Chapter 4 – THE WORDS ON THE NECKLACE

The heavy diamond pendant lay on the marble floor, glittering mockingly in the light of the chandeliers.

The banquet hall was emptying rapidly. Luca’s men were quietly ushering the terrified guests out the side doors, eager to clear the room of witnesses. Marcus was hauled up from his knees and dragged out the back, his head bowed in absolute defeat.

Within minutes, it was only the four of us left in the ruined dining room: Luca, Frank, Vanessa, and me.

Luca stared at the necklace on the floor. He didn’t move to pick it up. The air in the room felt suffocating, thick with a dread that was far heavier than the betrayal we had just witnessed.

“What is she talking about, Dad?” Luca asked, his voice barely a whisper. He didn’t take his eyes off the diamonds.

Frank Moretti had collapsed back into his chair. He looked ten years older than he had an hour ago. His hands were shaking so violently he had to grip his own knees to keep them still. He was staring at Vanessa with a look of pure, unadulterated terror.

“Don’t listen to her, son,” Frank choked out, his voice cracking. “She’s just trying to hurt us. She’s just trying to cause pain on her way out.”

Vanessa laughed. It was a sharp, ugly sound. Two of Luca’s guards grabbed her arms to escort her out, but she dug her designer heels into the marble, refusing to go quietly.

“Am I lying, Frank?” Vanessa taunted, her eyes practically shining with malice. “Tell him! Tell your son the truth about the great Moretti tragedy! Tell him why you crawled into a whiskey bottle for ten years before you finally got sober!”

“Get her out of here!” Luca roared, his control finally snapping.

The guards yanked Vanessa backward. As they dragged her through the grand double doors, her voice echoed down the hallway, dripping with venom.

“Read the pendant, Luca! Read it and ask him what she found!”

The heavy doors slammed shut, cutting off her laughter.

The silence that followed was agonizing.

Slowly, Luca walked over and knelt on the floor. He reached out with a trembling hand and picked up the diamond necklace. It was a beautiful, vintage piece. I knew it well. It was the only piece of jewelry Frank kept locked in a glass display case in his study. It had belonged to Luca’s mother, Isabella, who had tragically died of a prescription drug overdose nineteen years ago.

Her death was the catalyst for everything. It was the reason Frank had nearly drank himself to death, and the reason he had fought so hard to claw his way back to sobriety.

Luca turned the heavy diamond pendant over in his palm.

I watched his face. I watched the exact moment his heart broke all over again.

He read the engraving on the back of the platinum setting.

“‘To Frank, for keeping my secret.’” Luca read aloud, his voice hollow. He looked up at his father. “Dad… I bought this necklace for Mom for her fortieth birthday. There was no engraving on it when I gave it to her.”

Frank closed his eyes. Tears squeezed past his lashes, tracking deep into the wrinkles of his cheeks. He shook his head slowly, unable to speak.

“When was this engraved?” Luca demanded, standing up. He walked toward his father, the necklace dangling from his fist. “What secret, Dad? What secret did you keep for her?”

Frank buried his face in his trembling hands. A gut-wrenching sob tore from his throat. It was the sound of a man who had carried a crushing weight for two decades, finally collapsing underneath it.

“Please, Luca,” Frank wept. “Let it go. She’s gone. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It matters to me!” Luca yelled, slamming his hand down on the table, making the remaining crystal glasses jump. “My mother killed herself when I was seventeen! You told me it was an accidental overdose! You told me she took too many sleeping pills because she was stressed about the family business! Was that a lie?”

Frank couldn’t answer. He just cried harder, his shoulders shaking with the force of his grief.

I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t watch this old, fragile man be tortured anymore. I took a step forward, placing myself between Luca and his father.

“Mr. Moretti, please stop,” I said, looking up at Luca. My heart was pounding, but I held my ground. “Can’t you see he’s in pain? Whatever it is, he’s trying to protect you from it.”

Luca glared at me, the mafia boss returning in a flash of anger. “This is family business, Natalie. Step aside.”

“No,” I said firmly. “He’s been through enough tonight. Vanessa just tried to destroy his sobriety and frame him for extortion. You are not going to stand here and interrogate him while he’s having a panic attack.”

Luca stared at me, completely taken aback by my defiance. A maid didn’t speak to the boss this way. A maid didn’t give orders. But I wasn’t acting like a maid right now; I was protecting the only person in this house who had ever treated me with genuine kindness.

For a moment, I thought Luca might push me aside. But then, the anger in his eyes flickered, replaced by a deep, sudden realization.

He was looking at me, really looking at me, and he remembered something.

“You clean the library,” Luca said softly, his tone completely shifting.

I blinked, thrown off by the sudden change in subject. “Yes. Every Tuesday.”

“You dust the books.” Luca took a step closer to me. His eyes were desperate. “My mother’s favorite book was a first edition of Dante’s Inferno. It’s on the top shelf behind my father’s desk. Did you ever find anything inside it?”

My blood ran cold.

Three months ago, while dusting the high shelves, the heavy leather-bound book had slipped from my hands. It hit the floor, and a sealed, yellowed envelope had fluttered out from between the pages. I had placed it back inside, exactly where I found it, assuming it was a private family letter.

I looked at Frank. He was staring at me, his eyes wide with absolute terror. He gave me a tiny, imperceptible shake of his head. No.

He was begging me not to tell Luca. He was begging me to keep the secret.

But I looked at Luca. I saw the seventeen-year-old boy who had never truly healed from his mother’s sudden death. He needed the truth.

“Yes,” I whispered, breaking my promise to Frank. “There is an envelope inside the book.”

Without another word, Luca turned and sprinted out of the banquet hall.