Chapter 4 – [THE BRACELET LEFT BEHIND]

Luca held the silver bracelet by the clasp.

It swung back and forth, catching the light of the crystal chandelier.

“You told the police you weren’t at the estate the night my mother died,” Luca said. His voice was no longer angry. It was something much worse. It was hollow.

Vanessa stared at the bracelet as if it were a venomous snake.

“I wasn’t,” she whispered.

“Then how did this get in my mother’s pocket?” Luca asked.

“I don’t know!”

Maria stepped forward, her eyes blazing with thirty years of protective fury.

“Isabella always hated that bracelet,” Maria said to Luca. “She told me Vanessa wore it intentionally. Because it made a distinct ringing sound when it hit the banister. Isabella said she could hear it echoing through the halls when she was too weak to leave her bed.”

Vanessa wrapped her arms around herself, shivering violently in her silk gown.

“It must have fallen off,” Vanessa stammered. “Weeks before. She must have picked it up.”

“My mother died of heart failure in her sleep,” Luca said. “There was no blood. Why is her coat covered in blood?”

No one had an answer.

Answer one. Open two.

We knew Vanessa was in the house. We knew the doctor was involved.

But what actually happened that night?

I brought a mug of hot chocolate to Leo. He took it with both hands, blowing on it softly. He was remarkably calm for a child in the middle of a nightmare.

I looked at the winter coat Matteo was holding.

Something was bothering me.

“Mr. Moretti,” I said softly.

Luca turned to me. He didn’t look annoyed that a housekeeper was interrupting. He looked ready for any piece of truth he could get.

“What is it, Emma?”

“The blood on the coat,” I said, pointing to the hem. “It’s not just on the outside. It’s on the inside lining. And the right sleeve is torn.”

Matteo lifted the coat, inspecting the sleeve.

“She’s right, Boss. The seam is ripped open.”

“Like there was a struggle,” Luca murmured.

He looked at Vanessa. “You fought with a dying woman?”

“I didn’t touch her!” Vanessa shrieked. “I swear to God, Luca! I went to her room to talk to her, and she was already on the floor! She was coughing blood!”

“And you didn’t call an ambulance?” Maria demanded.

“I panicked!” Vanessa cried. “I knew how it would look! I was the mistress! If she died while I was in the room, they would blame me!”

“So you watched her die,” Luca said.

“No! I tried to help her up! That’s how the blood got on the coat! She grabbed my arm!” Vanessa was hyperventilating now. “She grabbed my arm, and the bracelet caught on her pocket. It snapped off. I couldn’t find it in the dark, so I just ran.”

It was a plausible story.

Cowardly, disgusting, but plausible.

Except for one detail.

“If you ran,” I said, my voice shaking slightly at my own boldness, “then why did you keep the coat?”

Vanessa froze.

Luca’s eyes snapped to me, realizing the brilliance of the question.

“Emma is right,” Luca said, walking slowly toward Vanessa. “If you panicked and ran… how did the coat end up hidden behind a false panel in your closet five years later?”

Vanessa couldn’t speak. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

“She didn’t keep it,” Leo said.

We all looked at the boy.

He had a mustache of chocolate milk. He set the mug down on the counter.

“Aunt V didn’t have that coat,” Leo said. “The doctor brought it to her last week in a black garbage bag. I saw him.”

Vanessa lunged at the boy. “Shut your mouth, you little—”

Matteo caught her by the throat before she took two steps. He didn’t choke her, but he held her firmly in place.

“The doctor kept the coat,” Luca deduced, the pieces finally clicking together. “For blackmail.”

“Yes,” Vanessa gasped, struggling against Matteo’s grip. “He kept it to prove I was in the room! He’s been draining my bank accounts for years! That’s why I needed to marry you, Luca! I needed access to the Moretti accounts to pay him off!”

She was crying hysterically now.

“I didn’t kill her! Arthur did! He gave her the wrong medication intentionally! He wanted her out of the way so your father would marry me, and he could control the family through my trust!”

The ultimate betrayal.

The doctor had killed the mother. And Vanessa had covered it up to save herself.

Luca pulled his phone from his pocket.

He pressed a button and put it on speaker.

“Yeah, Boss,” a rough voice answered. It was Marco, Luca’s top enforcer.

“Are you at the Palmer House?” Luca asked.

“We’re in Room 412. We have Dr. Vance.”

“Is he conscious?”

“Barely. He fought back. Mistake.”

“Search his bags,” Luca ordered. “He brought leverage with him. Look for something small. A notebook, a ledger, a flash drive.”

There was rustling on the other end of the line.

Then, Marco spoke again.

“No ledger, Boss. But we found an old photograph hidden inside the battery compartment of his shaver.”

“Describe it,” Luca said.

“It’s a picture of Vanessa.”

“And?”

“And she’s holding a baby,” Marco said. “But that’s not the weird part.”

“What is the weird part?”

“The baby has a birthmark on his left cheek,” Marco said. “A perfect crescent moon.”

I looked down at Leo.

His left cheek was completely smooth. Flawless skin.

Luca looked at the boy, then at Vanessa.

“Whose baby is in that photograph?” Luca asked.

Vanessa squeezed her eyes shut.

“Mine,” she whispered.

Cliffhanger:

“If that was your baby,” Luca said, pointing at Leo, “then who the hell is this?”

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