Chapter 1 – [THE SCREAM THAT SHATTERED THE GLASS]

Luca didn’t hesitate.

He moved faster than I thought a man in a tailored suit could, taking the stairs two at a time.

I was right behind him. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.

“Katie!” I screamed.

The upstairs hallway was dimly lit. The heavy oak doors were all closed, except for one at the far end. The guest study.

Luca reached it first. He didn’t reach for the handle. He kicked the door open.

Inside, the room was a mess. A heavy floor lamp lay shattered on the Persian rug.

Katie was backed into the corner, clutching her serving tray like a shield. She was trembling violently, her chest heaving, mascara running down her cheeks.

Standing a few feet away from her was Marcus, Richard’s personal driver. He was a massive man with a thick neck and cold, empty eyes.

He was holding Richard’s wool coat.

“Step away from her,” Luca said. His voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It was the voice of a man who could end a life without raising his pulse.

Marcus sneered. “The girl was snooping. I caught her going through Mr. Vale’s pockets.”

“I wasn’t!” Katie sobbed, looking at me. “Emma, I swear! I just came to hang the coat up, and he grabbed me!”

I ran to my sister, wrapping my arms around her. She was so cold.

“Are you hurt?” I whispered, checking her face, her arms.

“He didn’t touch me,” she cried. “But he was trying to take it from me.”

Luca stepped further into the room. “Take what, Katie?”

Marcus shifted his weight. “Mr. Moretti, it’s a misunderstanding. She took something of Mr. Vale’s.”

Luca didn’t even look at the driver. He kept his eyes on my sister. “Katie. What did you find?”

Katie reached into her apron pocket. Her hand was shaking so badly she could barely open her fingers.

When she did, my breath caught.

It wasn’t money. It wasn’t a watch.

It was a delicate, silver bracelet.

It looked old, tarnished in places, with three small charms shaped like swallows.

“It fell out of the pocket when I draped the coat over the chair,” Katie whispered. “I was just picking it up to put it back… but then I saw the initials.”

Luca went perfectly still.

He walked over to us and gently took the bracelet from Katie’s trembling hand.

He stared at it for a long, terrible moment.

“Where did you get this?” Luca asked. He finally looked at Marcus. The air in the room felt suddenly freezing.

“That belongs to Mr. Vale,” Marcus said, though his voice lacked its previous confidence.

“That’s a lie,” Luca said softly.

He turned the bracelet over. I could just barely see the engraving on the back of the center charm.

“This belonged to my younger sister, Clara,” Luca said.

My stomach dropped.

Clara Moretti had died in a tragic boating accident fifteen years ago. Everyone in Chicago knew the story. Her body was recovered, but her personal effects had supposedly been lost to the lake.

How did Richard Vale have her bracelet?

Before Marcus could answer, footsteps echoed in the hallway.

Vanessa appeared in the doorway, breathless, with Richard right behind her.

“Luca, what on earth is going on?” Vanessa demanded, her eyes darting to the bracelet.

For a second, I saw it. Just a flash.

Panic.

She wasn’t looking at the driver. She wasn’t looking at Richard.

Vanessa was looking at the silver swallows.

“Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “Why does Richard have Clara’s bracelet?”

Richard pushed past Vanessa. “Luca, be reasonable. I bought that at an antique auction months ago. I had no idea—”

“Stop,” Katie interrupted.

We all looked at my nineteen-year-old sister. She wiped her eyes, her fear suddenly replaced by a fierce, protective anger.

“Emma,” Katie said, looking at me. “When I picked it up… it didn’t fall out of the outside pocket.”

She pointed a trembling finger at Vanessa.

“It fell out of the inside pocket. The one with a zipper. And she was the one who handed the coat to me downstairs.”

Vanessa’s face went paper-white.

“You planted it,” Luca whispered, staring at his fiancée.

But Katie wasn’t finished.

“And that’s not all she put in there.”

Katie reached into her apron one last time and pulled out a small, folded piece of thick blue stationery.

“I read the note, Emma,” Katie whispered. “She wasn’t trading you to him for the weekend.”

Katie looked at Luca.

“She was paying him to make sure Emma never came back.”

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