Chapter 6 - The Bride Speaks
Giulietta walked into the ballroom anyway.
The string quartet stopped mid-song.
Hundreds of faces turned.
That told them almost everything.
Preston entered behind her, furious. Warren followed more slowly.
Giulietta stepped onto the small stage beside the wedding cake and took the microphone from the bandleader.
"Thank you for coming."
"There will be no wedding today."
Someone gasped.
Good.
"This morning, Preston Hale entered my bridal suite carrying a metal golf club. When I refused to sign a document I had never approved, he tried to intimidate me with it. His father then entered using a key to a room that had been deliberately locked."
Preston shouted, "She's lying!"
"Security footage from the hotel is being preserved. Copies are being sent to counsel."
That was a lie.
But Warren didn't know that.
"There is also a missing attorney whose disappearance appears connected to an altered contract presented to me this morning."
Warren moved toward the stage.
Giulietta kept speaking.
"Anyone here who invested in Hale Maritime, Marconi Consolidated, or the proposed joint venture should contact independent counsel before signing anything today."
Bankers started moving.
Two board members left the room without saying goodbye.
"You think you can burn both families because you got scared?"
Giulietta finally faced him.
"I wasn't scared. That's the part you still don't understand."
"You will be."
He leaned close enough that only she could hear.
"Ask Marco who introduced Rafael to my father."
For the first time all day, her capo avoided her eyes.
"See? Everybody has a price."
Before Giulietta could answer, Nico rushed to the stage.
"We found Elena."
"Where?"
"Not here."
He handed her his phone.
A traffic camera image showed Elena climbing from a gray SUV outside a private clinic across town.
She was alive.
But the man holding her arm was not Rafael.
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It was Giulietta's uncle Vittorio.
Her father's younger brother.
