Chapter 1 – A Silver Watch And A Stolen Memory

“Did you tell a man with Alzheimer’s that his wife was abandoning him—just so you could keep her working in my house?”

Luca’s voice wasn’t a shout.

It was dangerously quiet.

The kind of quiet that makes the air in a room feel too heavy to breathe.

Vanessa’s face lost all its color.

She took a step back, her red satin gown rustling against the polished hardwood floor.

“Luca, be reasonable,” she stammered, glancing nervously at the twenty-eight guests who were now staring at her in absolute horror. “He’s sick. His mind is gone. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

She pointed a trembling finger at my husband.

“He probably wandered into the wrong house and made up this ridiculous story because he’s confused!”

Frank shrank back against my side.

His grip on my hand tightened until it hurt.

“Ruth?” he whispered, his eyes darting around the massive, glittering dining room. “Why is she yelling? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, sweetheart,” I said, my voice shaking as I wrapped my arm around his frail shoulders. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You were incredibly brave.”

Vanessa let out a sharp, mocking laugh.

“Brave? He’s a senile old man holding a rusty lunchbox!”

Luca moved so fast I barely saw it happen.

He didn’t touch her.

He didn’t have to.

He simply stepped into her personal space, his dark eyes entirely devoid of warmth, and the sheer force of his presence made Vanessa stumble backward into a heavy oak chair.

“Do not speak about him that way,” Luca said softly. “Not in my home.”

Vanessa’s lips trembled. “Luca… we’re getting married.”

“No,” Luca replied, his voice echoing in the dead silence of the room. “We are not.”

A collective gasp swept through the wealthy guests.

Vanessa’s eyes widened in sheer panic. “You’re canceling our engagement? Over a maid and her broken husband?”

“I am canceling this engagement,” Luca said coldly, “because I just learned who you truly are.”

Vanessa’s face twisted with sudden, desperate rage.

She turned her glare toward me.

“You did this,” she hissed, taking a step in my direction. “You and this pathetic old fool. You ruined everything!”

She lunged forward, her hand raised.

But she never reached me.

Frank moved.

My gentle, confused husband—the man who couldn’t remember what year it was—stepped squarely in front of me, shielding my body with his own.

He raised his free hand to block her.

And as he did, his worn brown jacket fell open.

Something heavy and metallic slipped from his inner pocket and hit the marble floor with a sharp clack.

It slid across the floorboards and stopped right at Luca’s expensive leather shoes.

The entire room went perfectly still.

It wasn’t a coin.

It wasn’t a pillbox.

It was a heavy, ornately engraved silver pocket watch.

The metal was tarnished, but the intricate crest of the Moretti family was unmistakable on the lid.

Luca stared at the watch on the floor.

The color drained from his face.

He slowly knelt and picked it up, his hands shaking slightly as his thumb brushed over the crest.

When he looked up, his eyes were wide with a shock I had never seen in him before.

“Where did you get this?” Luca whispered.

Vanessa let out a strangled gasp.

She stared at the silver watch as if it were a live snake.

“He stole it!” Vanessa shrieked, her voice cracking with pure panic. “I knew they were thieves! The maid and her husband, they stole it from your study, Luca!”

Frank looked down at his empty pocket, then at the watch in Luca’s hand.

His brow furrowed in deep concentration.

For a terrifying moment, I thought the Alzheimer’s had taken the memory completely.

“Frank, honey,” I whispered gently. “Do you remember where you found that?”

He looked at me, his eyes clouded with that familiar, heartbreaking fog.

“I… I didn’t steal it, Ruth,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “I promise I didn’t steal it.”

“I know you didn’t,” I said, kissing his cheek. “Take your time.”

Frank closed his eyes.

He tapped his temple with his fingers, a coping mechanism his doctor had taught him to help retrieve lost thoughts.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open.

They were crystal clear.

He pointed a calloused, shaking finger directly at Vanessa Bellini.

“She didn’t want me in the house today,” Frank said slowly, his voice gaining strength. “Not because of you, Ruth. Because she didn’t want me to see what she was doing in the library.”

Luca turned slowly toward Vanessa. “The library?”

Frank nodded, pulling me closer.

“Fourteen years ago, I came here to fix the baseboards in the library,” Frank said, the memory suddenly locking into place. “I built a false panel behind the radiator for your father, Mr. Moretti. To hide his private things.”

Teresa Moretti, Luca’s mother, let out a soft cry and covered her mouth.

Frank looked at Vanessa.

“When I came to bring Ruth her supper tonight,” Frank continued, “I got lost in the hallway. I walked past the library. And I saw that lady using a screwdriver to pry the baseboard open.”

Vanessa shook her head frantically. “He’s lying! He’s crazy!”

“She dropped the watch when she heard me at the door,” Frank said softly. “She kicked it under the rug. I picked it up to give it back to you, Mr. Moretti. That’s why she told me to leave. She was looking for it.”

The room was spinning.

Vanessa hadn’t been trying to keep me at work just to be cruel.

She was trying to keep me out of the library while she dismantled it.

And she needed Frank gone before his old carpenter’s memory recognized the secret compartment he had built.

Luca stared at Vanessa, his eyes dark and lethal.

“Vanessa,” Luca whispered. “My father was buried with this watch.”

Vanessa backed away, her hands trembling violently.

“Luca, please,” she choked out.

But Luca wasn’t looking at her anymore.

He pressed the small latch on the side of the silver watch.

The lid popped open.

Luca looked at whatever was inside the watch.

And as he did, his breathing completely stopped.