Chapter 3 – THE GOLD LIGHTER

The mansion echoed with the terrifying sound of shattering glass and heavy boots on marble.

I held Daniel so tightly against my chest I could feel his frantic heartbeat syncing with my own.

“Miss Emma,” he whimpered, burying his face in my neck. “Are the bad men going to get us?”

“No, sweetheart,” I whispered fiercely, taking the stairs two at a time. “I won’t let them.”

I didn’t know how I was going to keep that promise, but I knew I would die before I let anyone touch him.

We reached the third floor, sprinting down the long, carpeted hallway toward the nursery. The sounds of a brutal firefight raged below us. Luca’s men were holding the ground floor, but I didn’t know how many Bellini thugs had breached the house.

I shoved open the heavy oak door of the nursery and locked the deadbolt behind us.

Then I dragged a heavy wooden dresser across the floor, wedging it against the door handle.

The nursery was dark, illuminated only by the moonlight filtering through the bulletproof windows.

“Get in the closet, Daniel,” I ordered quietly. “Hide behind the winter coats and don’t make a sound.”

He scrambled into the dark closet, pulling his knees to his chest.

I stood in the center of the room, scanning for anything I could use as a weapon. A heavy brass floor lamp. A pair of heavy sewing scissors.

My eyes landed on Caroline’s old vanity table in the corner.

Sitting perfectly centered on the glass top was a beautiful, ornate wooden jewelry box.

I remembered the recording.

Caroline had said the man who ordered her death left something in her hospital room by mistake.

A heavy gold lighter with a family crest.

If Caroline knew her husband would need proof to destroy the Bellinis, she wouldn’t have just made a recording.

She would have hidden the evidence.

I ran to the vanity and opened the jewelry box.

Inside were strings of pearls, diamond studs, and a silver locket.

But no lighter.

I frantically pulled out the velvet drawers. Empty.

“Miss Emma?” Daniel whispered from the closet.

“Stay quiet, honey,” I pleaded, my hands trembling as I searched the vanity drawers.

Nothing.

Then I remembered something Daniel had said at dinner.

She said Grandma makes me remember Mommy.

Grandma keeps Mommy’s things.

Caroline’s mother, Margaret.

She wasn’t just a grieving grandmother. She was the person who had packed up Caroline’s hospital room after she died.

I pulled my cell phone from my apron pocket. I had Margaret’s number saved for emergencies.

I dialed.

It rang three times before she answered.

“Emma?” Margaret’s voice was groggy. “It’s late. Is Daniel all right?”

“Margaret, listen to me very carefully,” I whispered, keeping my eyes on the locked door. “Did you keep a gold lighter from Caroline’s hospital room?”

Silence on the other end.

Then, a sharp intake of breath.

“How do you know about that?” Margaret asked, her voice instantly terrified.

“Do you have it?”

“Emma, what is going on? Why are you asking about that lighter?”

“Because the Bellini family is inside the house,” I said, the truth rushing out of me. “They killed Caroline, Margaret. Vanessa was in the room. And they’re trying to kill Luca and Daniel right now.”

Margaret let out a choked sob.

“I knew it,” she cried. “I knew she didn’t just fade away. That lighter… I found it kicked under her hospital bed. I didn’t know whose it was, but I kept it. I hid it.”

“Where?”

“I didn’t bring it to my house,” Margaret said quickly. “I was too afraid someone would look for it. I hid it inside Daniel’s room.”

My heart hammered. “Where in Daniel’s room?”

“The old dollhouse,” Margaret said. “The one Caroline played with as a child. It’s in the attic playroom, just above the nursery.”

I looked up at the ceiling.

There was a pull-down staircase in the hallway that led to the attic.

But leaving the locked nursery meant exposing myself to the hallway.

“I’ll get it,” I told her. “Call the police, Margaret. Send them to the estate.”

“I will. Keep him safe, Emma. Please.”

I hung up.

I walked over to the closet. Daniel was shaking like a leaf.

“Sweetheart, I need to go up to the playroom for just one minute,” I whispered. “I have to get something that belongs to your mommy. You stay right here, no matter what you hear. Do you understand?”

He grabbed my hand. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’ll be right back. I promise.”

I kissed his forehead, backed away, and quietly moved the dresser.

I unlocked the door and peeked into the hallway.

It was empty. The gunfire downstairs had faded into sporadic, terrifying bursts.

I slipped out, closing the nursery door behind me.

I reached up and pulled the cord for the attic stairs. They slid down with a soft groan.

I climbed up quickly, stepping into the dusty, cavernous space of the attic playroom.

Moonlight spilled across boxes of old toys and forgotten furniture.

In the corner sat an enormous, beautifully crafted Victorian dollhouse.

I ran over to it. I opened the tiny front doors.

There, hidden inside the miniature dining room, wrapped in a piece of faded silk, was a heavy object.

I pulled it out and unwrapped it.

It was a solid gold lighter.

I wiped the dust away with my thumb. Engraved deeply into the gold were two crossed swords and a wolf.

The Bellini family crest.

This was it. The absolute, physical proof that Bellini had been in her room. Proof that could send him to federal prison for murder and conspiracy.

I gripped it tightly and turned to head back to the stairs.

But as I turned, a shadow blocked the attic entrance.

A man stepped into the moonlight.

He wore a dark suit, his face splattered with blood. In his hand was a silenced pistol.

“Well, well,” he said, his voice smooth and cold. “Vanessa said the maid had too much spirit. I see she was right.”

He raised the gun, pointing it directly at my face.

“Hand over the lighter, sweetheart. Or you die up here, and I go downstairs and finish off the kid.”

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