The city woke up in whispers.
By morning, everybody was talking. People in shops, people in buses, people in schools. Everywhere. On the TV. On the radio. On the phones. It was all the same story.
The big headline was everywhere:
"Aria Beaumont Missing. Mafia Connection Suspected."
Her face was on the screen. Her face was in the papers. Her face was even on little phones that people carried in their hands.
They showed her in pretty dresses. They showed her with diamonds. They showed her smiling beside her husband, Sebastian. She looked like a queen. She looked like a perfect wife. But now people looked again, and they did not see beauty. They saw scandal. They saw shame. They saw trouble.
And it was all because of Isabelle.
In the city, Isabelle Marquette sat like she was on top of the world. She wore a shiny robe. She had a glass of champagne. She smiled and smiled.
