Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Beneath the Wedding Dress
The attack came at 1:06 a.m.
The mansion's lights went out.
Every alarm screamed at once.
Vincent woke instantly.
Tessa was sleeping in the small room beside his.
He reached for the emergency phone.
"Rafael."
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Slow.
Careful.
Then a gunshot.
Tessa burst into the bedroom.
"Mr. Corvino!"
"Lock the door."
She did.
"What do we do?"
"There's a weapons compartment behind the painting."
She stared.
"You have a weapons compartment?"
"Yes."
"Of course you do."
Tessa pulled the painting aside.
A handgun appeared.
She handed it to him.
"You know how to use that?"
Vincent looked offended.
"Unfortunately."
She locked the bedroom door again.
The handle moved.
Vincent raised the gun.
"Tessa, get behind me."
"You can't stand."
"Exactly why I need you behind me."
The door slammed.
A bullet tore through the wood.
Tessa screamed.
Vincent fired.
A body fell outside.
Silence.
Then another sound.
A key turning.
Someone had the master key.
Vincent looked at Tessa.
"Bathroom."
They moved.
Tessa locked the inner door.
A second later, the bedroom exploded with noise.
Three men entered.
Vincent listened.
One spoke.
"Find him."
Another answered.
"He can't go anywhere."
Vincent's eyes hardened.
That sentence told him everything.
They knew.
They knew he was paralyzed.
Someone inside his circle had told them.
The bathroom window opened onto the service balcony.
Tessa looked down.
"It's two floors."
"Can you climb?"
She stared.
"I can."
"Good."
"You?"
Vincent looked at the wheelchair.
"I'll find another way."
Tessa shook her head.
"No."
"What?"
"I'm not leaving you."
She grabbed a bed sheet.
"Hold on."
"You're insane."
"Probably."
She tied the sheet around a balcony rail.
"Come on."
Vincent transferred himself carefully.
Pain tore across his back.
Tessa supported him.
He lowered himself.
Halfway down, his arms began to fail.
"Tessa."
"I've got you."
"Don't let go."
"I won't."
They reached the second-floor balcony.
Rafael appeared from the shadows.
"Boss!"
He rushed toward them.
Vincent exhaled.
"Where were you?"
"Shot. Twice."
He pointed toward the west wing.
"The gates are compromised."
"Who?"
Rafael's expression was grim.
"Dominic."
Vincent nodded.
He had expected it.
Then footsteps thundered above.
Tessa looked up.
Arya stood on the balcony.
She was holding a gun.
Vincent froze.
"Arya."
She stared down at him.
Her face was wet with tears.
"I'm sorry."
Vincent felt something inside him break.
"Did you order this?"
"No."
"Who did?"
She shook her head.
"Dominic."
"Then why are you here?"
She looked at the gun.
"Because he threatened my family."
Vincent narrowed his eyes.
"Your family?"
"My father."
Vincent remembered her father.
Victor Vale.
A former attorney who had worked with his father.
He had died suddenly years earlier.
"Your father knew about the trust."
Arya stared.
"You know?"
Vincent's voice lowered.
"Tell me everything."
She looked toward the hallway.
"I can't."
"You just watched men enter my room."
"I tried to stop them."
"You could have warned me."
"I was afraid."
Vincent looked at her for a long moment.
Then he said:
"So was I."
Arya began crying.
Tessa watched silently.
Finally Arya whispered, "Meet me at the old church tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Because I have your father's ledger."
Then she disappeared.
Rafael turned to Vincent.
"Do you trust her?"
"No."
Tessa spoke.
"But you believe her?"
Vincent looked at her.
"Maybe."
The next morning, the Corvino estate looked like a battlefield.
Three guards were dead.
Four attackers were captured.
Dominic was gone.
Arya was gone too.
And Vincent's trust had become something precious enough to kill for.
At the old church, Arya waited alone.
She handed Vincent a leather ledger.
Inside were hundreds of entries.
Some dated twenty years earlier.
One name appeared again and again.
Marco Bellandi.
Arya whispered, "Your father discovered that Marco had been stealing from the family."
Vincent turned another page.
"Why didn't he confront him?"
"Because Marco threatened to reveal the existence of the trust."
"And the trust?"
"Wasn't fifty million."
Vincent looked up.
Arya continued.
"It was two hundred million."
The room seemed to tilt.
"Where is it?"
Arya's eyes filled with fear.
"Hidden somewhere your father believed only you could reach."
Vincent stared at her.
Then she said something worse.
"The hit on you wasn't meant to kill you."
Vincent went cold.
"It was meant to leave you alive."
"Why?"
"Because they needed your signature."
"For the trust."
She nodded.
"Exactly."
Vincent looked at the ledger.
"And you?"
Arya lowered her head.
"I was supposed to marry you."
He waited.
"After your death, I would inherit your personal assets."
"And if I survived?"
"I was supposed to convince you to transfer the trust."
Vincent felt no anger.
Only emptiness.
"Did you ever love me?"
Arya cried.
"At one point."
"When?"
"Before I learned how powerful you were."
He nodded.
"That's honest."
She looked at Tessa.
"And her?"
Vincent's expression changed.
"Don't involve her."
Arya smiled sadly.
"That means you care about her."
Vincent didn't answer.
Arya stepped closer.
"Marco is coming for both of you."
Then a gunshot shattered the church window.
Arya dropped.
Vincent grabbed her.
"You're hit."
She looked down.
Blood spread across her dress.
Tessa rushed to help.
A second shot struck the church bell.
Rafael pulled Vincent behind a pillar.
The attacker vanished.
Arya stared at Vincent.
"I told you."
Vincent held the ledger against his chest.
"They're coming."
May you like
Tessa looked at him.
"Then we'd better be ready."
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