Chapter 3
"You knew," I whispered, the realization dawning like a heavy shadow across my chest. "When you hired me to cater this gala... when you brought me into this house... you already knew who I was."
Dante didn't look away. He held my gaze with unyielding honesty.
"I knew who you were the night we met at the diner three months ago," Dante confessed softly. "I recognized your father's eyes in yours. I kept you close because I needed to protect you from what was coming. And because... from the moment you argued with that delivery driver over a spilled crate of produce with more fire than half my captains, I couldn't look away."
A mixture of anger and a strange, terrifying warmth flared in my chest. "You used me as part of your investigation?"
"I used myself as bait," Dante corrected firmly, stepping closer. "Richard Bennett has been trying to launder dirty municipal funds through my shipping terminals. To trap him legally and permanently, I needed access to his private corporate servers—servers that are currently locked inside his downtown estate. But to get the physical security keys, someone needs to get inside his inner circle tonight."
I looked down at my simple black maid's uniform, then back up at Dante’s sharp, tailored suit.
"You want me to go inside his estate," I realized aloud. "Tonight. While this gala is still happening."
"Not alone," Dante said, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a small, sleek electronic drive and a master keycard. He pressed them gently into my palm. "Marco will drive you through the service gates. The house is nearly empty; most of the domestic staff is here catering this event. You just need to access Richard's private wall safe in his ground-floor study, upload this decryption software, and download the archived files from three years ago."
I gripped the cold metal keycard, my heart pounding like a drum. "And Vanessa? What happens to her when her father goes down?"
A dark, dangerous shadow crossed Dante’s face. "Vanessa knew everything. She was the one who forged your father’s signature on the fraudulent bankruptcy transfer documents when she interned at his firm fresh out of college."
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The casual cruelty she had shown me tonight wasn't just snobbery; it was the guilty paranoia of a thief recognizing the daughter of the man she had helped destroy.
"I'll do it," I said, my voice dropping any trace of hesitation. My hands stopped shaking. The grief that had weighed me down for three years hardened into cold, sharp resolve. "I want my father's name cleared. And I want justice."
Dante stared at me for a long moment, a look of profound respect—and something much deeper—shining in his dark eyes. He reached out, his thumb gently tracing my knuckles.
"Be careful, Elena," he murmured, his voice laced with a raw intensity he usually kept hidden from the world. "If anything happens to you tonight, destroying Richard Bennett won't mean a damn thing to me."
Before I could answer, the terrace glass door slid open.
Marco stepped out into the cool air, his face grim. "Boss. Richard Bennett is starting to ask where Vanessa's fiancé went. And the local police commissioner just arrived."
Dante pulled his hand away slowly, stepping back into his commanding, untouchable persona. "Go, Marco. Get Elena through the service gate. Use the blind spots on the eastern perimeter."
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"Understood," Marco nodded, turning his sharp gaze toward me. "Let's move, Miss Carter."
I tucked the decryption drive securely into the pocket of my uniform apron, took one last look at Dante standing proudly against the backdrop of the city lights, and turned to follow Marco into the shadows.
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