Chapter 6 – The Dealer In The Photograph
“Lily!” Matthew screamed, launching himself forward.
Daniel and the guards drew their weapons in a heartbeat, the metallic clicks echoing off the marble walls.
“Stand down!” Luca roared, throwing his hand out to stop his men. A bullet ricocheting in the marble foyer could hit the child.
My heart stopped beating. The world tunneled down to the sight of my five-year-old granddaughter trapped against Vanessa’s red satin gown.
Lily wasn’t crying. She was frozen in sheer terror, her tiny hands clutching the silver bracelet on her wrist.
“Let her go, Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a register of pure, lethal authority. “If you let her go right now, I will let you walk out the front door. You have my word. But if you scratch that little girl, there isn’t a hole on this earth deep enough to hide you from me.”
Vanessa backed toward the heavy oak doors, dragging Lily with her. Her hand was shaking, the tip of the stiletto wavering erratically.
“Get back! All of you!” she shrieked hysterically. “I’m taking her to my car! Once I’m off the estate, I’ll leave her by the gate! If anyone follows me, I’ll kill her!”
“Please,” I begged, dropping to my knees. The marble was cold beneath me. “Please, she’s just a baby. Take me. Take me instead. Let my granddaughter go.”
Vanessa sneered, her eyes wild and feral. “You? You’re nothing, Ellen. You’ve always been nothing. A pathetic maid crying over a broken flowerpot.”
Matthew didn’t beg.
He didn’t yell.
He simply started walking toward Vanessa.
“Stop right there!” Vanessa screamed, waving the knife toward him. “I mean it, Matthew!”
Matthew didn’t stop. His eyes were locked on his daughter. The tired, apologetic recovering addict was gone. In his place was a father who had fought through hell to get his life back, and he was not going to let the devil take his child.
“Daddy,” Lily whimpered.
“I’m coming, bug,” Matthew said calmly.
He was five feet away.
Four feet.
Vanessa lunged forward, swiping the knife toward Matthew’s face to force him back.
It was exactly what Matthew wanted.
As the knife arced through the air, moving away from Lily for a fraction of a second, Matthew ducked the blade and slammed his body into Vanessa’s side.
Vanessa screamed as they hit the marble floor.
The knife skittered away, clattering against the wall.
Matthew ripped Lily out of Vanessa’s grip and rolled backward, shielding the child with his own body.
Before Vanessa could even attempt to get up, Daniel and three security guards were on her. They pinned her to the floor, snapping heavy zip-ties around her wrists.
I scrambled across the floor, falling next to Matthew and Lily.
“Are you hurt? Lily, are you hurt?” I sobbed, frantically checking her little arms and face.
Lily shook her head, burying her face in Matthew’s chest. “Daddy got me.”
“I got you, baby,” Matthew whispered, kissing the top of her head repeatedly, his own tears falling into her dark curls. “Daddy’s got you. You’re safe.”
I wrapped my arms around both of them, burying my face against my son’s shoulder. We were a tangled pile of black uniform, denim, and a pink puffer jacket on the floor of a billionaire’s foyer. And we had never been richer.
Luca walked over to where Vanessa was pinned to the floor.
He looked down at her with absolute disgust.
“Daniel,” Luca said quietly.
“Yes, Boss?”
“Take her to the police. Give them the lockbox, the forged documents, and the photograph of her with the dealer. Tell the commissioner I want her charged with embezzlement, extortion, and the attempted kidnapping of a child.”
“Luca, no!” Vanessa wailed, struggling against the guards as they hauled her to her feet. “You can’t do this! I know things! I know the family secrets!”
Luca turned his back on her. “Get that trash out of my house.”
As the guards dragged Vanessa toward the door, she twisted her head back, her eyes locking onto me. Her face contorted into a vicious, desperate sneer.
“You think you’ve won, Ellen?” Vanessa screamed over the sound of the rain outside. “You think your family is finally fixed? Go ask Luca’s mother about the night your precious husband died! Ask her whose rosary they found in his pocket! You think he was just a gardener? You’re a fool!”
The heavy doors slammed shut behind her, cutting off her words.
But the poison remained in the air.
I slowly let go of Matthew and looked up at Teresa Moretti.
The old woman had gone completely pale, her hand gripping her cane so tightly her knuckles were white.
