Chapter 11 - The Wedding Invitation With No Name
Three weeks after their anniversary dinner at Romano’s, Hannah found the envelope beneath the penthouse door.
No stamp.
No courier seal.
No return address.
Just heavyweight ivory paper with her full name handwritten across the front.
Hannah Moore.
Not Miss Moore.
Not Nurse Moore.
Not the future Mrs. Davis.
She picked it up with two fingers.
Marcus noticed immediately.
“Don’t open it.”
Hannah looked toward the private elevator.
“Relax. It’s stationery, not uranium.”
“In this family, stationery has caused more damage than bullets.”
That was difficult to argue with.
Marcus slipped on gloves, scanned the envelope, then finally handed it back.
“Clean.”
Hannah opened it.
Inside was a single embossed card.
Congratulations on the engagement.
Victor has always had exquisite taste in women who believe they can save him.
Ask him what happened to Eleanor Vale.
Hannah read the final name twice.
“Who is Eleanor Vale?”
Marcus’s expression changed.
That was answer enough.
“Marcus.”
“I’m not the person who should tell you.”
“So you know her.”
“Yes.”
“Was she Victor’s girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Wife?”
“No.”
“Enemy?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Something worse.”
Before Hannah could press him further, Matthew came racing from the hallway with a cardboard volcano under one arm.
“Hannah! It exploded!”
“I can see that.”
Red baking soda foam dripped onto his sweatshirt.
Matthew grinned.
“Dad said science belongs in the laboratory.”
“Your father also owns a penthouse with enough marble to survive a volcanic eruption.”
Victor entered behind him.
One look at the envelope erased the amusement from his face.
“Where did you get that?”
“Under the door.”
Victor’s gaze snapped toward Marcus.
“Lock the service elevators.”
“Already done.”
Hannah held up the card.
“Who is Eleanor Vale?”
Victor went silent.
Matthew immediately sensed the shift.
Children who grew up around danger learned to hear silence differently than normal children.
“I’m going to wash my volcano,” he said.
Hannah crouched.
“Volcanoes don’t get washed.”
“This one does.”
He disappeared.
Victor waited until the bedroom door closed.
“Hannah.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“No what?”
“No protective billionaire nonsense. No ‘you’re safer not knowing.’ No sending me to another room while men in suits whisper.”
She held the card against his chest.
“Who is Eleanor Vale?”
Victor took it.
For several seconds, he stared at the name.
“She was my father’s attorney.”
“That does not sound worse than a girlfriend.”
“She handled the family’s private holdings.”
“The criminal holdings?”
“The old ones.”
Hannah crossed her arms.
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
“Nine years ago.”
“Disappeared how?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“My father accused her of stealing from him. Forty million dollars vanished through offshore trusts she controlled.”
“And?”
“And two weeks later, her car was found abandoned near the Canadian border.”
Hannah felt cold.
“Was she killed?”
“No body was found.”
“Did your father kill her?”
“I never proved it.”
“Did you believe he did?”
Victor looked toward the windows.
“Yes.”
Hannah’s voice softened.
“Why is someone mentioning her now?”
Victor did not answer immediately.
Marcus placed a tablet on the table.
“You need to see this.”
A breaking-news headline filled the screen.
DAVIS MARITIME HIT WITH $120 MILLION CIVIL CLAIM FROM FORMER TRUST COUNSEL.
Below it was a photograph of a woman in her late fifties stepping from a black sedan outside a Manhattan courthouse.
Silver-streaked hair.
Black suit.
Perfect posture.
Alive.
Hannah stared.
“That’s Eleanor?”
Victor’s face became stone.
“Yes.”
A second headline appeared.
ELEANOR VALE RETURNS AFTER NINE YEARS, ACCUSES DAVIS FAMILY OF THEFT, COERCION, AND ATTEMPTED MURDER.
Matthew’s bedroom door opened.
“Dad?”
Victor turned.
Matthew stood in the hallway.
He had heard enough.
“Is somebody trying to hurt us again?”
Victor’s expression softened.
“No.”
Hannah watched him.
This time he did not say, Go to your room.
He did not order Marcus to take Matthew away.
He walked across the room and knelt.
“There’s a woman making accusations against our family,” Victor said.
“Are they true?”
Victor paused.
Hannah felt proud of him for not lying.
“Some things my father did were terrible. I don’t know yet whether what she says about me is true.”
Matthew frowned.
“How can you not know if you did something?”
Victor looked at Hannah.
“Because sometimes children grow up inside bad families and don’t understand everything happening around them.”
Matthew thought about that.
“Are you scared?”
Victor’s eyes met his son’s.
“Yes.”
Matthew stepped forward and hugged him.
The most feared man in Manhattan closed his eyes.
Hannah looked back at the invitation.
Congratulations on the engagement.
Suddenly the message felt less like a warning.
It felt like an announcement.
Eleanor Vale was not coming after Davis Maritime.
May you like
She was coming after Victor personally.
And somehow, she already knew Hannah mattered enough to use.
