Chapter 7 – The Final Piece of the Veil

Luca stopped dialing.

He lowered his phone. “What did you say?”

Vanessa smiled, a desperate, unhinged look in her eyes. “The ivory lace. Your mother’s wedding veil. I told you I gave it back.”

“You gave back a scrap,” Teresa whispered, her voice trembling. “The rest was destroyed.”

“No,” Vanessa corrected, her voice dripping with cruel satisfaction. “I didn’t destroy it. I hid the main piece. The piece with Roberto’s initials hand-stitched into the trim.”

Teresa gasped, her hand flying to her chest.

“Where is it?” Luca demanded, stepping toward her.

“Safe,” Vanessa lied smoothly. “In a place you will never find. But if you call the police, I will have someone burn it tonight.”

Teresa began to cry softly. “Luca, please. It’s the only thing I have left of your father.”

Luca stood paralyzed. He could destroy Vanessa, but it would cost his mother her most precious memory.

The thirty-two guests watched in horrified silence.

Vanessa walked backward toward the grand mahogany doors. “You have one hour, Luca. Call your lawyers. Sign over twenty percent of your company to my father, drop all charges, and I will hand over the veil. If you don’t, it turns to ash.”

She reached for the brass door handle.

“She doesn’t have it.”

The voice came from the floor.

Everyone looked down.

Little Leo was sitting on the carpet, using his red crayon to color the back of the hospital bill.

Vanessa froze. “Shut that brat up.”

Michael stepped protectively in front of his son. “What did you say, Leo?”

Leo didn’t look at Vanessa. He looked at me.

“Hannah has it,” the little boy said simply.

My heart slammed into my ribs. “I do?”

Leo nodded. He pointed to the thick, black winter coat hanging on the coat rack near the kitchen door. My coat.

“I saw her put it in Hannah’s pocket yesterday,” Leo said, his high voice echoing in the silent room. “She told the other lady she was going to frame Hannah for stealing it, so Uncle Luca would fire her.”

Vanessa’s face turned the color of chalk.

Luca didn’t wait. He crossed the room in three strides, grabbed my black coat, and shoved his hand into the deep side pocket.

He pulled out a large, folded bundle of delicate ivory lace.

The missing wedding veil.

Teresa let out a sob of pure relief and pressed her hands to her face.

Luca held the delicate lace in his hands. He looked at the hand-stitched initials. R.M.

Then he looked at Vanessa.

“You were going to frame my maid to ruin her life, just so you could control me.”

Vanessa backed against the door, her hands shaking violently. “Luca, I…”

“Call security,” Luca said, without raising his voice.

Two large men in black suits stepped out from the hallway shadows.

“Escort Miss Bellini and her mother off my property,” Luca ordered. “If they step foot on this estate again, have them arrested for trespassing.”

“You can’t do this to me!” Vanessa screamed as the guards grabbed her arms. “I’m a Bellini! You’re nothing without my family’s name!”

Luca wrapped the veil gently around his mother’s shoulders.

“Your name is worthless,” Luca said. “Get out of my house.”

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