Then Dante’s phone vibrated.
Both of them looked at it.
Luca.
Dante did not answer immediately.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.
Mara stared at the phone.
It vibrated again.
Finally she said, “Put it on speaker.”
Dante answered.
“Go ahead.”
Luca’s voice came through low and controlled.
“I found the rest.”
Mara went rigid.
Dante looked at her.
“What rest?”
“The settlement archive wasn’t the only thing buried.
Vale’s people had an outside firm scrub several cloud backups before the divorce became final.
One backup survived because it had been attached to an older account they apparently missed.”
Mara’s face lost all color.
“No,” she whispered.
Dante heard Luca pause.
“Mara is here,” Dante said.
“Understood.”
Mara stepped closer to the desk.
“What survived?”
Luca answered carefully.
“Audio files.
Photographs.
Copies of messages.
And one video.”
Mara gripped the back of the chair.
Dante’s voice became colder.
“Send nothing until she tells you to.”
Luca went silent.
Mara looked at Dante.
He held her gaze.
“Your decision.”
For a long moment she did not move.
Then she whispered, “Send the audio first.”
A file arrived less than a minute later.
Dante turned the laptop so Mara could control it.
Her hand hovered above the trackpad.
“You don’t have to listen,” he said.
“I know.”
She pressed play.
The recording began with muffled movement and a door closing.
Then Gavin Vale’s voice filled the study.
Calm.
Almost conversational.
That made it worse.
“You really think anyone is going to believe you over me?”
Mara shut her eyes.
On the recording, her younger voice answered, “I have pictures.”
Gavin laughed.
“Then you’ll give me the pictures.
You’ll give me every copy, every recording, every password.
