Promise
Late that night, I went to Vanessa’s bedroom in the west wing of the estate.
The room was designed in a classic French style, with a large canopy bed draped in silk and a small balcony overlooking the garden below. When I entered, Vanessa had already shed her heavy wedding gown. She wore a simple cream-colored silk nightgown, sitting with her knees pulled to her chest on the window seat, staring blankly out at the pitch-black rain.
The guards locked the door behind me with a dry, lonely click.
"Are you cold?" I asked, walking over and placing my wool coat over her shoulders.
Vanessa flinched slightly, but she didn't pull away. She wrapped my coat tightly around herself, the familiar scent of sandalwood and tobacco on the fabric seemingly helping her regain some composure.
"Have you come to throw me into the dungeon?" she asked, her voice hoarse from crying.
"If I wanted to do that, you wouldn't be in this room with a warm bed," I sat down opposite her on the wooden window seat. "Vanessa, you’ve been by my side for two years. You know what kind of man I am. I can be ruthless to my enemies, but I have never let an innocent person suffer. Especially the woman I intended to make my wife."
Vanessa looked at me, her emerald-green eyes filled with deep anguish. "Do you still call me innocent? After what little Emma said?"
"Emma said you met a man at the side gate. She said you cried, refused, but were forced. That is not betrayal, Vanessa. That is coercion. Who is blackmailing you?"
Vanessa was silent. She turned her face away, her fingers gripping the hem of my coat so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"I can't tell you," she whispered. "If I do, they’ll kill my father. They will destroy the entire Hale family in a single night."
"Who is 'they'?" I pressed, my voice hardening. "Who has enough power to threaten the Hale family right under the nose of the Moretti family?"
"I don't know his name," Vanessa sobbed, her tears beginning to fall again. "Every time we met, he wore a hood. He sent me photos... photos of my father in the hospital, photos of gunmen standing outside his house. He said if I didn't bring something to the wedding and place it under the ring tray, my father wouldn't survive the night."
"What was it?"
Vanessa stood up and walked to the vanity. With a trembling hand, she opened a secret compartment behind the mirror, pulled out a small black velvet box, and handed it to me.
I opened the box. Inside was neither a bomb nor poison as I had suspected.
It was a small metal USB drive, and beside it was a vintage brass key.
"This USB drive contains the access codes to the Moretti family’s offshore accounts in Switzerland," I murmured, instantly recognizing the specialized device from the private bank in Geneva. "And this key... this opens my father's personal safe in the hidden vault beneath the basement. This person wants both our wealth and my father's secret documents."
"He told me I had to plug this USB into your computer in the office before the ceremony started, and use this key to take a red document box from the vault," Vanessa wept. "But I couldn't do it, Alessandro. I tried to go to the office, but I couldn't betray you. I hid the key and the USB in this room. That's why I was crying at the side gate that night. I told him I couldn't do it, but he threatened to activate the gunmen at my father’s hospital."
I stood up and pulled her into my arms. Her warmth seeped into me, melting away the chill of the day's suspicions.
"You did the right thing by not betraying me, Vanessa," I whispered into her hair. "Your father is safe. I sent my men to his hospital three hours ago. Any gunmen lingering there have already been neutralized."
Vanessa looked up at me in utter disbelief. "Really... is that true?"
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"Yes," I nodded. "But now, we need to find out who gave this key to the man at the side gate."
I held the brass key up under the light of the nightstand lamp. "Only three people know how to access my father’s vault: me, Luca, and... Ryan."
