CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED
CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED
The private jet had been airborne for exactly eleven minutes when Luca Bellandi's phone rang.
His head of security didn't wait for permission.
"Sir... we've lost her."
Luca stood motionless beside the shattered security gate.
"You had every airport in Massachusetts alerted."
"We did."
"So how?"
"The flight plan was legal."
"The passenger list wasn't."
Silence.
"Explain."
"Marlene Pryce never boarded the aircraft."
Grace looked up.
"What?"
The security chief enlarged a surveillance image on his tablet.
A woman wearing Marlene's clothes, sunglasses, and a blond wig had passed through the private terminal.
From a distance, it looked convincing.
Up close...
It wasn't Marlene.
"A decoy," Luca said quietly.
"Yes."
"So where is the real Marlene?"
No one answered.
Back inside Bellandi Tower, the executive floor had become a command center.
Security teams reviewed hundreds of surveillance feeds.
Finance froze every transaction connected to the forged contracts.
Corporate attorneys contacted federal investigators—but carefully.
The Bellandi family did not invite government attention unless absolutely necessary.
Grace sat silently in the corner.
She still couldn't believe that less than twelve hours earlier she had simply been looking for a job.
Now she was sitting in the middle of what looked like a criminal conspiracy worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Luca walked toward her.
"You recognize patterns."
Grace looked confused.
"I just notice small things."
"That's exactly what I need."
He placed a thick folder in front of her.
"Everything Marlene touched during the past six months."
Grace stared.
"You want me to review all this?"
"I want you to find what everyone else missed."
Hours passed.
Page after page.
Expense reports.
Meeting schedules.
Executive approvals.
Visitor logs.
Nothing.
Until Grace reached an ordinary reimbursement form.
She frowned.
"Luca..."
He looked up immediately.
"What?"
"This receipt."
"It's wrong."
The finance director sighed.
"It's a hotel receipt."
"Exactly."
Grace slid it across the table.
"The meeting was supposedly held in New York."
"It was," someone answered.
Grace shook her head.
"The receipt says breakfast was served at 8:15."
"So?"
She turned the paper around.
"The coffee is listed as a local specialty."
"The hotel serves Boston Harbor Blend."
Silence.
"It isn't available in New York."
The finance director grabbed the receipt.
His eyes widened.
She was right.
The hotel logo had been forged.
Whoever created the fake expense report had copied an old Boston receipt and simply changed the address.
Grace quickly flipped through the remaining papers.
Then another detail appeared.
Every suspicious reimbursement...
Every fake meeting...
Every forged approval...
Occurred on the same day each month.
"The fifteenth," she whispered.
Luca narrowed his eyes.
"What about it?"
"They always happened on the fifteenth."
Corporate Security checked the calendar.
One investigator suddenly looked up.
"Sir..."
"The fifteenth is the day your executive vault undergoes scheduled maintenance."
The room went quiet.
During maintenance...
Security cameras inside the records vault were offline for exactly twenty minutes.
Someone had known the schedule.
Someone on the inside.
Just then, one of Luca's encrypted phones vibrated.
A single message appeared.
STOP DIGGING.
A second message arrived immediately afterward.
This one included a photograph.
Grace leaned closer.
Her heart nearly stopped.
It was her father.
He sat alone outside his care facility.
The photo had clearly been taken only minutes earlier.
Beneath it were six chilling words.
WE KNOW WHERE HE LIVES.
Grace's hands began to tremble.
"They're watching him..."
Luca's expression hardened.
He looked at his security chief.
"Send a protection team."
"Immediately."
Then he turned back to Grace.
"From this moment forward..."
"You don't go anywhere alone."
Grace swallowed.
"I'm putting your father under Bellandi protection."
She looked at him in disbelief.
"Why would you do that?"
Luca held her gaze.
"Because this stopped being about business the moment they threatened an innocent man."
That same night...
Across the city...
Inside an abandoned warehouse...
A man watched security footage of Grace on a projector screen.
He smiled.
"So..."
"The secretary is smarter than expected."
Another man stepped from the shadows.
"What now?"
The first man slowly removed a silver ring from his finger.
Engraved on it was the Bellandi family crest.
"There was never supposed to be a secretary."
"There was only supposed to be..."
"...a dead Bellandi."
The room fell silent.
May you like
Someone inside Luca's own family...
Was planning his murder.
