Chapter 1 – THE PASSPORT INSIDE THE DOLLHOUSE

Sophie’s question hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

Luca didn’t look at his daughter. He stared at Vanessa.

“Answer her,” Luca said. His voice was no longer calm. It was a terrifying, low rumble.

Vanessa’s hands gripped the back of her chair so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“Luca, please,” Vanessa stammered, her flawless composure finally shattering. “You’re listening to an old woman and a child! They misunderstood! I was trying to find a boarding school! Just for the week! So we could have some privacy after the wedding!”

“You wanted to send my thirteen-year-old daughter to boarding school without discussing it with me?”

“You’re always so busy!”

“You threatened my mother.”

“I didn’t! She’s confused!” Vanessa shrieked, pointing at Rosa. “Look at her! She forgets her own phone!”

“Stop saying I forget things!” Rosa shouted, slamming her hand onto the dining table. The silverware rattled.

The matriarch of the Moretti family stood up, her small frame suddenly radiating the authority of a woman who had survived thirty years in the mafia alongside her late husband.

“I didn’t forget you coming into my kitchen yesterday,” Rosa said, her voice shaking with rage. “I didn’t forget you pushing a pen into my hand. And I certainly didn’t forget what was written on those papers you wanted me to sign.”

Luca turned to his mother. “What papers, Ma?”

Rosa took a deep breath. She looked at Vanessa with absolute disgust.

“She wasn’t trying to send Sophie to a boarding school, Luca.” Rosa’s voice cracked. “She was trying to sign over my legal guardianship of Sophie in the event of your death.”

The dining room descended into chaos.

Guests gasped. Several men stood up, reaching for their jackets, recognizing that family business had just turned deadly.

Luca didn’t blink. He stared at Vanessa as if she had just transformed into a monster.

“In the event of my death,” Luca repeated slowly.

Vanessa scrambled backward, knocking her chair to the floor. “No! No, Luca, it was standard estate planning! The lawyers recommended it!”

“My lawyers?”

“Yes!”

“Then I’ll call them right now.” Luca reached into his jacket.

“No!” Vanessa lunged forward, grabbing his wrist. “Don’t call them! Please!”

Luca looked down at her hand gripping his sleeve. The absolute revulsion in his eyes made her let go instantly.

“Answer one,” Luca said softly, speaking to himself as much as the room. “We know why you isolated my mother. You needed her discredited so that if she told me about the papers, I wouldn’t believe her.”

He stepped closer to Vanessa.

“But that opens two new questions.”

Vanessa swallowed hard, tears ruining her immaculate makeup.

“If you were planning for my death,” Luca asked, his voice dropping to a whisper that carried perfectly across the silent room, “when exactly were you planning on me dying?”

Vanessa shook her head frantically. “I wasn’t! Luca, I love you!”

“And the second question,” Luca continued, his gaze shifting to Sophie.

Sophie was watching her father, her eyes wide with fear.

“Sophie,” Luca said gently. “When you went to Grandma’s house yesterday… and Vanessa wouldn’t let you in… did you see anything else?”

Sophie hesitated. She looked at Vanessa, who was staring at her with pure panic.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Rosa encouraged softly. “Tell your father.”

Sophie took a shaky breath.

“When she told me to go home, she closed the door,” Sophie said. “But I didn’t leave right away. I went to the window by the living room.”

“What did you see?” Luca asked.

“She wasn’t holding papers,” Sophie whispered.

Vanessa let out a small, choked sob.

“What was she holding, Sophie?”

“She was opening the floorboards,” Sophie said. “Under the rug.”

Rosa gasped. “The safe.”

Luca turned to his mother. “You have a safe under the living room floor?”

“Your father put it there thirty years ago,” Rosa whispered, her face pale. “I keep my emergency cash there. And… and the family passports.”

Luca turned back to Vanessa.

“You were stealing my mother’s passports?”

“I was looking for a document!” Vanessa cried.

“Daniel,” Luca barked, not looking away from his fiancée.

The head of security, a massive man in a dark suit, stepped forward instantly. “Yes, boss.”

“Take Vanessa’s purse.”

“You can’t do this!” Vanessa shrieked as Daniel calmly pulled the expensive clutch from her hands.

Daniel opened the purse. He pulled out a compact mirror, lipstick, and a thick wallet.

He opened the wallet.

Daniel’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes narrowed.

“Boss,” Daniel said, pulling out a small, blue booklet.

He handed it to Luca.

It was a passport.

But it wasn’t Rosa’s.

Luca opened it. He stared at the photograph page for a long time.

Then, he slowly turned it around so the entire room could see.

It was a passport for a thirteen-year-old girl.

With Sophie’s photograph.

But the name printed next to the picture wasn’t Sophie Moretti.

It was Sophie Bellini.

“You made a fake passport for my daughter,” Luca said, his voice entirely devoid of emotion.

Vanessa fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands.

I stood paralyzed by the wall.

She wasn’t trying to send Sophie to boarding school. She was planning to kidnap her.

“Why?” Luca asked.

When Vanessa didn’t answer, a voice came from the doorway.

“Because a Moretti heir is worth five million dollars to the right buyer in Europe.”

Every head turned.

Standing in the doorway was a man I had never seen before.

He wore a tailored suit, but he looked rough. Dangerous. A jagged scar ran across his jawline.

Vanessa looked up. Her eyes went wide with absolute terror.

“Victor,” she breathed.

Luca drew his weapon before anyone could blink, aiming it directly at the man in the doorway.

“Hello, little brother,” Victor Moretti smiled, ignoring the gun pointed at his chest. “I hear you’re having some trouble with your fiancée.”

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