Chapter 2 – [THE BROTHER’S BETRAYAL]

“What?” I gasped, stepping back.

The entire room was staring at me.

Luca turned slowly.

His dark eyes were unreadable. But the silence in the room was deafening.

“Emily,” Luca said. “Is that true?”

“No!” I cried out. “Mr. Moretti, I have never spoken to Marco outside of passing him in the hallway. I didn’t ask for any key.”

Marco stood up.

He adjusted his tie, his hands perfectly steady.

“Luca, she cornered me in the library on Tuesday. She said Dad’s doctor had called, requesting an inventory of his pills. I gave her the key. I thought she was just doing her job.”

Vanessa immediately seized the moment.

“I told you!” she shouted, her confidence returning. “She’s lying! She poisoned him, Luca! She’s trying to kill your father and frame me!”

Luca looked at the silver key on the table.

Then he looked at the foxglove leaf in my hand.

“Marco,” Luca said quietly. “If Emily asked for the key on Tuesday… why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s just medicine, Luca. I didn’t think it mattered.”

“It matters when my father is being poisoned.”

Anthony, still sitting at the head of the table, suddenly hit his hand against the wood.

Smack.

Everyone jumped.

The old man was breathing heavily. He was trying to speak, but the fatigue was overwhelming him.

“Dad, don’t strain yourself,” Luca said, stepping toward him.

But Anthony pointed a trembling finger.

Not at Marco.

Not at Vanessa.

He pointed at the heavy silver watch chain hanging from Marco’s vest.

Luca stopped.

He looked at the chain.

“Marco. Take out the watch.”

Marco hesitated. “Luca, this is ridiculous. We need to call the police on the maid.”

“Take out the watch, Marco.”

Marco slowly reached into his vest pocket.

He pulled out a heavy, antique gold pocket watch.

It had belonged to their grandfather.

Luca held out his hand.

Marco placed the watch in Luca’s palm.

Luca pressed the latch.

The watch popped open.

The room held its breath.

Inside the watch cover, there wasn’t a picture of their grandfather.

There was a small, folded piece of paper.

Luca pulled it out and unfolded it.

His face went completely blank.

“What is it?” Vanessa asked, stepping closer.

Luca turned the paper around.

It was a bank deposit slip.

For two hundred thousand dollars.

Deposited into an offshore account.

“Where did you get this kind of money, Marco?” Luca asked.

Marco swallowed hard. “I won it. At the tables.”

“You don’t gamble,” Luca said.

He looked at the date on the slip.

“This deposit was made three weeks ago.”

Luca looked up.

“The exact same week Dad’s appetite started failing.”

Marco took a step back. “Luca, you’re not thinking clearly. Look at the maid! She’s the one holding the poison!”

But Luca wasn’t looking at me anymore.

He was looking at the signature at the bottom of the deposit slip.

It wasn’t Marco’s signature.

“This money came from a corporate account,” Luca read aloud. “Bellini Imports.”

Vanessa gasped.

Bellini Imports was her father’s company.

Luca slowly turned toward his fiancée.

“Vanessa. Why did your father wire my brother two hundred thousand dollars?”

Vanessa started shaking. “I… I don’t know, Luca. I swear.”

“Did you pay him to get the key?”

“No!”

Suddenly, a woman’s voice echoed from the doorway.

“She didn’t pay him.”

We all turned.

Standing in the archway of the dining room was a woman in her late fifties.

She wore a long, elegant black coat.

Her hair was perfectly styled.

Luca froze.

“Mother?”

Elena Moretti had not stepped foot in this house in ten years.

She walked into the room, her eyes locked on Vanessa.

“She didn’t pay Marco,” Elena said coldly. “Because Vanessa isn’t working with Marco.”

Elena reached into her coat pocket.

And pulled out a child’s drawing.

A drawing of a house with a red door.

She held it up.

“She’s working with the person who drew this.”

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