Chapter 7 - The Wedding Trap
Rockford finally told them the entire truth.
Harrison Whitmore had spent twenty years building a political machine financed through stolen money.
Antonio Moretti discovered part of it.
Margaret discovered the rest.
After Margaret died, Antonio continued investigating.
Eight years later, he was murdered.
Rockford knew because Harrison had shown him photographs from the crime scene before the police released them.
It had been another warning.
“Why didn't you tell Mateo?”
Rockford looked ashamed.
“Because I thought silence would keep Adelaide alive.”
Mateo's face showed nothing.
“You've spent seventeen years calling cowardice protection.”
Rockford lowered his head.
For once, Adelaide didn't defend him.
The evidence still had one weakness.
Margaret's recording implicated Harrison, but much of it was secondhand knowledge.
They needed Harrison himself.
Adelaide devised the trap.
Mateo hated it immediately.
“Absolutely not.”
“You haven't even heard the entire plan.”
“I heard ‘I meet Preston alone.’ That's enough.”
“He thinks I'm frightened.”
“You were shot at.”
“Exactly. He'll think it worked.”
Mateo paced.
Adelaide watched him.
“You told me the decisions were mine.”
“I was having a moment of poor judgment.”
She smiled despite herself.
He did not.
Ultimately, Mateo agreed under three conditions.
Security would be nearby.
Adelaide would wear a wire.
And if Preston touched her, Mateo reserved the right to forget every promise he had made about restraint.
The meeting took place at the Bellamy Hotel.
Preston arrived wearing a navy suit and the confidence of a man who had spent his life assuming consequences were for other people.
“You look different without Moretti attached to your shoulder.”
Adelaide smiled nervously.
The nervousness was real.
“He scares me.”
Preston relaxed.
Good.
“I tried warning you.”
“I didn't understand.”
She looked down.
“I do now.”
Preston ordered champagne.
Adelaide didn't touch hers.
“I want out.”
“I can help.”
“What about my mother's trust?”
His eyes sharpened.
“What about it?”
“Mateo says your father stole from it.”
“Mateo says many things.”
“Did he?”
Preston leaned back.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother was rich and stupid.”
Adelaide forced herself not to react.
“She could have lived comfortably. Instead she started asking questions.”
“And my father?”
“Rockford was useful.”
“So you forged my signatures?”
“Technically, Chloe did.”
Pain flickered through Adelaide.
“Chloe?”
“She had access to your paperwork.”
“How much did she take?”
“Enough.”
“Why?”
“Because your money was wasted on you.”
There it was.
The belief beneath everything.
Adelaide tightened her fingers beneath the table.
Preston smiled.
“You were never going to use it.”
“Because I'm ugly?”
He shrugged.
“I wouldn't use that word.”
“But Chloe would.”
“Chloe understands presentation.”
Adelaide looked directly at him.
“And your father ordered my mother's death because she didn't?”
Preston's smile vanished.
Too far.
She had pushed too quickly.
“I never said that.”
“But he did.”
Preston stood.
The restaurant doors opened.
Mateo entered.
Preston swore.
“You wired me?”
Adelaide stood.
“No.”
His relief lasted one second.
“I wired the table.”
Mateo almost smiled.
Preston lunged.
He caught Adelaide's wrist.
Mateo crossed the room with frightening speed.
But Adelaide moved first.
She drove her heel down onto Preston's foot and pulled free exactly as Mateo's security team surrounded him.
“You little—”
“Careful,” Adelaide said.
“The microphone is still recording.”
Preston's face turned white.
The confession was enough to obtain warrants.
Federal agents searched Whitmore properties before dawn.
They found financial records.
Encrypted drives.
Payments connected to Antonio Moretti's assassination.
And evidence linking Harrison to the mechanic who sabotaged Margaret's brakes.
By noon, Harrison Whitmore had disappeared.
Preston was arrested.
Chloe was charged with financial fraud and identity theft.
Evelyn negotiated cooperation.
Rockford agreed to testify.
Adelaide should have felt victorious.
Instead, she felt exhausted.
She stood in Mateo's library that evening.
The room where this had begun.
“You're free,” Mateo said.
“So are you.”
“Not yet.”
“Harrison?”
He nodded.
“He's still out there.”
Adelaide looked at the city.
“What happens when they catch him?”
Mateo understood the real question.
“What happens to us?”
She nodded.
He approached slowly.
“No contracts.”
“Good.”
“No debts.”
“Good.”
“No fathers deciding anything.”
“Especially good.”
Mateo took something from his pocket.
The ring.
Adelaide stared at it.
“You said you weren't proposing.”
“That was several weeks ago.”
“Mateo.”
“I'm not proposing now either.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Then stop carrying a diamond around.”
“I find your irritation charming.”
“I find your face irritating.”
“That's unfortunate. You've been staring at it frequently.”
Adelaide laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
Mateo stepped closer.
“After this is over, Adelaide, I want to ask you properly.”
Her smile faded into something softer.
“And if I say no?”
“I'll survive.”
“And if I say yes?”
His eyes held hers.
“I'll spend the rest of my life making certain you never regret it.”
Before she could answer, Mateo's phone rang.
His expression changed when he read the message.
“What happened?”
He handed her the phone.
Security footage filled the screen.
Harrison Whitmore had entered the Jones mansion twenty minutes earlier.
He wasn't alone.
May you like
Chloe was with him.
And Harrison was carrying a gun.
