The announcement in the newspaper was very short:

"Julie Caputo and Ronald Montano were married on March 15 at the new Cassandra Key Resort.
The couple met at Harvard from which they both had graduated.

Miss Caputo is an independent financial consultant. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the daughter of Dr. Manny Caputo and Dr. Isabell Caputo of Scarsdale, New York.

Mr. Montano is a founding partner at Montano and Romanoff. He received both his MBA and his law degree from NYU. He is the son of Dr. Isaac Montano and The Honorable Nadine Montano of Avon, Rhode Island. Montano and Romanoff is both a prestigious New York law firm and a major real estate developer. Mr. Romanoff was the Best Man."

Short and sweet. But it did not tell the whole story. For example, it did not mention that this was one of the most elegant and most exclusive social events of the year. Sure the bride and groom were both well-educated and successful relative young people from upper middle class families; but, so are many other New York couples. What made this wedding so special?
Let's start at the beginning.

Julie Caputo, Ron Montano and Tony Romanoff met as undergraduate students at Harvard. They immediately hit it off and soon became known as the Three Musketeers. And as the years went by, some of their friends were giving odds on which of the two men Julie would marry. All three were bright, hardworking and ambitious; but, Ron and Tony were obsessed with being rich. Not just rich, but top one percent rich.

Ron and Tony roomed together in Law School and after graduation became partners specializing in real estate and property law. Ron and Tony got to know all the top architects, builders, contractors, union leaders and investors in New York City on both a professional and personal level. They lived and breathed real estate twenty-four/seven. As their practice grew and they amassed capital and then started running their own development projects. After five years of hard work each of them were multi-millionaires and their law firm was the go-to-place for real estate questions. And then the chance to go from rich to top one percent rich came.

The United States government owned Cassandra Island. It was in the Pacific Ocean, just off the West Coast, and it was a top secrete test site for the Navy and the Marines. Most people had never heard of it and even those that had, had no idea where it was or anything about its geography. After many budget cuts and changes in administration, the government decided that Cassandra Island could be safely divided into two parts: One would remain a top secret military base and the other could be rented out on a ninety-nine year lease for commercial development with some restriction on boating and flying.

Based on the weather conditions and its proximity to the main land, Ron and Tony thought that this would be the ideal place for an exclusive top notch resort for the rich and famous. They immediately started planning Cassandra Key Resort.

Building a plush resort with an airfield, yacht club, golf course, and all the other amenities on an island is not an easy task. First was negotiating with the Government for half of the island. Next all the building materials, equipment and labor had to be brought over from the mainland. Things that you might take for granted, like drinking water or electricity cost enormous amounts of money. But despite all that, the three of them built a business case that said that they would break even in two years and would triple their investment in five years.

Work began. Cost overruns became the norm. They invested every cent they had into the project. They put up every other property that they owned as collateral to take out loans. They leveraged everything that they had. And then it began to take shape. It was going to be wonderful. It was going to be a dream come true. It would help move Ron and Tony into to that top one percent.

Tony, an amateur photographer documented every aspect of this process. He was everywhere taking pictures. He was on foot, on the club's yacht and in the club's helicopter. He photographed everything he could. Who knows there might be a book deal on the making of one of the world's greatest resorts?

At last, Cassandra Key Resort was ready to open. Now how do you get the top leaders of the rich and famous to give it a try? Easy! You invite them to the social event of the year: Julie and Ron's Wedding and the Grand Opening of the Cassandra Key Resort. You fly one hundred guests out in a private executive jet. You provide free docking for another fifty arriving on private yachts. You provide an airfield for another thirty flying in on private jets. And you provide almost a full week of exciting activities and top notch entertainment culminating on Saturday night with a "tasteful" wedding extravaganza! If even half of these 180 guests were impressed, the road to success would be paved. And with proper accounting most of the expenses would be tax deductible.

Why Ron and not Tony? Well Julie, loved both, however as a live in companion, she liked Ron better. This worked for Tony because he really wanted to stay at the Resort and be a hands-on manager and mingle with this elite minority.

So after a week of scuba diving, waterskiing, deep-sea fishing, abundant gourmet meals, posh spa treatments and unbelievable entertainment (plus a great deal of drinking and some extra marital affairs), Julie Caputo and Ronald Montano were married on March 15 at the new Cassandra Key Resort with Anthony Romanoff as best man.

The next day, after an unbelievably lavish farewell brunch, guests began to head home and the newly married couple left for their honeymoon in Hawaii.
After hours of shaking hands, air-kissing and saying good-byes, Tony settled down in his room, opened a bottle of Cognac and sat and reflected.

Now, only time would tell!

After risking absolutely everything he owned, he could end up a billionaire or a pauper. But, he was strangely calm, because he knew that he had a plan B! Plan B or not Plan B? That is the question!

He turned on his computer and downloaded all the pictures he had taken over the years onto a thumb drive. Pictures of the wedding. Pictures of the rich and famous doing some rather indiscrete things, Pictures of US Navy ships with new weapons systems. Pictures of new Marine landing crafts. Pictures of experimental aircrafts. Years of amateur photography on one small thumb drive. Igor Truminski was in room 692. If he went there, Igor would transfer one hundred and fifty million dollars to Tony's Swiss bank account in exchange for the thumb drive. Igor would then depart on his private jet.

One hundred and fifty million dollars in a Swiss bank account would be a solid buffer against any potential financial problems and would definitely help him continue moving toward his goal of joining the top one per cent club.

The announcement in the newspaper was very short:

On March 16, Anthony Romanoff died peacefully in his suite at the Cassandra Key Resort ...