Chapter 8
Vanessa instinctively clamped her right hand over her left wrist, hiding the thick gold bracelet from view. But it was too late. Everyone had seen the matching interlocking ‘V’ design.
“Give me that,” Luca said to Sophie, holding out his hand.
Sophie dropped the heavy gold button into her father’s palm. Luca stared at it. It was undeniable physical evidence placing Vanessa at the exact spot Catherine had fallen.
“A button proves nothing!” Vanessa cried from the floor, her voice cracking with desperation. She struggled to her feet, her red silk gown torn at the hem. “I lost that button months ago! Catherine probably found it on the street and brought it inside!”
The excuse was so pathetic, so utterly absurd, that a low murmur of disgust rippled through the dinner guests.
Luca didn’t even acknowledge the lie. He slowly walked toward Vanessa, the gold button clenched in his fist.
“Take off the bracelet,” Luca commanded.
Vanessa backed against the buffet table again. “Luca, please. You’re scaring me. This is insane. I love you!”
“You don’t know what love is,” Luca said, his voice a low, gravelly threat. “Take off the bracelet. Or I will break your wrist and take it off for you.”
Vanessa hesitated, her chest heaving. She looked at the hardened faces of the mafia bosses and associates sitting at the table. Not one of them offered her a shred of sympathy. In their world, betrayal of family was the ultimate sin. Murdering a made man’s wife was an automatic death sentence.
With trembling fingers, Vanessa undid the clasp. The heavy gold bracelet slid off her wrist. She held it out.
Luca snatched it from her. He held the bracelet in one hand and the button in the other. The craftsmanship, the metal, the distinct logo—they were a perfect, undeniable match.
But Luca didn’t stop there. He turned the heavy gold bracelet over, examining the inside band.
His eyes narrowed.
“There’s an engraving in here,” Luca said quietly.
Vanessa’s face drained of the last remaining drops of color. She looked as though she might faint.
Luca held the bracelet up to the chandelier light. He read the tiny, cursive script etched into the gold.
“To V. Forever yours, Leo F.”
The silence in the room was absolute.
“Leo Falcone,” Luca said. The name was a curse.
The pieces slammed together with sickening clarity. Vanessa wasn’t just a gold-digger. She wasn’t just a blackmailer.
“You were a Falcone plant,” Luca said, his voice vibrating with a terrifying realization. “Leo sent you to seduce my brother. To infiltrate my family. You didn’t just blackmail Michael—you were funneling our shipping schedules directly to the Falcones.”
Vanessa shook her head frantically. “No! No, Luca, you have it wrong! Leo abused me! He forced me to do it! I fell in love with Michael, I swear!”
“You don’t fall in love with the mark,” Luca said coldly. “Catherine figured it out. She found proof you were a spy. She told Michael, and he canceled the wedding. He was running away to protect the family from a war.”
Luca stepped closer, his dark eyes boring into Vanessa’s soul.
“But you couldn’t let him leave, could you?” Luca asked softly. “Because if Michael disappeared, Leo Falcone would kill you for failing your mission. So you got in his car. You sabotaged the brakes. You jumped out before the bridge, and you watched my brother burn.”
Vanessa covered her ears, sobbing hysterically. “Stop it! Stop saying these things!”
“And when you realized Catherine had the evidence of your sabotage,” Luca continued, relentless, “you broke into my house, confronted her on the stairs, and threw her down.”
“She was going to ruin me!” Vanessa screamed, finally breaking. The confession tore out of her, raw and ugly. “She had the mechanic’s report! She had the bank transfers to Leo! She had it all in a file! I had to get it back!”
The confession hung in the air, heavy and toxic.
Margaret Ellis wept quietly into her hands.
I pulled Sophie against my legs, shielding her from the monster standing across the room.
Vanessa dropped to her knees, the red silk pooling in a messy puddle around her. She looked up at Luca, clasping her hands in a desperate plea.
“I did it to survive, Luca,” she begged, tears streaking her flawless makeup. “Leo would have killed me! And then… then I met you. And I truly fell in love with you. I thought if we got married, I’d finally be safe from the Falcones. You’re a boss, Luca. You can protect me.”
Luca stared down at her with a look of absolute, chilling apathy.
“You murdered my wife,” Luca said quietly. “You murdered my brother. You terrorized my daughter. And you humiliated the woman who practically raised me.”
Luca looked up and gave a subtle, almost imperceptible nod to the two massive bodyguards standing by the grand oak doors.
The guards immediately stepped forward.
“Wait!” Vanessa screamed, scrambling backward as the men approached. “Luca, please! The police won’t accept a button and a child’s testimony! You can’t prove anything!”
“You’re right,” Luca said calmly. “The police might struggle to build a case on a button.”
He looked toward me. “Hannah.”
I stood up straight. “Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“Earlier tonight, you said you didn’t burn Catherine’s things. You said you hid them in the spare linen closet.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you happen to see a heavy black wool coat in that closet?”
My eyes widened. I remembered it perfectly.
“Yes,” I said. “A women’s coat. It was wrapped in plastic. It smelled like expensive perfume. And…” I looked directly at Vanessa. “It was missing a gold button on the left cuff. And the sleeve was stained with dried blood.”
Vanessa let out a blood-curdling shriek.
“Catherine didn’t give the coat to a lawyer,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “She hid it in the cedar chest before you pushed her. She knew exactly who you were, Vanessa. And she trapped you from beyond the grave.”
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