Chapter 4 - The Ring That Never Came Home
Elena drove to her apartment with Marisol beside her and Dante’s security car three vehicles behind.
She had not asked for the escort.
She had also not told them to leave.
That bothered her less than it should have.
Her apartment looked untouched.
The sandwich bag Marcus had used when he returned the ring was still inside the jewelry box in her dresser.
Elena removed the ring.
Small diamond.
Thin gold band.
R.R. 17-3.
Except now that she knew what to look for, something felt wrong.
The engraving was too sharp.
Her grandmother’s ring had been worn for decades. The inside should have been smooth.
“This is new,” Marisol whispered.
Elena sat on the edge of the bed.
“He switched it.”
Marcus had not only ended their engagement.
He had taken the last thing her grandmother left her.
Dante appeared in the bedroom doorway but remained outside it.
“Elena.”
She looked up.
“How did you get in?”
“Your mother opened the door.”
Marisol raised a hand. “He knocked.”
Elena almost smiled.
Then she held up the ring.
“It’s fake.”
Dante took one glance.
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected after seeing the engraving last night.”
“And you didn’t say anything.”
“I wanted a jeweler to confirm.”
“I’m getting very tired of men deciding when I’m ready for information.”
His expression tightened.
“You’re right.”
Marisol looked between them.
“I’m going to make coffee.”
She left.
Dante remained in the hall.
Elena said, “You can come in.”
He entered but did not sit.
“Why was your father in that photograph?”
“I was eleven when it was taken. I don’t know.”
“Then find out.”
“He died when I was nineteen.”
The words changed the room.
Elena lowered the ring.
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
“What happened?”
“People said heart attack.”
“You don’t believe it.”
“No.”
She studied him.
“You and I have a lot of dead fathers around one set of papers.”
“Yes.”
“That feels inconvenient.”
“It feels deliberate.”
Dante’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then said, “Don’t touch anything. I’m coming.”
He hung up.
“What happened?”
“One of my men found the jeweler Marcus used when he replaced your ring.”
Elena stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
Dante corrected himself immediately.
“I think it may be dangerous.”
“Better.”
“You still shouldn’t come.”
“I still am.”
The jeweler’s shop sat on a narrow street in River North.
The owner, Samuel Pike, was seventy-two and terrified.
He locked the door behind them.
“I didn’t know what Marcus was involved in,” he said.
“You made a duplicate,” Elena replied.
“Yes.”
“Where is the original?”
“I gave it back to Marcus.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
Three months.
The same week the wedding invitation arrived.
Dante asked, “Did you inspect the ring?”
Samuel nodded.
“There was something inside.”
“The engraving?”
“No. Beneath the stone.”
Elena stepped closer.
“What?”
“A microdot.”
Dante’s face changed.
Elena frowned.
Samuel explained.
“A tiny photographic image. Old technology. You need magnification to read it.”
“What was on it?”
“I didn’t look. I didn’t want to know.”
Dante asked, “Who else knew?”
“Marcus. And a woman.”
“Vivien?”
Samuel hesitated.
“No.”
“Who?”
“Patricia Aldridge.”
Elena sat down hard.
Marcus’s mother.
Of course.
Patricia had always controlled the parts of Marcus’s life he pretended were his own decisions.
“She knew about my family before Marcus met me.”
Samuel looked confused.
“I only know she brought him here.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Marcus didn’t choose Elena by accident.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Three years of memories rearranged themselves.
The coffee shop where Marcus randomly sat beside her.
The way he asked about her parents on their second date.
His fascination with Rosa’s ring.
His insistence that they use it for their engagement.
Marisol had warned Elena that Marcus asked too many questions.
Elena called it interest.
Love.
She stood.
“I need to speak to Patricia.”
Dante said, “Not alone.”
She looked at him.
“I didn’t say alone.”
They found Patricia at her Gold Coast townhouse.
She opened the door in cashmere and pearls as though she had not spent the previous day humiliating Elena.
“You.”
Elena walked inside without waiting.
Dante followed.
Patricia’s composure cracked when she recognized him.
“Mr. Salvatore.”
“Mrs. Aldridge.”
Elena held up the fake ring.
“You replaced my grandmother’s ring.”
Patricia recovered quickly.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“The jeweler remembers you.”
Silence.
Elena continued.
“You pushed Marcus toward me.”
Patricia’s eyes turned cold.
“My son fell in love with you despite my objections.”
“Don’t insult both of us.”
Dante remained behind Elena, quiet.
Patricia looked at him.
“She is not what you think.”
Dante’s voice was mild.
“You have no idea what I think.”
Patricia looked back at Elena.
“Your grandmother destroyed families.”
“Then tell me how.”
“She kept evidence she did not understand.”
“Of what?”
Patricia’s chin trembled.
For the first time, Elena saw fear.
“Of a partnership.”
“Between Charles Voss and Dante’s father?”
Patricia looked at Dante.
“That photograph exists?”
Dante took one step forward.
“Where is the original ring?”
Patricia backed away.
“I don’t have it.”
“Who does?”
She swallowed.
“Vivien.”
Elena stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because Charles wanted it close.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you know what’s on the microdot.”
Dante’s voice hardened. “Tell us.”
Patricia looked toward the front window.
Then at Elena.
“The ring does not contain proof of property theft.”
“What does it contain?”
Patricia whispered, “A list of people who ordered your father’s death.”
A car horn sounded outside.
Patricia flinched.
The living-room window exploded inward.
Dante moved before Elena understood what was happening.
He pulled her down behind the sofa.
Glass rained across the floor.
Dante covered Elena with his body until the second impact struck the wall.
Then silence.
When Elena looked up, Patricia was gone.
The rear door stood open.
May you like
And on the carpet beside the shattered window lay a single diamond.
The stone from Rosa’s original ring.
