Chapter 3 – THE DEAD MAN’S DEBT

Screams erupted from the dinner guests as they saw the weapon.

Luca ignored them. He grabbed my arm, his grip firm but careful, and pulled me and Ellie behind his broad shoulders.

“Mrs. Carter,” Luca commanded, his voice cutting through the panic. “Get the guests into the wine cellar. Lock the steel door.”

The older housekeeper didn’t flinch. “Yes, sir.”

Ellie buried her face in my apron, trembling violently.

“Mommy, what’s happening?”

“I’ve got you, baby,” I promised, though my own knees were weak. “I’ve got you.”

Luca looked at Marco. “Clear the second floor. Take three men.”

“No,” I gasped, stepping forward. “My mother. She’s supposed to be coming tonight to pick up Ellie’s laundry. If she walks in—”

Luca’s jaw tightened. “Call her. Tell her to stay away.”

I fumbled for my phone in my apron pocket. But the screen was completely black. Dead.

“He jammed the signal,” Marco said, checking his own device. “Professional grade.”

Luca turned to me. “We’re going upstairs. Keep Ellie behind me.”

We moved through the grand foyer, leaving the screaming guests behind.

Every shadow felt like a threat. My mind was reeling.

Liam had stolen from Luca Moretti? Two million dollars?

When we were together, Liam couldn’t even keep a job at the local auto shop. He was a coward. A gambler.

“Why would he come back?” I whispered as we reached the landing. “If he stole from you, why would he step foot in your house?”

Luca kept his gun raised, scanning the dark hallway.

“Because he didn’t spend the money, Madison. He hid it.”

We reached the staff quarters. The door to our small apartment was already open.

The lock was completely shattered.

Luca pushed me behind the wall and sliced into the room, weapon drawn.

A moment later, he lowered it. “Clear.”

I rushed inside, pulling Ellie with me.

My heart broke at the sight.

Our tiny, safe haven was destroyed. The mattress was flipped. My meager jewelry box was smashed on the floor.

But worst of all was Ellie’s corner.

Her little desk was overturned.

And her favorite pink backpack—the one she hung on the exact same hook every day—was sliced entirely open, its lining gutted.

“He was looking for something,” Luca said softly, staring at the ruined bag.

“He hasn’t seen her in three years,” I cried, pulling Ellie against my chest so she wouldn’t see the destruction. “He hasn’t been near that backpack!”

“Yes, he has.”

Luca knelt by the gutted lining. He reached into the slash in the fabric.

He pulled out a heavy, tarnished key wrapped in a weathered piece of paper.

“He hid it three years ago,” Luca said, his voice grim. “Before he left.”

He unfolded the paper. I recognized Liam’s frantic, messy handwriting immediately.

If I don’t make it back, the key is in the lining. Don’t trust Moretti.

I stared at Luca. “You knew.”

He didn’t deny it.

“You knew who I was,” I whispered, the realization crashing over me like freezing water. “When you hired me eleven months ago. You didn’t give me this job out of pity. You gave it to me because I was Liam Davis’s wife.”

Luca stood up slowly.

“I brought you here because I knew he would eventually come back for the key. I needed him to come to me.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks.

I looked at Ellie, then back at the man who had just saved her in the dining room.

“We were bait.”

Luca took a step toward me, his dark eyes flashing with a desperate kind of regret.

“At first, yes. But Madison, I swear to God—”

Before he could finish the sentence, the lights in the entire estate went pitch black.

And a cold, familiar voice echoed from the hallway.

“Put the key down, Luca. Or I start shooting blindly into the dark.”

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