Chapter 1 – THE FACE FROM THE FATAL NIGHT
Luca pulled the heavy dining room doors open.
The forty guests behind us held their collective breath.
Sofia stood in the marble hallway. She was wearing a dark trench coat, her eyes red but fierce.
And standing right beside her was a woman I didn’t recognize.
She looked to be in her late sixties. Her gray hair was pulled back tightly, and she wore a faded wool sweater. She looked nervous, but she didn’t look away from Vanessa.
Vanessa stumbled backward, her red evening gown suddenly looking like a costume she had worn to the wrong party.
“Close the door, Luca,” Vanessa whispered, her voice trembling. “She’s not well. Neither of them are.”
Luca didn’t move.
He stared at the older woman.
“Elena?” he asked softly.
My heart skipped a beat.
Teresa squeezed my hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. “Catherine’s night nurse,” the old woman whispered to me. “She vanished the morning Catherine died.”
Luca stepped into the hallway.
“Elena, you disappeared three years ago. The police looked everywhere for you.”
The older woman gripped her purse.
“I didn’t disappear, Mr. Moretti. I was paid to leave.”
Vanessa let out a sharp, breathless laugh.
“This is extortion! She’s a disgruntled former employee looking for a payout on our engagement night.”
Sofia stepped forward, shielding Elena.
“She didn’t come for money, Vanessa. She came because she saw the engagement announcement in the newspaper yesterday. And she couldn’t live with the guilt anymore.”
Luca turned to his sister.
“Sofia, what is going on? Why did you bring her here?”
“Because I tried to tell you the truth three years ago,” Sofia said, her voice breaking. “But Vanessa convinced you I was just a grieving sister looking for someone to blame. She isolated you. She pushed me out. She made you think Mom was losing her mind.”
Luca looked back at Vanessa.
“Where were you the night Catherine died, Vanessa?”
Vanessa’s eyes darted around the silent dining room. The forty guests were watching her every move.
“I was at my apartment!” she cried out. “Luca, you know this! I was your assistant back then. I was organizing your schedule for the London trip!”
Elena shook her head slowly.
“No, you weren’t.”
The nurse reached into her deep cardigan pocket.
“Mrs. Moretti,” Elena said, looking directly at Catherine’s mother-in-law, Teresa. “I am so sorry I failed your daughter-in-law. But I kept something from that night. I was too afraid to give it to the police.”
Elena pulled out a heavy, tarnished silver bracelet.
It had a distinctive emerald charm hanging from the clasp.
Vanessa gasped. Her hand flew to her throat.
“Where did you find that?” Luca demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“Under Catherine’s bed,” Elena said quietly. “The morning she died.”
Vanessa’s face turned gray.
“She stole that from my desk at the office!” Vanessa shouted, pointing a shaking finger at the nurse. “She’s trying to frame me!”
But Luca slowly reached out and took the silver bracelet from Elena’s trembling hand.
He didn’t look at Vanessa. He looked closely at the inner band of the silver.
“This has your initials engraved on it, Vanessa,” Luca said.
“I lost it!” she cried. “Months before Catherine passed!”
Sofia shook her head.
“Did you?”
Sofia unbuttoned her trench coat. She reached into her inner pocket and pulled out a small, glossy photograph.
She held it up for Luca to see.
“Do you remember the charity gala we attended two days before Catherine died?” Sofia asked.
Luca took the photograph.
It was a candid shot of Vanessa standing in the background of the gala.
And shining brightly on her right wrist was the silver bracelet with the emerald charm.
Vanessa’s lie had just shattered.
But as Luca stared at the photograph, his expression shifted from anger to absolute horror.
He wasn’t looking at the bracelet anymore.
He slowly lifted his eyes to Vanessa.
“Vanessa,” he whispered, his voice shaking with a rage I had never heard before. “Why are you wearing Catherine’s family heirloom necklace in this picture?”
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