Chapter 1 – THE WATCH BURIED IN THE DIRT

“Emma… if Vanessa doesn’t want Mommy cat’s family here, does that mean she doesn’t want me here when you get married either?”

The words hung in the air of the grand dining room.

Thirty-two wealthy guests froze.

The clinking of silverware stopped.

Luca Moretti didn’t move.

He didn’t look at the guests.

He didn’t look at the expensive champagne or the crystal chandeliers.

He only looked at his ten-year-old daughter.

“Emma,” Luca whispered, his voice cracking in a way I had never heard before. “Who made you feel like you could ever be sent away?”

Emma didn’t answer.

She just looked down at the tiny gray kitten in her lap.

And then, she slowly looked up at Vanessa.

Vanessa’s face flushed a deep, panicked red.

“Luca, this is absurd,” Vanessa stammered, her voice suddenly high and breathless. “She’s a child. She’s tired. She’s making up stories because she wants to keep a stray animal!”

Luca finally turned toward his fiancée.

The look in his eyes was terrifying.

It was the cold, dead stare of a man who ran the Chicago syndicate.

“My daughter doesn’t lie,” Luca said quietly.

Before Vanessa could respond, the heavy dining room doors swung open again.

Daniel, the grounds manager, stepped inside.

He looked pale.

His boots were covered in mud, and his hands were shaking.

“Mr. Moretti,” Daniel interrupted, his voice trembling. “I’m sorry to interrupt again, sir. But you need to see this.”

Luca didn’t take his eyes off Vanessa.

“What is it, Daniel?”

The grounds manager walked slowly to the head of the table.

He opened his muddy hands.

Resting in his palms was a small, dirty piece of fabric.

It was a piece of Emma’s wooden cat shelter that the workers had just torn down.

But there was something tangled inside the broken wood.

Something shiny.

Daniel gently wiped away the dirt.

It was a delicate, silver woman’s watch.

The glass face was cracked, but the intricate diamond band was unmistakable.

Emma gasped.

“That’s Mommy’s,” she whispered.

The entire room seemed to stop breathing.

I felt my heart pound against my ribs.

Emma’s mother, Isabella, had died in a tragic car accident four years ago.

Luca slowly reached out.

His hand was shaking as he picked up the watch.

He turned it over.

Engraved on the back were the words: To Isabella. Forever, Luca.

“Where did you find this?” Luca asked, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper.

“It was buried beneath the floorboards of the cat shelter, sir,” Daniel answered. “The mother cat… she had dug away the top layer of dirt to make her nest. The watch was hidden underneath.”

Luca closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he looked directly at Vanessa.

“Isabella was wearing this watch the night she died,” Luca said smoothly. “The police told me it was lost in the river.”

Vanessa backed away from the table.

“I don’t know how it got there,” she stammered.

Luca took a step toward her.

“Then let me ask you something else, Vanessa,” he said softly.

He held up the silver watch.

“Why does this watch have your initials carved into the inside of the clasp?”