Chapter 11
The letter was short.
Alexander,
I made it out. Do not come to the Sterlings. Richard is frightened, Beatrice is cruel, but neither is the deepest problem.
Vincent knows.
My blood went cold.
I kept reading.
He told me Father’s old men will never allow my daughter back into the center because they fear what my return would expose. I don’t understand all of it yet.
Mariana watched my face.
“What?”
I handed the letter to Rafe.
Vincent Moretti.
My father’s adviser.
A man I had trusted through my first decade as boss.
The letter continued.
If I fail to reach you, do not blame the child. Find her. She has my necklace.
That was where the page ended.
No explanation of what Camille discovered.
No grand conspiracy described neatly for us.
Just fear.
And a direction.
Find Mariana.
I had failed at that.
Not willingly.
Still failed.
Mariana saw something in my expression.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“You searched for her.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about me?”
“No.”
She looked down.
I forced myself to say the harder part.
“But I stopped searching.”
She looked back at me.
“Why?”
“Because people I trusted gave me the same story until exhaustion felt like evidence.”
Silence.
That admission mattered.
I could blame Richard.
Beatrice.
Vincent.
My father.
But somewhere inside those years was a moment when I accepted a story because continuing to doubt it hurt too much.
Mariana nodded slowly.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
Rafe examined another letter.
“This one mentions Vincent again.”
Camille wrote that Vincent wanted the sapphire necklace.
Why?
Because it proved Mariana belonged to Vance blood before anyone could rewrite her identity.
The necklace was not valuable because of sapphire.
It was valuable because Camille wore it in family photographs for years.
Anyone who knew the old Vance household would recognize it instantly.
That explained Beatrice.
Richard.
Sebastian.
All three panicked because the necklace could do in seconds what twenty-six years of silence had prevented.
Make someone look twice.
I looked toward Beatrice.
“You forced her to hide it because you knew eventually she might stand in front of someone who remembered Camille.”
Beatrice smiled coldly.
“And look what happened when she did.”
Mariana stared at her.
Beatrice continued.
“One necklace destroyed a wedding.”
Renata answered from across the room.
“No.”
She looked at Sebastian.
May you like
“Your family did that.”
And for the first time all night, Mariana smiled.
