Chapter 3 – THE ROSARY IN THE COAT

The rain lashed against the windows of the sitting room.

Teresa gasped, her hand flying to her chest. Even through the thick glass, Luca’s words had carried.

Not a heart attack.

I pulled the little girl closer to me. She was trembling.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” I asked softly, trying to distract her from the shouting outside.

“Lily,” she whispered.

“Lily. That’s a beautiful name.” I grabbed a warm blanket from the sofa and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Where did your mommy go tonight, Lily?”

Lily looked down at her muddy shoes.

“She said she had to meet a lady. A lady in a red dress.”

My stomach plummeted.

A lady in a red dress. Vanessa.

Outside, Luca held the folded piece of paper in the rain.

“My father wrote this,” Luca said, his voice cutting through the storm. “He wrote it the night he died. ‘I found out what Vanessa’s family has been doing to our accounts. If I don’t make it to morning, find Elena. She is the only one who knows the truth.’”

Vanessa backed away, shaking her head wildly.

“That’s a forgery! Elena was a runaway! She left because she hated this family!”

“Then why did you bury this?!” Luca roared.

“I didn’t! She must have planted it!”

Luca stepped closer, towering over her.

“Where is my sister, Vanessa?”

“I don’t know!”

Luca pulled out his phone. “Marcus. Lock the gates. Nobody leaves this estate.”

He grabbed the metal box and stormed past Vanessa, marching directly into the house. He burst through the sitting room doors, soaked and covered in mud.

Teresa stood up, trembling.

“Luca… what is it?”

Luca walked straight to the little girl. He knelt down in front of her, ignoring the mud soaking into the Persian rug.

“Lily,” he said gently. “Did your mother give you anything else? Anything at all?”

Lily hesitated. Then, she reached into the deep pocket of her oversized coat.

She pulled out a wooden rosary.

Teresa let out a strangled cry.

It was the exact rosary she used to pray with when Luca was a boy.

“Mommy said to give this to the nice lady who lives here,” Lily whispered.

Luca took the beads. They were worn, dark with age. But tied to the center cross was a tiny, modern luggage tag.

It had an address written on it.

Room 402. The Starlight Motel.

Luca stood up instantly.

“Frank. Get the car.”

“I’m coming with you,” Teresa said fiercely, wiping her tears.

“No, Mom. It’s not safe.”

“She is my daughter, Luca! I have waited thirty years!”

Before Luca could argue, the sitting room doors swung open again.

It was Vanessa. Her red dress was soaked, her hair plastered to her face. She looked desperate.

“Luca, you can’t go there.”

He turned to her, his eyes dead.

“Give me one reason why.”

Vanessa swallowed hard.

“Because if you walk through that motel door… you will lose this family’s entire empire.”

Luca didn’t blink.

“My family is already in this room.”

He turned toward the door.

But Vanessa screamed his name.

“She isn’t at the motel, Luca!”

Luca stopped.

He slowly turned back around.

Vanessa was crying now, but there was a sick, twisted smile on her face.

“She never left the grounds tonight.”