Chapter 6 – THE GRAVE IN THE WRECKAGE

The silence in the car was deafening.

Only the sound of the rain beating against the roof and Teresa’s quiet, broken sobs filled the small space.

I held the phone to my ear, my hand shaking so violently I almost dropped it.

“What did you just say, Luca?” I whispered.

“The baby in the car, Hannah,” Luca repeated, his voice sounding hollow and detached over the line. “The child that died in the explosion thirty-six years ago. It was Frank and Teresa’s biological son.”

Teresa let out a sharp gasp, clutching her stomach as if she had been physically struck.

“No,” she moaned, rocking back and forth. “No, no, noCHAPTER 2 — THE EMERALD NECKLACE BENEATH THE SILK

The silence in the dining room was so absolute I could hear the rain tapping against the restaurant windows.

Thirty guests stared at the head of the table.

Vanessa’s face went from pale to flushed in a matter of seconds. She let out a sharp, breathless laugh, looking around at the wealthy patrons and family members.

“Luca, listen to yourself,” Vanessa said, her voice raising a defensive octave. “You’re taking the word of a twenty-six-year-old maid? Hannah is just trying to cause trouble because I reprimanded her earlier.”

She pointed a manicured finger at me.

“She’s a liar, Luca. She’s been manipulating your mother for months to secure her own position.”

I felt my face burn, but I didn’t step back.

Luca didn’t even look at me. He kept his dark eyes locked on his fiancée.

“Hannah didn’t bring this up, Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice dangerously quiet. “George did. And my mother confirmed it. Are they liars, too?”

Vanessa swallowed hard. “Teresa is confused! Her mind is slipping, Luca. We’ve talked about this!”

“My mind is perfectly fine,” Teresa said softly.

The old woman stood up. Her hands were still trembling, but she stood tall, her shoulders squared beneath the cream-colored cardigan.

“You came into my bedroom on Sunday afternoon,” Teresa continued, her voice echoing in the quiet room. “You closed the door. And you told me that a Mafia boss couldn’t afford to have a weak, overly emotional mother clinging to him. You said if I didn’t step back, I would ruin his reputation.”

Luca closed his eyes.

When he opened them, the anger in his gaze was terrifying.

“You told her she was ruining me?” Luca whispered.

Vanessa stepped backward, her red-soled heels scraping the hardwood. “Luca, I was protecting our future! This family looks weak! She sits around crying over a dead man, and now she’s parading around with a line cook!”

George stepped forward, his jaw tight.

“Frank Moretti was my best friend,” George said, his voice steady. “And Teresa is a lady. You don’t speak to her that way.”

“I’ll speak however I want!” Vanessa snapped. “I am the future matriarch of this family!”

“No,” Luca said.

The single word fell like an anvil.

Vanessa froze. “What?”

“Take off the ring.”

Vanessa gasped, her hands instinctively flying to her chest. “Luca, you can’t be serious. Over this? Over a misunderstanding?”

“Take it off, Vanessa.”

“No! My family invested millions into this restaurant! You need us!”

Luca walked slowly toward her.

“I need a wife who respects the woman who gave me life,” he said. “You humiliated her. You tried to isolate her. And you thought I would choose a business merger over my own mother.”

He stopped inches from her.

“The ring.”

Trembling with rage and humiliation, Vanessa pulled the massive diamond from her finger and threw it onto the white tablecloth.

“You’ll regret this,” she hissed. “My uncle will destroy you.”

As she turned to storm out, the strap of her silk purse snagged on the back of her chair.

The purse spilled open onto the floor.

Lipstick, a compact mirror, and a cell phone clattered against the wood.

But it was the heavy gold chain that caught my eye.

Teresa gasped, pressing a hand to her mouth.

Lying on the floor, tangled in Vanessa’s keys, was a thick gold necklace with a massive, square-cut emerald.

“My necklace,” Teresa whispered.

Luca looked down at it. Then he looked at Vanessa, who had frozen in sheer terror.

“Mom,” Luca asked slowly, “isn’t that the necklace Dad gave you for your thirtieth anniversary? The one you said you lost last month?”

Teresa nodded, tears spilling over her cheeks. “I thought I misplaced it at the church.”

Vanessa scrambled to pick it up, but Luca’s heavy black shoe stepped on the gold chain, pinning it to the floor.

“Why do you have my mother’s heirloom, Vanessa?” Luca asked.

Vanessa was hyperventilating now. “I… I found it! I was going to get it cleaned for her!”

“Liar,” George said quietly.

Everyone turned to the elderly man.

George reached into his navy suit pocket.

“Frank gave me something to hold onto before he died,” George said, pulling out a heavy, tarnished silver pocket watch. “He told me to give it to Luca only when the wolves started circling.”

George looked directly at Vanessa.

“Frank knew your family was stealing from him four years ago. And the proof is inside this watch.”