Chapter 6 - The Second Storm
The list contained four names.
Claire Caruso.
Owen Mercer.
Maya Reynolds.
And Vincent Caruso.
Beside each name was a number.
Claire’s was twelve.
Vincent’s was zero.
Nobody understood what they meant until Owen searched Anthony’s encrypted files.
“Twelve percent,” he said.
Claire’s trust.
Owen’s number corresponded to five percent of another holding company.
Maya’s three represented shares controlled by one of her clients.
Vincent’s zero meant something else.
“He isn’t worth shares,” Claire realized.
“He’s the obstacle.”
Vincent looked at her.
For once, she saw fear in his eyes.
Not fear for himself.
For her.
Federal investigators issued warrants.
Anthony’s accounts were frozen.
Elise’s passport triggered an alert.
Still, neither was found.
Three days passed.
Then Elise called Claire.
Not Vincent.
Claire answered from Maya’s office while investigators recorded the call.
“Hello?”
Elise was crying.
“Claire.”
Claire’s body went rigid.
“You have ten seconds.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Nine.”
“Anthony lied to me.”
“Eight.”
“He said you were safe.”
Claire nearly laughed.
“Seven.”
“He told me the convoy was just a loyalty test.”
Claire’s face changed.
“What?”
Elise sobbed.
“He said Nora had everything necessary. He said you weren’t really in danger.”
“Where is Anthony?”
“He’s going to kill me.”
Claire glanced toward the investigators.
“Tell me where you are.”
A crash sounded.
Elise screamed.
The call ended.
They traced it to an abandoned marina forty miles north.
Vincent immediately stood.
“No.”
Claire blocked him.
“You’re not going.”
“She knows where Anthony is.”
“And federal agents are going.”
“He’s my brother.”
“That stopped mattering when he endangered our child.”
Our child.
Both heard it.
Neither acknowledged it.
Vincent sat back down.
It might have been the first time in twenty years somebody told him not to go to war—
and he listened.
Agents found Elise alive.
Anthony was gone.
Under questioning, Elise finally talked.
Anthony had spent eighteen months building a plan to force Vincent out of Caruso Maritime.
Elise’s affair with Vincent had been encouraged from the beginning.
She had met Anthony at a charity auction.
He introduced her to Vincent deliberately.
Every argument.
Every secret meeting.
Every photograph that reached Claire anonymously.
Anthony had engineered pressure inside the marriage.
But Elise had not been innocent.
“Did you know Claire was bleeding?” an investigator asked.
Elise cried.
“Yes.”
“Did you exaggerate the generator problem?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elise stared at the table.
“Because I wanted him to choose me.”
That confession reached Claire the following afternoon.
She listened without expression.
Then walked outside.
Vincent found her sitting on a bench overlooking Chesapeake Bay.
He stopped several feet away.
“May I sit?”
Claire almost laughed.
“You’re asking permission now?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
He sat.
For a while, neither spoke.
Finally Claire asked, “Did you love her?”
Vincent could have lied.
He didn’t.
“I thought I did.”
Claire stared toward the water.
“What does that mean?”
“It means being with Elise let me be a version of myself who didn’t have responsibilities.”
“And being with me?”
“Required me to be a husband.”
“That sounds terrible.”
“It wasn’t.”
He swallowed.
“I was terrible at it.”
Claire looked at him.
“You didn’t cheat because Anthony manipulated you.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t send that convoy because Elise manipulated you.”
“I know.”
“You chose those things.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
Claire’s anger had spent weeks looking for something to strike.
Vincent kept refusing to hide behind anything.
“You broke us.”
“Yes.”
She finally cried.
Not delicately.
Not silently.
Four years of humiliation came out at once.
Vincent did not touch her.
He simply sat there.
When she finished, Claire wiped her face.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“What are you asking?”
Vincent looked toward the building where Noah slept.
“One chance to become a father he doesn’t have to recover from.”
Claire said nothing.
Finally:
“That depends on you.”
Vincent nodded.
“I know.”
His phone rang.
Owen.
Vincent answered.
Then stood.
“What?”
Claire saw his face.
“What happened?”
Vincent lowered the phone.
“Anthony was seen near Greyhaven.”
“Why would he go back?”
Vincent understood immediately.
“The original trust documents.”
Owen’s voice came through the speaker.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Anthony isn’t alone.”
A pause.
May you like
“Nora is missing.”
Claire’s blood turned to ice.
