Chapter 3 - The Secret Inside the Sapphire
Evelyn did not sleep.
Gabriel took her to a brownstone in Lincoln Park that had belonged to her maternal grandmother and, unlike every home Roman had provided, contained no Castellano cameras.
At 2:13 a.m., Evelyn sat at the kitchen table staring at the photograph.
“My father died in a car accident.”
“That’s what Roman wanted you to believe.”
Gabriel placed a file beside her.
Inside were photographs of her father’s wrecked Mercedes.
Police reports.
Bank statements.
A coroner’s report.
Then another document.
Evelyn frowned.
“What’s this?”
“A second toxicology report.”
The first showed nothing unusual.
The second showed a sedative in her father’s bloodstream.
“He was drugged?”
“Enough to slow his reactions.”
Evelyn felt sick.
Gabriel continued.
“Your father had been investigating financial transfers between Castellano businesses. He found evidence that Roman’s father, Salvatore, was stealing from both families.”
“But Salvatore died before Dad.”
“Yes.”
“Then who killed my father?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn immediately understood what he was not saying.
“Roman?”
“I don’t have proof.”
“He was twenty-six.”
“And already controlling most of his father’s organization.”
Evelyn stood.
“No.”
Gabriel remained silent.
She paced toward the window.
Roman had attended her father’s funeral.
He had held her while she cried.
He had arranged meals when she stopped eating.
Three months later, he proposed.
Protection, he called it.
What if it had never been protection?
What if Roman had simply moved into the space his crime had created?
“Why the ring?”
Gabriel explained that her father had become convinced someone inside his own office was leaking information. Instead of storing his evidence conventionally, he had hidden a miniature encrypted storage device inside a family heirloom.
“The sapphire setting has a false base.”
“And you’re certain?”
“I watched him build it.”
Evelyn thought about Vanessa.
The ring was now on Roman’s mistress’s palm.
“Oh God.”
“Exactly.”
They needed it back.
But returning to Roman’s mansion would be suicide.
Evelyn reached for her phone.
Gabriel stopped her.
“Who are you calling?”
“Vanessa.”
“You have her number?”
“No.”
Evelyn smiled grimly.
“But I know someone who does.”
At 8:00 the next morning, Chicago woke to the scandal.
Videos from the birthday party were everywhere.
Evelyn watched one clip only once.
There she stood in black, placing the ring into Vanessa’s hand.
He’s yours.
The clip ended on Roman’s expression.
Fear.
Millions of views followed.
But Evelyn cared about only one message.
It arrived from an unknown number at 8:17.
You told me to sell it. Where?
Vanessa.
Evelyn showed Gabriel.
“It could be Roman.”
“Then we assume he’s reading everything.”
Evelyn typed:
There’s a jeweler on Oak Street. Ask for Mr. Bell. Tell him Evelyn sent you.
No mention of evidence.
No mention of the hidden compartment.
Twenty minutes later:
I can’t leave.
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
Why?
The typing bubble appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Finally:
He locked the doors.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Vanessa had publicly humiliated her less than twenty-four hours ago.
Every rational part of Evelyn said this was not her problem.
Then she remembered the bruise.
“What are you thinking?” Gabriel asked.
“That I’m not leaving another woman in the cage I escaped.”
Gabriel sighed.
“You’re exactly like your father.”
“Is that supposed to stop me?”
“No. It means I knew this conversation was pointless before it began.”
They made a plan.
Evelyn knew the Lake Forest mansion better than Roman’s security team realized. There was an old service tunnel connecting the greenhouse to a detached carriage house.
Roman had never known Evelyn discovered it as a bored twenty-one-year-old bride.
By noon, Evelyn and Gabriel were inside the carriage house.
She crossed the tunnel alone.
The mansion above was eerily quiet.
Evelyn emerged behind a pantry wall and found Vanessa waiting near the kitchen.
The red dress was gone.
She wore jeans and one of Roman’s white shirts.
The sapphire ring hung from a chain around her neck.
When she saw Evelyn, she started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Evelyn held up a hand.
“Later. We have about five minutes.”
Vanessa removed the necklace.
“He told me never to take it off.”
Of course he did.
Evelyn took the ring.
She pressed beneath the sapphire setting exactly where Gabriel had shown her.
Nothing.
She tried again.
A tiny panel clicked open.
Inside was a black object smaller than her fingernail.
Vanessa stared.
“What is that?”
“My father’s insurance policy.”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Roman stood in the doorway.
Nobody moved.
His gaze dropped to the open ring.
Then to Evelyn.
“So,” he said quietly. “Gabriel finally told you.”
Vanessa backed away.
Roman closed the door.
Evelyn wrapped her fingers around the tiny drive.
“You killed my father.”
Roman’s face revealed nothing.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I’ve spent four years trying to answer that question.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“No.”
Roman reached into his jacket.
Vanessa screamed.
But he did not draw a weapon.
He pulled out another photograph and slid it across the counter.
Evelyn looked down.
Her father stood outside a restaurant.
Beside him was Gabriel.
The timestamp was the night before the crash.
On the back were four words.
Ask your uncle why.
May you like
Evelyn looked toward the tunnel entrance.
For the first time since leaving her birthday party, she wondered whether she had escaped the wrong man.
