Chapter 6 - THE MAN BEHIND THE SECURITY REPORTS
The first real threat arrived on a Thursday evening.
Claire was leaving the studio when a black sedan pulled away from the curb. She noticed it because it had been parked across the street for nearly an hour. The driver wore a baseball cap and kept his face turned toward the windshield.
She did not approach the car. She went back inside and called the building manager, then Nora. Nora contacted the private security firm that handled the studio's alarm system and advised Claire to report the incident.
The next morning, Vincent appeared at the studio with two security officers.
“You need protection,” he said.
“I have protection.”
“Not enough.”
“Don't bring people to my workplace without asking.”
He looked furious, but restrained himself. “Someone has been watching you.”
“Do you know who?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know it's connected to me?”
He glanced at the security officers. “Because the New York operation has a problem.”
Claire felt cold. “What kind of problem?”
Vincent lowered his voice. “A former associate has been trying to pressure me. He knows about you.”
“You told me New York was dangerous four years ago. Was this the threat?”
“Part of it.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought keeping you away was safer.”
“Or easier.”
He did not answer.
Nora arrived twenty minutes later. She asked the security officers to wait outside and questioned Vincent about the reports. He gave her the name of a man called Dominic Rizzo, a former operations manager who had been dismissed from one of Vincent's shipping companies.
“Does Dominic have a history of threatening family members?” Nora asked.
“He knows how to use leverage,” Vincent replied.
“Has he contacted Claire directly?”
“Not that I know.”
Claire looked at him. “You said you didn't know who was watching me.”
“I didn't.”
“Then how did you know it was Dominic?”
Vincent's expression hardened. “Because he's the only person with a reason.”
Nora asked for copies of all relevant security reports. Vincent said he would provide them through counsel. She reminded him that Claire was not required to accept his security arrangements and that any threat should be reported to law enforcement.
After he left, Claire sat in the conference room with Nora.
“Do you think this is real?” she asked.
“It may be. But we verify everything independently. Don't let Vincent turn fear into a reason to control your movements.”
That afternoon, Nora received the first report. It contained a list of alleged incidents in Manhattan, including a suspicious vehicle near the penthouse and an attempted break-in at a storage facility. But one report had a date that did not make sense. It described a threat against Claire on a day when she had been in Chicago at a public design exhibition.
The report claimed she had been followed in Manhattan.
Nora circled the date.
“This is either an error or a fabrication.”
Claire stared at the page. “Would Vincent fake a security report?”
“I don't know. We need the original records.”
They requested the underlying dispatch logs and the name of the officer who had signed the report.
That evening, Claire received a call from Vincent.
“Have you spoken to Nora?”
“Yes.”
“She shouldn't be involved in security matters.”
“She is my attorney.”
“I'm trying to protect you.”
“You've said that before.”
He exhaled sharply. “Claire, Dominic is dangerous.”
“Then tell the police.”
“This isn't that simple.”
“It's always not simple when you want me to accept something without questions.”
He fell silent.
Then he said, “I need you to trust me.”
Claire looked at the ultrasound photograph on her desk. “You spent four years teaching me not to.”
The call ended.
Two days later, a former employee from Vincent's New York office contacted Nora. His name was Peter Walsh, and he had managed the building's security contracts. He said he had records showing that several of the threats listed in Vincent's reports had been exaggerated or misattributed.
He also claimed that Vincent had ordered the penthouse staff to keep Claire's calls from reaching him during certain hours.
Nora arranged an interview.
Claire did not know whether the new information would make Vincent more guilty or less. She only knew that the story she had been told for four years was beginning to unravel in ways she could no longer ignore.
And this time, she would not let anyone decide which parts of the truth she was allowed to hear.
Peter's account also raised questions about the people who had handled Vincent's calendar. He said some calls from Chicago had been marked as routine even when Claire had identified them as urgent. Nora requested the relevant logs and asked the phone provider to preserve the available records.
Claire remembered the many times she had heard a receptionist say Vincent was unavailable. She had imagined him in meetings, negotiating dangerous deals. The possibility that someone had deliberately screened her calls made the old memories feel newly humiliating.
Nora reminded her not to assume every missed call had been blocked. The evidence would establish what happened.
Claire appreciated the caution. She wanted the truth, not another story built around what she feared.
Two days later, Peter provided a copy of an internal calendar note. It was brief: “Mrs. Moretti calling again. Hold until cleared by V.” The initials were Vincent's. The date matched the afternoon Claire had called from the hospital.
Nora asked whether Claire wanted to see the original file. Claire did, but she needed a moment before reading it.
The note did not say why Vincent had made the request. It did not show whether he had been in a meeting, whether someone had advised him to avoid the call, or whether he had understood the urgency. But it did prove that her calls had been deliberately held.
Claire placed the paper back on the desk.
“I spent years thinking I was asking at the wrong time,” she said.
Nora answered carefully. “You were asking your husband to be present. That was not an unreasonable request.”
Claire kept a copy of the note with her records. She did not send it to Vincent. She did not need him to explain it before she could accept what it showed.
She asked the building manager to save the exterior camera footage and gave the incident number to Nora. Then she went home with Julia. She refused to let the possibility of danger turn every ordinary day into a prison.
Nora arranged for Claire to speak with a former building employee who had handled the New York penthouse's visitor logs. The woman confirmed that Claire's name had appeared on several proposed travel schedules, but the visits were canceled by Vincent's office before arrangements were made.
“Did anyone tell you why?” Nora asked.
“Mr. Moretti's assistant said there were security concerns.”
“Were those concerns documented?”
“Not in the visitor log. I was told not to ask.”
The employee provided copies of routine emails that showed how often the visits had been postponed. None proved a conspiracy, but the pattern was unmistakable: Claire had repeatedly been kept away, and the explanation had always come from Vincent's office.
Claire read the records in silence.
She remembered choosing dresses for visits that never happened, arranging time off from work, and packing small gifts for a man who canceled at the last minute. She remembered telling friends that Vincent was under pressure and needed understanding.
Nora asked whether she wanted to include the records in the divorce file.
“Yes,” Claire said. “Not to embarrass him. I want the timeline to be accurate.”
The distinction mattered to her. She was not trying to destroy Vincent's reputation. She was trying to stop his reputation from replacing the truth.
A week later, the former employee sent Nora a written statement confirming that the New York office had used a generic security warning to justify several canceled visits. The warning had been intended for staff traveling between two warehouses. It had never identified Claire as a target.
Nora explained that the statement would be useful, but it was not proof that Vincent had personally ordered every cancellation. Claire understood. She did not need to turn one discovery into a complete theory. The messages and calendar records already showed that he had chosen not to tell her the truth.
She asked Nora to keep the statement with the other documents and then closed the folder.
That night, she cooked dinner with her mother. They made too much pasta, laughed over a burnt garlic clove, and packed the leftovers into containers. Claire realized that the evening had passed without her checking whether Vincent had called.
It was a small freedom, but it was real.
May you like
Claire also asked Julia to accompany her to the next meeting with the security consultant. She wanted a clear written recommendation, not a vague promise that someone would “keep an eye out.” The consultant reviewed the building entrances, visitor procedures, and camera coverage, then gave them a practical checklist.
Claire approved the changes. She did not want to live in fear, but she would not ignore a concern simply to prove she was brave. Safety and independence could exist together.
