Chapter 2 - The Man Everyone Feared
Evelyn had spent years around wealthy men.
There were men who wanted everyone to know they possessed power.
They arrived surrounded by assistants.
They interrupted.
They laughed too loudly.
They wore watches designed to make strangers calculate the price.
Dante Moretti was not one of them.
His power announced itself through other people’s behavior.
When he moved, people shifted.
When he looked across the ballroom, conversations became shorter.
When his security man whispered about the Whitmore file, the man did not wait for questions.
He simply stepped back.
Evelyn noticed all of it.
“What Whitmore file?”
Dante looked at her.
“Business.”
“That was impressively vague.”
“It was intended to be.”
Normally, Evelyn would have walked away.
Instead she glanced toward Adrien.
He was speaking urgently with his father, Charles Whitmore.
Celeste stood beside them.
All three kept looking in Dante’s direction.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
“I’m beginning to suspect you aren’t an accountant.”
Dante’s mouth curved.
“No.”
“Lawyer?”
“No.”
“Wine importer?”
“Sometimes.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It usually is.”
Evelyn studied him.
“Why is my sister terrified of you?”
“That sounds like a question for your sister.”
“She isn’t particularly reliable tonight.”
Dante’s expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“I noticed.”
A server approached them.
Champagne?
Dante declined.
Evelyn reached for a glass.
Dante glanced at the handkerchief around her palm.
“Maybe not.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Are you giving me medical advice after knowing me six minutes?”
“I’m giving you balance advice.”
“Fair.”
Instead, she took water.
Across the room, Charles Whitmore began moving toward them.
Charles was sixty-three and had spent forty years cultivating the appearance of paternal charm.
Privately, he had once described a competitor’s bankruptcy as “the universe correcting a clerical error.”
Tonight his smile looked stretched.
“Evelyn.”
She straightened.
“Charles.”
His eyes flicked to Dante.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Whitmore.”
No handshake.
Interesting.
Charles lowered his voice.
“Perhaps this isn’t the moment.”
Dante replied, “For what?”
“You know exactly what.”
Evelyn looked between them.
Charles’s smile tightened.
“Evelyn, Adrien is waiting in the library. I think it would be best if you joined him.”
“No.”
“Emotions are high.”
“Mine aren’t.”
Charles glanced at her bandaged palm.
“You broke a glass.”
“I’ve broken more expensive things.”
Dante almost smiled.
Charles did not.
“Evelyn, this concerns your future.”
“My future changed approximately twenty minutes ago.”
“We can handle what happened privately.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You know.”
Charles didn’t answer fast enough.
The room tilted.
“You knew about Adrien and Celeste.”
“Not everything.”
“How much is not everything?”
“Evelyn—”
“How long?”
Charles’s jaw tightened.
Dante remained silent.
Which somehow made Charles more uncomfortable.
“Three months,” Charles admitted.
Evelyn felt cold.
“You knew for three months.”
“I knew Adrien had behaved irresponsibly.”
“With my sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I expected him to resolve it.”
“By marrying me anyway?”
Charles lowered his voice further.
“The vineyard acquisition depends on stability.”
There it was again.
The vineyard.
Not Evelyn.
Not his son’s betrayal.
The deal.
“You were going to let me stand on that stage tonight while everyone in your family knew.”
Charles’s expression hardened.
“Do not become sentimental now.”
Dante moved before Evelyn realized he had.
Only half a step.
But Charles immediately stopped speaking.
Dante’s voice was quiet.
“You should choose your next sentence carefully.”
Charles stared at him.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Dante glanced at Evelyn.
“She asked me to kiss her. That made it at least thirty seconds of my business.”
Evelyn should not have found that funny.
She did.
Charles’s nostrils flared.
“You think this is entertainment?”
“No.”
Dante looked at him.
“I think what happens next will be.”
Charles left without another word.
Evelyn waited until he disappeared.
“Who are you?”
Dante considered her.
“The simple answer?”
“Start there.”
“I invest in companies.”
“That does not explain why Charles Whitmore looks like he’d rather negotiate with a hurricane.”
“I’m selective about how I negotiate.”
Evelyn sighed.
“I’m exhausted. Speak English.”
Dante’s gaze moved briefly toward the Whitmores.
