Chapter 4 – THE CHILD’S DRAWING
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
Frank Moretti was sixty-eight, with silver hair and a smile that never quite reached his eyes.
He looked at Luca.
He looked at Adriana.
He looked at Rosa.
Then, his eyes landed on Elena.
He didn’t gasp.
He didn’t drop his glass.
He simply took a sip of his champagne and smiled.
“Hello, Elena,” he said.
Luca stepped in front of his wife.
“You knew,” Luca said.
Frank sighed, swirling his glass.
“Your father was a very thorough man, Luca. But he was also arrogant. He didn’t check the dental records of the woman in the crash.”
Frank looked at Adriana.
“But I did.”
Adriana shrank back against the wall.
“I told you I’d keep her quiet,” she whispered to Frank. “I told you she’d never come back.”
Luca spun around and stared at his sister.
“You made a deal with him?!”
“I had to!” Adriana cried. “Frank found out two years after Dad died. He told me if I ever let Elena near this family again, he would finish what Dad started!”
I stood completely frozen.
I was clutching the silver locket so tightly my hand bled.
Frank smiled warmly at Luca.
“Your sister is very pragmatic. She understands that family legacy is more important than one woman.”
“She’s my wife,” Luca snarled.
“She’s a liability,” Frank corrected.
Frank took a step forward.
“And you, Elena. You broke the rules. You were supposed to stay dead.”
Elena stood tall.
“I couldn’t stay away anymore. Sophie is thirteen. She needs her mother.”
“Sophie needs stability,” Frank countered.
He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
He opened it and handed it to Luca.
It was a child’s drawing.
Crayon on construction paper.
It was a picture of a house. A little girl. And a man.
Underneath, in childish handwriting, it said: My family.
“Sophie drew this when she was six,” Frank said softly. “No mother. Just you and her.”
He looked at Luca.
“You bring a dead woman back into her life, you destroy that girl’s reality. You destroy this family’s reputation. The police will investigate the fraud. They’ll dig into the accounts. Do you want your father’s legacy to be a federal indictment?”
Luca stared at the drawing.
His hands shook.
Frank leaned in.
“Give her some money. Tell her to leave. Or I will make sure the IRS sees exactly where Elena transferred those retirement funds.”
He was still framing her.
Even after eight years.
Luca looked at Elena.
She had tears streaming down her face.
“I just want my daughter,” she whispered.
Luca looked at the drawing.
Then at his uncle.
“You’re right,” Luca said.
Rosa gasped.
Adriana covered her mouth.
Luca handed the drawing back to Frank.
“She shouldn’t be here.”
Elena let out a broken sob.
Luca turned his back on her.
He looked at me.
“Emma,” he said, his voice cold.
“Yes, sir.”
“Escort this woman out the back door.”
I couldn’t believe it.
He was choosing the family secret over his wife.
But as Luca walked past me to leave the room, he stopped for a fraction of a second.
He bumped my shoulder.
And slipped something into my apron pocket.
When he was gone, I reached my hand inside.
It was his car keys.
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