Chapter 1 – The Name He Swore To Forget

“Luca… I think she knows why Dad stopped speaking to his oldest friend three weeks before he died.”

The silence in the dining room was absolute.

Fifty wealthy guests sat frozen in their chairs.

But Luca didn’t look at any of them. He stared only at the banker, his dark eyes hardening into something terrifying.

“Alessandro,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Tell me the name on that account.”

Vanessa lunged forward, her red satin dress catching on the edge of the table.

“Luca, please don’t! You don’t understand what he’ll do!”

But Alessandro Ricci didn’t back down. The Italian banker adjusted his tie, his gaze shifting from the desperate woman to the furious man before him.

“The account belongs to Silvio Rossi,” Alessandro said.

Michael let out a choked breath. He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white.

“Silvio,” Michael whispered. “Dad always told us Silvio was dead.”

Luca’s jaw clenched. He turned toward Vanessa.

“My father’s business partner. The man who vanished twenty years ago. You paid him two million dollars of my brother’s money?”

Vanessa was shaking now. Her composed, elegant facade had completely shattered.

“He isn’t dead, Luca! He’s been living in Boston. And he was going to destroy your family’s legacy if I didn’t pay him!”

“By blackmailing my brother?” Luca stepped closer to her, his towering frame casting a shadow over her. “By risking the roof over my niece and nephew’s heads?”

“I did it for you!” Vanessa cried, tears spilling over her mascara. “Silvio has proof. Documents from your father’s old shipping business. He was going to take everything to the authorities and ruin the Moretti name!”

I stood near the wall, my uniform still soaked in the red wine Vanessa had poured on me. I wanted to disappear, but I couldn’t stop listening.

“My father was an honest man,” Luca said coldly.

“Your father lied to you!” Vanessa screamed.

The guests gasped.

Luca didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t even flinch. He simply extended his hand toward his brother.

“Mike. Take the guests out to the garden. All of them.”

Michael hesitated. “Luca—”

“Now, Michael.”

Within two minutes, the grand dining room was empty. Only Luca, Vanessa, the banker Alessandro, and I remained.

I turned to leave, not wanting to intrude, but Luca’s voice stopped me.

“Stay, Emily.”

Vanessa wiped her face, her eyes flashing with venom. “You’re keeping the maid here? While we discuss family business?”

“She speaks the truth,” Luca said flatly. “Which makes her more valuable to this family than you are.”

Vanessa flinched as if he had struck her.

Luca turned his attention back to his fiancée. “Where is Silvio Rossi now?”

“I don’t know,” she sobbed. “He only communicates through intermediaries. I swear, Luca, I thought I was protecting you. My father helped set up the account to keep it untraceable.”

“So your father is involved too,” Luca deduced instantly.

“He was just trying to help!”

Luca walked over to the chair where Vanessa had left her designer handbag. He picked it up.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, her voice spiking with sudden panic.

“If Silvio Rossi orchestrated this loan, he didn’t just take two million dollars and disappear,” Luca said, unzipping her bag. “Men like Silvio always take collateral. Real collateral.”

Vanessa lunged for the bag. “Don’t touch that!”

Luca sidestepped her easily. He tipped the bag upside down over the dining table.

Lipstick, keys, a compact mirror, and a sleek leather wallet clattered against the mahogany wood.

But it was the heavy, metallic thud that caught everyone’s attention.

Sitting in the center of the table was an old, tarnished silver pocket watch.

Michael, who had just walked back into the room, stopped dead in his tracks.

“That’s Dad’s watch,” Michael whispered, his voice trembling. “The one that was stolen the night he died.”

Luca picked up the watch. His thumb traced the familiar engraving on the back. Then he looked at Vanessa, his eyes devoid of any warmth.

“He didn’t just extort you,” Luca realized. “You’ve met him. Face to face.”

Vanessa backed away, terrified.

But as Luca pressed the latch to open the watch, the cover popped open, revealing something tucked inside the glass face.

It wasn’t a clock face anymore.

It was a small, faded photograph, folded into a tight square.

Luca pulled the photograph out and unfolded it.

His brow furrowed in deep confusion. He stared at the image for a long time, the anger in his face slowly shifting into shock.

He looked up, not at Vanessa, but directly at me.

“Emily,” Luca said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Why is there a picture of you in my father’s watch?”