Chapter 2 – The Ledger Of Lies

I stared at the looping cursive on the yellowed page.

Sarah Carter.

My mother’s name. Written over and over again, in blue ink, right next to sums of money I couldn’t even comprehend. Ten thousand. Twenty thousand. Fifty thousand.

“That’s impossible,” I breathed, stepping into the dusty cellar.

“Is it her handwriting?” Luca asked. His voice wasn’t angry, just intensely focused.

I reached out with a trembling hand and traced the letter ‘S’. My mother had a very specific way of crossing her ‘t’s and looping her ‘r’s.

“Yes,” I whispered. “But we were broke. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment above a laundromat my whole life. My mother cleaned houses to pay for my winter coats.”

“If she was receiving this money,” Luca said, looking at the total at the bottom of the page, “she didn’t keep it.”

“Or she was hiding it,” Mrs. Russo said softly from the doorway.

Luca turned to the old housekeeper. “Did you know about this, Margaret?”

Mrs. Russo shook her head, her eyes wide with genuine shock. “I swear on my husband’s grave, Luca. I never saw that book. I only knew your father came down here when he was terrified.”

Terrified.

The great Don Moretti, the man who had built a criminal empire and legitimized it into a billion-dollar real estate conglomerate, didn’t get terrified.

I looked around the destroyed room. The slashed leather chairs. The violently emptied filing cabinets.

“Who did this?” I asked.

“My father died of a sudden heart attack,” Luca said, his eyes scanning the slashed furniture. “That night, this house was full of people. Capos. Family friends. Vanessa’s father, Carlo Bellini, was the one who found him in the study upstairs.”

Luca looked back at the iron door.

“While the paramedics were trying to revive my father upstairs,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl, “Carlo Bellini came down here and tore this room apart.”

He closed the ledger.

“He was looking for this book. And he didn’t find it because my father locked it in this box.”

The air in the room suddenly felt entirely devoid of oxygen.

If Carlo Bellini had destroyed this room while his best friend was dying upstairs, it meant only one thing.

Carlo had caused the heart attack.

He had murdered Luca’s father.

Footsteps echoed sharply on the stone staircase outside.

“Luca? Are you down here?”

It was Vanessa.

Luca didn’t panic. He smoothly slid the leather ledger into the inside pocket of his tailored suit jacket. He kicked the broken brass padlock under the desk.

Vanessa appeared in the doorway. She had composed herself, though her chest was heaving.

When she saw the destroyed office, she gasped, pressing a hand to her chest.

“Oh my god, Luca. What happened in here? Was this a break-in?”

She was a terrible actress.

Luca walked slowly toward her. The raw power radiating from him was palpable.

“Vanessa,” he said smoothly. “Your father wanted to renovate the cellar. Did he tell you what he was hoping to fix down here?”

Vanessa swallowed hard. “Just the plumbing, darling. He said there was a leak that could compromise the foundation.”

“A leak,” Luca repeated.

“Yes.”

Luca reached out and gently tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

Vanessa smiled, visibly relieved, thinking her charm had worked.

“Take off the ring, Vanessa,” Luca said.

Her smile vanished. “What?”

“The ring,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. “Take it off. And get out of my house.”

Vanessa stumbled back. “Luca, you can’t be serious! We have a four-hundred-guest wedding booked! The Five Families are attending! You cannot break this engagement over a stupid old maid and a dusty basement!”

“If you are still on my property in ten minutes,” Luca said, “I will have my men physically throw you through the front gates in that red dress.”

Vanessa’s face contorted with pure, unadulterated rage.

She ripped the four-carat diamond off her finger and threw it at his chest. It bounced off his suit and clattered onto the stone floor.

“You are making the biggest mistake of your life,” Vanessa hissed. “My father controls the shipping ports. If you humiliate us like this, he will cut your supply lines. He will ruin you.”

“Let him try,” Luca said.

Vanessa spun on her heel and stormed up the stairs.

Silence fell over the cellar again.

I looked at the diamond ring glittering on the dirty stone floor. A million dollars, discarded like a piece of trash.

Luca didn’t even look at it.

He turned to me.

“Emily, you said your mother is in the hospital.”

“Yes,” I said, my heart racing. “Saint Jude’s. She’s in the long-term care ward. Her heart is failing.”

“We’re going to see her,” Luca said. “Right now.”

“Luca,” Mrs. Russo interrupted, her voice shaking. “If Carlo Bellini knows you opened this room, he will know you found whatever he was looking for. You are not safe out there.”

“I’m not safe in here either,” Luca said.

He looked at me.

“Change out of your uniform, Emily. I’ll meet you in the garage in five minutes.”

I ran up the back stairs to the servant’s quarters. My hands were shaking so violently I could barely unbutton the frosting-stained maid’s dress.

I threw on a pair of jeans and a thick black sweater.

Why was my mother getting half a million dollars from a mafia boss? Why did we live in poverty if she had that kind of money?

I grabbed my purse and ran down to the underground garage.

Luca was waiting beside a black, armored SUV. He had taken off his tie.

I climbed into the passenger seat.

He started the engine, and we sped out of the estate gates into the freezing night.

We drove in silence for twenty minutes. The tension in the car was thick enough to choke on.

As we pulled into the hospital parking lot, my phone vibrated in my purse.

I pulled it out.

It was a text message from an unknown number.

Emily. This is Vanessa.If you tell Luca what your mother did to his mother, I will make sure neither of you leaves that hospital alive.