“My family operates businesses in shipping, logistics, property, security, and finance. Some are old. Some are newer. Most people in Charles Whitmore’s position prefer staying on our good side.”
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“Moretti.”
His expression changed slightly at the name.
“Correct.”
Evelyn finally remembered where she had heard it.
Not in wine.
Business.
Years earlier, an Italian distributor had once mentioned the Morettis after three competitors suddenly abandoned a shipping route.
Later, an investor in New York had joked that the difference between a corporation and the Moretti organization was that corporations pretended they did not destroy people.
She had assumed it was exaggeration.
“Are you mafia?”
Dante’s eyebrows rose.
“That’s direct.”
“Tonight has reduced my patience for euphemisms.”
He leaned closer.
“People use many words for families they don’t understand.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“No.”
“Is that deliberate?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn almost laughed again.
Then her stomach tightened.
“Celeste knew.”
“Yes.”
“You know that?”
“She recognized me.”
Evelyn looked across the ballroom.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the first answer she believed completely.
Dante’s security man returned.
He handed Dante a sealed envelope.
Dante opened it.
Read one page.
His face became still.
“What?”
Dante folded the paper.
“You should leave.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“That sentence has never made anyone less curious.”
“This isn’t your problem tonight.”
“My fiancé cheated with my sister, his father admitted knowing, and a mysterious man apparently investigated my future in-laws before I randomly kissed him. I’m already involved.”
Dante studied her for several seconds.
Then handed her the paper.
Evelyn read it.
At first, the words looked ordinary.
Vineyard acquisition.
Shell entity.
Option agreement.
Investor participation.
Then she saw her name.
EVELYN VALE — CONTINGENT LIABILITY.
Her pulse slowed.
“What does that mean?”
Dante pointed to a paragraph.
“The Whitmores planned to place the debt exposure under the consulting entity you registered last year.”
Evelyn looked up.
“My consulting company?”
“Yes.”
“That company has nothing to do with the acquisition.”
“Apparently Adrien arranged paperwork suggesting otherwise.”
“No.”
She scanned faster.
Her signatures appeared on several pages.
Except they weren’t hers.
Similar.
Close.
But not hers.
Evelyn knew exactly how she crossed the V in Vale.
This person hadn’t.
“These are forged.”
“I assumed.”
She continued reading.
If the acquisition failed, millions in obligations could be attributed to her company.
Meanwhile, another entity controlled by the Whitmores would retain the actual vineyard assets.
Evelyn’s hands began shaking.
“They were going to make me responsible for the debt.”
Dante said nothing.
“And keep the vineyard.”
“Yes.”
“But why marry me?”
“Credibility.”
The word hurt more than it should have.
“My reputation.”
“Your reputation attracted investors.”
Evelyn looked toward Adrien.
He was laughing at something a guest said.
Laughing.
As if nothing had happened.
“She wasn’t just sleeping with him.”
Dante followed her gaze.
“Your sister?”
“Celeste asked questions for months. About my company. My signatures. My investor agreements.”
Dante’s eyes sharpened.
“You think she helped.”
“I think she knew.”
A voice sounded behind them.
“She knew everything.”
Evelyn turned.
Celeste stood there.
Alone.
Her face no longer smug.
She looked terrified.
Adrien was nowhere nearby.
Celeste looked at Dante.
Then at Evelyn.
“You need to leave this hotel.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because Adrien knows Dante gave you the file.”
Dante’s voice was cold.
“How?”
Celeste swallowed.
“He has people watching.”
“Who?”
“You don’t understand.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Then explain it.”
Celeste looked around the ballroom.
“For once in your life, Eevee, stop assuming you’re the smartest person in the room.”
Evelyn flinched.
Celeste lowered her voice.
“The vineyard deal isn’t about wine.”
Dante’s expression changed.
“What is it about?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Land.”
“Obviously.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“What’s underneath it.”
Dante went still.
Evelyn looked between them.
“What’s underneath the vineyard?”
Celeste whispered:
“A tunnel.”
Before Evelyn could ask another question, every light in the ballroom went out.
Someone screamed.
Glass shattered.
And in the darkness, Dante grabbed Evelyn around the waist and pulled her to the floor just as something struck the wall where her head had been.
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End of Chapter 2.
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