Chapter 2 - The Birthday Gift
Roman caught Evelyn before she reached the ballroom doors.
His fingers closed around her wrist.
Not hard enough to leave a bruise where three hundred witnesses could see it.
Roman was always careful about witnesses.
“You’re embarrassing yourself.”
Evelyn looked down at his hand.
“No, Roman. I think I finally stopped.”
Something flickered behind his eyes.
The room had begun breathing again. Guests whispered behind champagne glasses. Several people were openly recording now.
Roman noticed.
He released her.
“Everyone out.”
Nobody moved.
His voice dropped.
“Now.”
That worked.
The ballroom emptied with astonishing speed.
Evelyn watched Chicago’s wealthy and powerful discover urgent reasons to leave before dessert.
Within minutes, only Roman, Vanessa, Evelyn, and several Castellano security men remained.
Vanessa still held the sapphire ring.
“Give it back,” Roman said.
Vanessa immediately extended her hand.
Evelyn laughed.
“No.”
Roman stared at her.
“You just gave it away.”
“Exactly.”
“That ring belongs to my family.”
“So does your mistress now, apparently.”
Vanessa flinched.
Roman stepped closer.
“What game are you playing?”
Evelyn opened her evening bag and removed a cream envelope.
She had spent six months preparing it.
Six months pretending not to notice Roman’s affair.
Six months smiling at dinners while quietly meeting accountants, attorneys, and one retired federal investigator her father had trusted.
Six months discovering that the marriage she thought had imprisoned her was actually the only thing protecting Roman’s empire from collapsing.
She handed him the envelope.
“Happy birthday to me.”
Roman opened it.
His expression changed on the second page.
Vanessa whispered, “What is it?”
Evelyn answered for him.
“Divorce papers.”
Roman looked up.
“You think you can divorce me?”
“I already filed.”
The silence was exquisite.
Roman gave a humorless laugh.
“You have no idea how this family works.”
“I know exactly how it works. That’s why copies were delivered to three law firms at noon.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“And?”
“And a sealed package goes to federal investigators if I disappear, suffer a mysterious accident, withdraw the filing under duress, or suddenly decide to move somewhere without cell service.”
Vanessa looked at Roman.
This time, the fear on her face was unmistakable.
Evelyn almost pitied her.
Almost.
Roman folded the papers slowly.
“You’ve been busy.”
“I learned from my husband.”
“You learned nothing.”
Evelyn turned toward the doors.
“Then this should be easy for you.”
Roman caught her with words this time.
“Where will you go?”
She stopped.
It was the question he had used against her for four years.
Her father was dead.
Her mother had died when Evelyn was sixteen.
Roman had gradually removed her friends, dismissed employees who became close to her, and made every dollar she spent traceable.
Where will you go?
Once, it had terrified her.
Tonight, Evelyn turned around smiling.
“Home.”
Roman’s confidence cracked.
Their mansion in Lake Forest was legally his.
The penthouse downtown belonged to a Castellano holding company.
Every property he thought Evelyn could call home belonged to him.
So Roman asked the obvious question.
“Where?”
Evelyn glanced toward the ballroom doors.
They opened.
An older man stepped inside.
Silver hair.
Charcoal suit.
A familiar scar near his right eyebrow.
Roman went completely still.
Evelyn had known Gabriel Moretti her entire childhood.
Her father’s younger brother had disappeared from Chicago shortly after her father’s death. Roman had told Evelyn that Gabriel had stolen from the family and fled the country.
Evelyn had believed him.
Until six months ago.
Gabriel approached her.
“Happy birthday, Evie.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“You’re supposed to be in Europe.”
Gabriel smiled.
“And you’re supposed to be faithful to my niece. Apparently we’re both full of surprises.”
Vanessa looked between them.
Evelyn walked to her uncle.
Roman blocked her path.
Gabriel’s security men appeared behind him.
Not Roman’s men.
Moretti men.
For the first time since Evelyn had married him, Roman Castellano was standing in a room where he did not control every armed man.
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“Move.”
Roman did.
Barely.
Evelyn passed him.
Then Vanessa called her name.
“Evelyn.”
She turned.
Vanessa held out the sapphire.
“I don’t want this.”
Evelyn studied her.
“Neither did I.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled for half a second before she recovered.
Evelyn suddenly saw something she had missed.
A faint bruise beneath Vanessa’s diamond necklace.
Finger-shaped.
Roman noticed Evelyn staring and stepped between them.
That was answer enough.
Evelyn’s anger shifted.
Not disappeared.
Shifted.
Vanessa had helped humiliate her.
But perhaps Vanessa had not entered that ballroom as freely as everyone assumed.
Evelyn walked closer.
“Keep the ring.”
“Why?”
“Because someday you might need to sell it.”
Roman snapped, “Enough.”
Evelyn ignored him.
“Vanessa, when that day comes, don’t hesitate.”
Then she left.
Outside, cold Chicago air hit her face.
Gabriel’s black sedan waited at the curb.
Evelyn climbed inside.
Only after the door closed did her hands begin shaking.
Gabriel sat beside her without speaking.
Evelyn stared through the tinted window as the Drake Hotel receded.
“I thought I’d feel free.”
“You will.”
“When?”
“When you stop expecting freedom to feel comfortable.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Why did Roman look afraid when I gave away the ring?”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Because it isn’t just a ring.”
Evelyn waited.
Gabriel reached inside his jacket and removed a photograph.
It showed Evelyn’s father.
Beside him stood Roman’s father.
Between them was the sapphire ring.
On the back, someone had written a date.
Two weeks before her father died.
Gabriel spoke quietly.
“Your father discovered something about the Castellanos.”
Evelyn’s heartbeat accelerated.
May you like
“What?”
“That sapphire contains the reason he was murdered.”
