Chapter 7 – THE FLIGHT RISK

The officers moved in immediately.

One grabbed Vanessa’s arm, twisting it behind her back. The metallic click of the handcuffs echoed loudly through the dining room.

“Get your hands off me!” Vanessa shrieked, thrashing wildly. Her elegant red gown tore at the seam. “Luca! Luca, do something! You love me!”

Luca didn’t flinch. He looked at her with utter disgust.

“I loved the woman I thought you were. I see exactly what you are now.”

As the officers began dragging Vanessa toward the door, she suddenly stopped struggling. She planted her heels into the marble floor and let out a vicious, chilling laugh.

“You think this is over?” Vanessa mocked, staring directly at Luca. “You think I’m going down alone?”

The detective paused. “Keep moving, ma’am.”

“Wait,” Luca said, raising a hand. He stepped closer to Vanessa. “What do you mean?”

Vanessa smiled, a twisted, ugly look of triumph.

“I’m an assistant, Luca. I don’t know how to alter toxicology reports. I don’t know how to bypass your estate’s firewall to delete security footage. I certainly don’t have the medical knowledge to know exactly how long Catherine’s inhaler could be withheld before she suffocated.”

She looked around the room, her eyes locking onto a specific guest near the back window.

“I had a partner,” Vanessa purred. “Someone who wanted Catherine out of the way just as badly as I did. Someone who wanted your money, Luca.”

All heads turned toward the back window.

Standing there, frozen with a half-empty glass of scotch in his hand, was David.

Luca’s chief financial officer. His most trusted business partner.

David’s face drained of blood. “She’s lying! She’s insane, she’s just trying to take everyone down with her!”

Vanessa let out a sharp bark of laughter.

“Am I, David? Who gave me the exact code to the back gate? Marcus only left it unlocked; you gave me the override pin so it wouldn’t log my entry.”

Marcus, still standing by the kitchen, pointed at David. “I did tell him the override pin last year. For emergencies.”

David slammed his glass onto the table. “This is ridiculous! I have no motive to hurt Catherine!”

“You have every motive,” a quiet voice said.

It was Sofia.

She stood up from the floor, wiping her tears. She walked over to her coat and pulled out a small, folded piece of thick paper.

“A train ticket,” Sofia said, holding it up. “Purchased the morning of Catherine’s death. From Chicago to Montreal. It’s a sleeper car ticket. For two passengers.”

Sofia looked directly at David.

“The first name is Vanessa Bellini. The second name is David Vance.”

David lunged for the front doors, shoving past a terrified guest.

He didn’t make it three steps.

Two police officers tackled him to the floor, pinning him against the expensive Persian rug.

“Get off me!” David roared, struggling against the cuffs.

“David embezzled over four million dollars from the company,” Vanessa announced loudly, watching her former partner get restrained. “Catherine found the discrepancies in the private ledgers. She was going to tell you, Luca. The morning she died, she had a meeting scheduled with your private auditor.”

Luca rubbed his face, looking physically sick. The betrayal was absolute. His best friend. His business partner. His fiancé. They had all circled his family like vultures.

“You two were going to run away together?” Luca asked, disgusted.

“We were,” Vanessa said bitterly. “Until David decided he didn’t want to run. He realized with Catherine dead, I could step in. I could marry you. And between the two of us, we could drain the entire Moretti empire from the inside.”

The detective shook his head. “Take them both out of here.”

As they dragged Vanessa past me, she suddenly stopped and looked at little Mia.

The child was still clinging to my leg, shaking.

“You’re going to need a new mother, little girl,” Vanessa sneered.

Before I could stop myself, my hand moved.

Smack.

My palm connected violently with Vanessa’s cheek.

The sound cracked through the room.

My hand stung, but I didn’t care. I stood tall, staring the murderer directly in the eyes.

“She already has a family,” I said, my voice shaking with adrenaline. “And they will never let a monster like you near her again.”

Vanessa glared at me, a bloody mark forming on her cheek.

The police jerked her forward, pulling her out the front doors and into the pouring rain.

The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind them.

The nightmare was finally over.

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