Chapter 4
Naomi pushed the transfer authorization back across her desk.
"This signature came from an insurance form you signed four years ago."
Dawn was breaking beyond her office windows. I had not slept.
She placed the blue-diamond authorization beside the old insurance confirmation. The loops, broken ink, and gray scan marks matched perfectly.
"Someone lifted your signature from the old document and pasted it here."
The original insurance papers had been locked in the safe in our home office. Adrian knew the combination.
The new authorization listed my mother's jewelry as marital property and gave Vale & Co. permission to finance or transfer it.
"It is my premarital inheritance."
"Which is why they needed your signature."
"The insurer will put all claims and transfers on hold until the handwriting analysis comes back. Vale & Co.'s lawyers will probably try to get the investigation postponed."
Naomi studied the shadows beneath my eyes.
"You could sleep for a few hours."
"The jewelry has been out of the vault for three days."
Only then did I notice I was still holding the brass key. Its edge had left a red mark across my palm.
As I left her office, residential security notified me that Adrian had learned the vault was open and was heading home.
I found him in the basement. The removed lock cylinder lay on the floor. He was still wearing last night's shirt, one silver cufflink missing.
His eyes stayed on my face.
"You haven't slept?"
The question sounded like the man I had known. Whenever my injured hand kept me awake until morning, he used to ask in that same tone before making strong coffee in the kitchen.
"Where is the blue diamond?"
The concern left his face.
"You've contacted lawyers and the insurance company?"
I laid the authorization on the empty shelf.
"You used my signature."
He glanced at it and did not deny it.
"The company needed bridge financing."
The last of my hope vanished with his admission.
When Vale & Co. was new, I had once offered to sell a jewel. Adrian had put the vault key back in my hand and told me my mother's things should never have to pay for his ambition.
The face before me was the same.
"You would not have done this before."
Something shifted in his expression.
"The company was not in this position before."
"Was the hotel because of the company too?"
He was quiet, then stepped closer.
"Vale & Co. has paid the expenses on this house and supported the life you wanted. The company needs financing now. I used a family asset."
"My mother's inheritance is not a family asset."
"If you object now, insurers will freeze the entire collection. Suppliers and employees will suffer."
"You made the decision for them. Now you want me to carry the consequences."
He raised a hand as if to soothe me, then stopped before touching my shoulder.
"We can still deal with our marriage. Withdraw the objection. Once the company stabilizes, I'll return every piece."
"What about Sloane?"
He said nothing.
The doorbell rang. A courier delivered a letter from Vale & Co.'s attorneys demanding that I stop interfering with the company's handling of marital assets and stop publicly alleging theft.
It was dated the day before.
The letter had been prepared before I ever walked backstage.
Adrian reached for it. I put it in my bag.
"Last night, you said the necklace was borrowed for two hours."
"I was going to explain after it was over."
"After the jewelry left the country?"
His face changed.
"You found the shipping schedule?"
That was answer enough.
The blue-diamond attachment gave a delivery deadline two days away. The transport company was North Quay Secure Transit.
Five years earlier, I had helped my father trace a batch of switched diamonds. They had all passed through a North Quay warehouse.
The route belonged to Damian Rusk.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
"You cannot interfere with this deal."
"You used my name to deal with him. Now it is my problem too."
I closed my laptop and packed every record into a document case, leaving the brass key on top.
Adrian watched me, confusion slowly replacing the force in his face.
"Where are you going? A hotel? You don't have friends in New York you can stay with. Once you calm down, we can still..."
His voice died when he saw the brass key protruding from the case.
He finally remembered who I had been before I became Mara Vale.
"Bellandi," he said.
The Bellandis were the most feared of New York's five major crime families.
The color slowly drained from his face.
Night had fallen when I drove onto the Bellandi estate. The iron gates opened before my car. Every guard along the road still recognized me, and no one tried to stop me.
Gabriel stood on the front steps in an immaculate dark suit. He had aged in five years.
He looked at me, then at the case in my hand.
"Miss Bellandi."
I handed it to him.
"I need to see my father."