Chapter 1 – THE BOY IN THE YELLOW RAINCOAT
I looked up at Luca Moretti, my hands still trembling from the final signs his mother had made.
The dining room was so quiet I could hear the rain lashing against the floor-to-ceiling windows. Twenty-six wealthy guests sat frozen in their velvet chairs, watching a maid dismantle a mafia empire.
“Claire,” Luca’s voice was dangerously calm. “Who was in the passenger seat?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I had only been working at the Moretti estate for three months, but I knew Luca was a widower. His wife had died of an illness, leaving him with a six-year-old son who was currently supposed to be safely away at a private boarding school in Switzerland.
But Mrs. Moretti’s fingers had been perfectly clear.
“Sir,” I whispered, my voice echoing in the massive room. “Your mother says it was a little boy. Wearing a yellow raincoat. She says… it was Leo.”
Luca’s expression shattered.
The stoic, terrifying boss of the Chicago syndicate disappeared. In his place stood a father whose heart had just stopped beating.
“Leo is in Geneva,” Luca said, though his voice wavered. “He’s at school.”
Vanessa let out a sharp, breathless laugh. It sounded entirely too loud.
“Of course he is!” she cried, waving a hand dismissively. “Luca, please. The woman has brain damage. She’s mixing up memories from years ago. Leo hasn’t even been in the country since August!”
Luca didn’t look at his fiancée. He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and dialed a number.
The room waited in suffocating silence.
“Headmaster,” Luca said into the phone, his tone dropping the temperature in the room by ten degrees. “I want to speak to my son. Right now.”
A pause.
Luca’s knuckles turned white around the phone.
“What do you mean he was withdrawn?” Luca roared. The nearest guests flinched. “By who? When?”
Vanessa took a slow, terrified step backward. Her heel caught on the edge of the Persian rug.
Luca slowly lowered the phone. He turned to Vanessa, his dark eyes hollow, burning with a quiet, lethal fire.
“The school says you pulled him out,” Luca said. “Two days before the car crash. You signed the authorization.”
Answer One: Leo was in the car, and Vanessa put him there.
“I can explain!” Vanessa stammered, holding her hands up. “Luca, I brought him home as a surprise for your birthday! But then the accident happened, and I—”
“Where is my son, Vanessa?” Luca asked, stepping toward her.
“He’s safe!” she cried, tears spilling down her perfectly powdered cheeks. “I swear he’s safe!”
I looked down at Mrs. Moretti. The elderly woman was exhausted, but she was pointing a shaking finger at Vanessa’s chest.
No, not her chest.
Her necklace.
Hanging around Vanessa’s neck was a delicate silver chain. Tucked beneath the fabric of her expensive silk dress, a heavy silver pendant had slipped out during her panic.
I recognized it instantly. It was a St. Christopher medal. The exact one I had seen in a framed photograph in Luca’s study—the one he had given his son on his baptism.
Open Two: If Leo was safe, why was Vanessa wearing his most prized possession like a trophy?
“Mr. Moretti,” I said softly, stepping between them. I pointed at the necklace. “That belongs to Leo.”
Luca’s eyes locked onto the silver medal. The reversal hit him like a physical blow. The woman he was supposed to marry in two weeks hadn’t just lied about an accident. She had stolen his son’s protection.
“Take it off,” Luca commanded.
Vanessa’s hand flew to the necklace, her eyes darting toward the dining room doors. “Luca, please, you have to understand. Your mother was driving him to the lake house. The brakes failed. I only found the necklace in the wreckage—”
Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the dining room slammed open.
Marco, the head of estate security, stood in the doorway. He was a massive man with cold eyes and a tailored suit that barely hid his shoulder holster.
“Boss,” Marco said, ignoring the terrified guests. “We have a problem.”
“The only problem I have right now is my fiancée,” Luca growled, not looking away from Vanessa.
“No, sir,” Marco said, his voice tight. “The perimeter alarm on the East Wing just tripped. Someone is trying to break out.”
Luca froze. The East Wing had been closed off for renovations since the summer. Nobody was supposed to be in there.
Then, cutting through the silence of the mansion, we all heard it.
A child’s scream echoing down the grand staircase.
TITLE: The Shadow In The East Wing
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