Chapter 1 - DON’T SIGN IT“Don’t sign it!”
The little girl’s voice cut through the ballroom.
Every conversation stopped.
Vincent Moretti slowly lifted his head from the engagement papers.
Across the table, Isabella Romano froze.
Charles Bellamy’s hand stopped halfway toward the document.
Dominic Moretti turned sharply toward the service entrance.
And Grace Carter nearly dropped the silver tray in her hands.
Emily stood beneath the massive chandelier, clutching a cracked blue phone against her chest.
She was only eight.
But she looked directly at Vincent.
“Mr. Moretti… you can’t sign that.”
Vincent stared at her.
“Why?”
Emily swallowed.
“Because my mom told me never to touch this phone.”
Grace rushed toward her.
“Emily, give it to me.”
But the phone suddenly vibrated.
Everyone heard it.
A voicemail.
One message.
One voice.
A woman’s voice.
A voice Vincent had spent three years trying to forget.
“Vince…”
Vincent’s face drained of color.
The ballroom seemed to disappear around him.
“Sofia?”
The recording continued.
“If Bellamy is in the room…”
A pause.
Then Sofia whispered:
“Don’t say another word.”
Charles Bellamy went completely still.
Vincent slowly looked at him.
For three years, Bellamy had been the man who helped Vincent search for Sofia.
The attorney who handled every legal document.
The man who repeatedly told Vincent there was no evidence Sofia had been kidnapped.
And now Sofia's voice had just warned him about Bellamy.
The recording ended.
Nobody breathed.
Then Isabella touched the necklace around her throat.
Two silver leaves.
A blue stone between them.
Emily stared at it.
Her eyes widened.
“I know that necklace.”
Isabella's expression changed.
Emily pointed at her.
“That belonged to Mrs. Moretti.”
The room exploded into whispers.
Isabella immediately stepped back.
“That is impossible.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Vincent.
“I saw it in the picture.”
Vincent turned toward Isabella.
For the first time in two years, he looked at his fiancée not with affection…
but suspicion.
Then Bellamy quietly reached inside his jacket.
And Vincent noticed something terrifying.
Bellamy wasn't reaching for his phone.
He was reaching for a key.
A small brass key.
With the number 317 engraved on it.
Vincent recognized it immediately.
May you like
Room 317.
The hotel where Sofia had supposedly abandoned him three years earlier.
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