Chapter 3 – THE COAT AND THE CONFESSION

I pressed my ear against the heavy oak door.

The music downstairs had abruptly stopped. People were shouting. Glass shattered.

Amelia gripped my apron, her small hands shaking violently.

“Sophie, what’s happening?” she cried.

“It’s okay, sweetie. Your dad is just handling things,” I promised, though my own heart was hammering in my throat.

Down in the ballroom, Luca had bypassed the champagne and the pleasantries. He had walked straight to table number four.

I couldn’t see it, but I could hear the sheer terror in Dr. Evans’s voice echoing up the grand staircase.

“Luca, wait! Please!” Evans begged.

“You signed the death certificate!” Luca’s roar shook the walls of the estate. “You looked me in the eye and told me my wife’s heart failed!”

“It wasn’t my idea!” the doctor screamed.

I heard a heavy thud, followed by the sound of a table crashing to the floor. The guests were screaming in panic.

“She threatened my family, Luca! Vanessa threatened my children!” Evans sobbed. “She said if I didn’t swap Caroline’s medication, her people would kill my girls!”

A heavy silence fell over the house.

“Vanessa’s people?” Luca demanded. “Vanessa is a socialite. She doesn’t have people.”

“She does!” Evans cried. “She works for the Romano family! She was planted here, Luca! To clear the way for them to take your territory!”

My breath hitched.

Reversal. Vanessa hadn’t wanted to marry Luca for his money. She was a Trojan horse, sent by his greatest rivals to destroy his family from the inside.

“Where is she?” Luca’s voice was deadly quiet now.

“She left!” Evans gasped. “As soon as you went upstairs, she ran toward the garage!”

I immediately pulled my phone from my apron pocket. I had to call security.

But before I could dial, the doorknob to Amelia’s room slowly turned.

Then, a heavy fist pounded against the wood.

“Sophie. Open the door.”

It was Vanessa’s voice.

She hadn’t gone to the garage. She had come upstairs.

“Go away!” I shouted, pushing my back against the door.

“Open the door, you stupid maid, or I will shoot it off its hinges,” Vanessa hissed.

I looked down. Underneath the gap of the door, I saw the metallic glint of a gun barrel.

“Hide in the closet,” I whispered to Amelia, shoving her toward the back of the room. “Don’t come out.”

“Sophie, open it!” Vanessa screamed.

BANG.

The gunshot deafened me. The wood near the lock splintered, raining shards into my hair.

I scrambled backward just as the door kicked open.

Vanessa stood in the doorway. Her engagement ring was gone. In its place, she held a silver revolver. Her elegant updo was a mess, and her eyes were wild with desperation.

“Where is the brat?” Vanessa demanded, sweeping the gun across the room.

“You’re not touching her,” I said, grabbing a heavy brass lamp from the nightstand and stepping in front of the closet.

Vanessa laughed. It was a broken, ugly sound.

“I don’t want to hurt her,” Vanessa said, stepping closer. “I just need her thumbprint.”

Answer one: Vanessa needed Amelia alive.

Open two: Why did she need a nine-year-old’s thumbprint?

“Caroline’s offshore accounts,” Vanessa sneered, seeing the confusion on my face. “They require the child’s biometric scan to unlock. Fifty million dollars. My bosses want it before they kill Luca.”

Before I could swing the lamp, Vanessa lunged forward and struck me across the temple with the butt of the gun.

Pain exploded in my skull. I hit the floor hard, my vision swimming in dark spots.

“Amelia!” Vanessa barked, grabbing the closet door handle. “Come out here right now!”

“Leave her alone!” I groaned, trying to grab Vanessa’s ankle.

She kicked me in the ribs, knocking the wind out of my lungs.

Vanessa yanked the closet door open.

But Amelia wasn’t cowering in the corner.

She was standing on a step stool, holding something heavy in both hands.

It was a heavy, antique silver pocket watch. Luca’s grandfather’s watch, which he kept on the top shelf.

Before Vanessa could raise her gun, Amelia hurled the solid silver watch with all her might.

It struck Vanessa squarely in the center of her forehead.

Vanessa shrieked, dropping the gun and clutching her bleeding face.

I didn’t hesitate. I pushed myself up, grabbed the gun from the floor, and aimed it directly at the woman who had tried to destroy this family.

“Move, and I’ll kill you,” I gasped.

Suddenly, Luca burst into the bedroom, breathing heavily, his suit jacket gone, his knuckles covered in blood.

He took one look at Vanessa on the floor, bleeding from the head, and me holding the gun.

Then he looked at Amelia, who was shaking but unharmed.

Luca walked over to Vanessa.

He reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a heavy gold money clip.

I recognized it immediately. It didn’t belong to the Romano family.

It belonged to Luca’s uncle, Carmine.

Luca stared at the gold clip, his face going completely white.

“It wasn’t the Romanos,” Luca whispered, realizing the ultimate betrayal. “It was my own blood.”

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