Chapter 7 - GINAGina Morales had disappeared.
Phone disconnected.
Apartment empty.
Landlord said she left the night of the chandelier collapse.
Finn—Dante’s security chief—found her car in Providence.
Blood inside.
No body.
Elena felt sick.
Gina had worked beside her for two years.
Complained about tips.
Stole fries.
Hated managers.
Nothing sinister.
Except maybe people rarely looked sinister before becoming evidence.
They found Gina alive three days later.
Hospital.
Different name.
Broken arm.
Concussion.
She had run because Luca threatened her.
Her role?
Change Elena’s section.
Nothing more.
She was paid five thousand dollars.
Then realized the chandelier was meant to fall.
She tried to warn Elena.
Too late.
Afterward Luca’s people came after her.
“Why me?” Elena asked.
Gina cried.
“They thought you had Sofia’s file.”
“I didn't.”
“Michael said you kept records.”
“The notebook.”
“Yes.”
Luca believed Elena might have copied more than invoices.
What file?
Sofia had hidden documents before her death.
Dante never found them.
Apparently Vance believed Elena unknowingly possessed them through the boutique.
The truth surfaced:
Sofia used Elena’s boutique to hide financial records inside imported artwork shipments.
Elena worked there.
One painting in her old portfolio was not hers.
Dante had purchased her portfolio from the landlord.
The canvas restored at the penthouse?
The view of Elena’s apartment.
But beneath the newer paint—
another layer.
X-rays revealed embedded microfilm.
Sofia’s evidence.
Elena stared at the canvas.
“What?”
Dante looked almost amused despite everything.
“Your masterpiece is a ledger.”
She groaned.
“Of course it is.”
The files connected Harrison Vance to corruption.
Port bribery.
Money laundering.
Sofia’s death.
Luca’s payments.
Everything.
And Isabella?
Some payments bore her signature.
But not the murder order.
That belonged to Harrison.
Isabella had spent years protecting her father.
Not because she believed he was innocent.
Because exposure destroyed the Vance empire.
Elena understood her better.
Did not forgive.
But understood.
Then Isabella kidnapped Michael.
She wanted the flash drive.
She offered a trade.
Michael for the painting.
Dante said no.
Elena said yes.
He stared.
“You are not trading yourself into this.”
“I said the painting.”
“She’ll kill him anyway.”
“Maybe.”
“You owe Michael nothing.”
“No.”
Elena looked at him.
“But I decide what kind of person I am.”
Again.
Choice.
They arranged the exchange.
May you like
And of course—
Isabella betrayed it.
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