Chapter 2 - The Depths of DespairWithin two hours, the luxury wedding reception had transformed into a chaotic command center. The elite guests had been unceremoniously ushered out, leaving only Vivienne, Julian, Elena, and a team of hastily hired deep-sea salvage divers who Vivienne had paid a million dollars just to deploy on short notice.
Floodlights illuminated the dark waters from the edge of the cliff. The wind had picked up, causing the waves to swell violently against the rocks. Inside the estate's glass pavilion, Vivienne was pacing like a caged animal, barking orders into three different phones.
"I don't care about the storm! Tell the divers to go deeper!" she shrieked into one receiver. "If that ring isn't found by tomorrow, you won't get a single dime!"
Julian watched his mother with deep disgust. "Is that all you care about, Mother? Money? You just assaulted my pregnant wife. You could have caused her to go into premature labor! Look at her!"
Elena sat calmly on a plush velvet sofa, sipping warm chamomile tea. She looked entirely unbothered by the chaos surrounding her. She knew the geography of that specific coastline; the undercurrents were notoriously treacherous, riddled with deep underwater caves and shifting silt. Finding a single ring in that expanse was statistically near impossible, even with military-grade sonar.
Vivienne slammed her phone down and turned on Elena, her eyes wild with fury. "You did this on purpose! You set me up! You knew I hated you, you knew I would try to take it!"
"I didn't make you rip it off my finger, Vivienne," Elena said softly, her voice a calm contrast to Vivienne's hysteria. "I didn't make you throw it into the ocean. Your own arrogance did that. You wanted to show everyone that you could take whatever you wanted from me. You just forgot that actions have consequences."
May you like
The lead salvage diver walked into the pavilion, dripping wet, his face grim. "Madam, we’ve run the sonar scans. The shelf drops off into a trench just twenty yards from the balcony's baseline. The current is too strong. Even if the ring didn't get wedged in a rock crevice, it's likely been carried miles out or buried under feet of shifting sediment. We can't find it. Not in forty-eight hours. Not in forty-eight weeks."
Vivienne collapsed into a chair, breathing heavily. For the first time in her life, the powerful matriarch looked small, fragile, and utterly defeated. The countdown to her financial ruin had officially begun.
