Chapter 8 - The Secret Sewn Into Her Wedding Dress
They returned to the Moretti mansion before dawn.
Ruby barely remembered the drive.
Her wedding dress.
Her mother.
A hidden ledger.
A half brother she had never known existed.
Every answer produced three more lies.
Maria met them in the foyer.
She was shaking but unharmed.
“He came alone.”
Dante frowned.
“No weapon?”
“I did not see one.”
“What did he say?”
“That he was family.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Did you give him the dress?”
“No.”
Maria swallowed.
“He knew where it was.”
Ruby ran upstairs.
The preservation room stood open.
The climate-controlled case was empty.
Her wedding dress was gone.
Ruby stared at the blank space.
Dante entered behind her.
“I’m sorry.”
She turned.
“For which part?”
He absorbed that.
“Fair.”
Ruby sat on the bench.
“Mom knew.”
“Yes.”
“She put something in my wedding dress without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Our families are insane.”
Dante sat beside her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Ruby laughed.
Dante looked at her.
She covered her face.
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
“I might actually be losing my mind.”
“Possible.”
She looked at him.
He almost smiled.
That made her laugh harder.
Then the laughter became tears.
Ruby hated that.
Dante did not touch her.
He simply sat.
Eventually she whispered, “I don’t know what was real.”
He looked at his hands.
“I do.”
She turned.
“What?”
“I know which parts were real for me.”
Ruby’s heart tightened.
“Dante—”
“I am not asking you to believe me.”
“Good.”
“I am telling you because I should have told you months ago.”
He looked at her.
“The first dinner was business.”
Ruby flinched.
“The second dinner too.”
“Wonderful.”
“The third was not.”
She frowned.
“You canceled a meeting with a senator because you wanted to take me to a terrible jazz club.”
Ruby remembered.
“You hated jazz.”
“I still hate jazz.”
“Then why?”
“Because you loved it.”
Her throat tightened.
Dante continued.
“The weekend in Maine was not business.”
“You spent half of it on the phone.”
“I was trying to keep people from learning where we were.”
“Romantic.”
“I was bad at this.”
“You were terrible.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the empty dress case.
“The proposal started as strategy.”
Ruby stiffened.
“But the ring did not.”
“What does that mean?”
“I had the original ring replaced.”
Ruby stared.
“Why?”
“The first one came from the Moretti vault.”
“And mine?”
“I bought it.”
“You own half the jewelry stores in the city.”
“I bought it with cash from a shop three towns away because the woman in the window told me the stone looked warm.”
Ruby stared at him.
Dante looked embarrassed.
Actually embarrassed.
“I did not know diamonds could look warm.”
Despite herself, Ruby smiled through tears.
Then she remembered the contract.
The smile vanished.
Dante saw.
“I know.”
“You don’t get credit for loving me badly.”
“I know.”
“You still used me.”
“Yes.”
“You signed an agreement that made my family an asset.”
“Yes.”
“You let me sign papers I didn’t understand.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
Ruby stood.
“Then love doesn’t erase that.”
“No.”
He stood too.
“I do not want it to.”
That surprised her.
“I want you to know the truth and decide what I deserve.”
Ruby looked at him.
“And if I decide I never want to see you again?”
Dante’s eyes held hers.
“Then I will make sure you never have to.”
The answer hurt.
Because he meant it.
A knock came.
Evelyn entered.
Ruby turned.
“You.”
Evelyn closed the door.
“Yes.”
“What did you put in my dress?”
“A storage key.”
Ruby frowned.
“For what?”
“Microfilm.”
Dante went still.
“Not a ledger?”
“No.”
Evelyn approached.
“The written ledger was destroyed years ago. I converted the records to microfilm.”
Ruby stared.
“You hid the key in my wedding dress?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew Bianca’s acquisition plan was moving forward.”
Ruby felt anger rise.
“You knew I might marry Dante because of a plan?”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was in hiding.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“I was afraid.”
Ruby’s voice cracked.
“So you used me too.”
Evelyn stopped.
Ruby continued.
“You used my wedding as a hiding place.”
Tears filled Evelyn’s eyes.
“Yes.”
“Dad used me to protect company shares.”
“No.”
“Bianca used me for acquisition leverage.”
“Yes.”
“Dante used me to access the company.”
Dante closed his eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
Ruby looked at her mother.
“And you used me to hide evidence.”
Evelyn whispered, “Yes.”
Ruby laughed bitterly.
“Did anyone in this family ever look at me and see a person?”
Dante answered immediately.
“I did.”
Ruby turned.
“When?”
“Too late.”
Silence.
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Ruby nodded.
“I believe you.”
Hope flickered.
“That doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I understand.”
Ruby looked at the empty dress case.
“Where does the key lead?”
“A private archive beneath St. Agnes Cemetery.”
Dante frowned.
“There is no archive there.”
“There is beneath the old chapel.”
Ruby looked at her.
“Whose name?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Gallagher.”
Dante’s phone vibrated.
Message.
Photograph.
Matteo holding Ruby’s wedding dress.
He stood inside a stone room.
Beneath it:
I HAVE THE KEY.
Another message followed.
COME WITHOUT YOUR MEN.
Ruby read it over Dante’s shoulder.
“No.”
Dante looked at her.
“No what?”
“You’re not going alone.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Have we not established that I hate that sentence?”
“This is my brother.”
“He stole my dress.”
“He wants me.”
“He wants the records.”
Dante shook his head.
“He could have taken the key and disappeared.”
Ruby stopped.
“He wants something else.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Dante looked at the photograph.
“I think he wants me to find him.”
Ruby grabbed her coat.
“Then we’re going.”
Evelyn protested.
“Ruby.”
“No.”
Ruby turned.
“I am done being the thing everyone moves around the board.”
She looked at Dante.
“This time, I choose where I stand.”
Dante held her gaze.
Then nodded.
“Together.”
They left before sunrise.
St. Agnes Cemetery sat on a hill beyond the city.
The old chapel had been abandoned for years.
Ruby and Dante entered alone.
Beneath the altar they found a narrow staircase.
At the bottom—
a steel door.
It was already open.
Ruby looked at Dante.
He moved first.
Inside, one lamp burned.
Ruby’s wedding dress hung from a hook.
Untouched.
The pearl belt had been cut open.
The key was gone.
Then a man stepped from behind a shelf.
Matteo Moretti.
He looked at Dante.
Dante looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Finally Matteo placed a small brass key on the table.
“I didn’t bring you here to fight.”
Dante’s voice was flat.
“Then why?”
Matteo slid a photograph across the table.
Ruby picked it up.
Salvatore Moretti.
Bianca.
James Gallagher.
And a fourth man.
Ruby recognized him.
Her father.
All four were standing beside a body.
Evelyn’s body.
Or what everyone had believed was Evelyn’s body.
Matteo looked at Ruby.
“Your father didn’t save your mother.”
Ruby’s blood ran cold.
May you like
Matteo continued.
“He helped stage her death.”
