Chapter 4 - THE CHILD’S DRAWING
The guards stopped in their tracks. Everyone stared at the little boy in the doorway.
Luca immediately crossed the room, his anger melting into pure paternal instinct. He knelt in front of Leo, gently touching his son’s shoulder.
“Leo, what are you doing awake, buddy?” Luca asked softly.
Leo’s lower lip quivered. He held out the crumpled paper to his father. “I heard yelling. I wanted to bring Nessa my picture.”
Luca took the paper and smoothed it out. I leaned over his shoulder to see.
It was a child’s crayon drawing. It showed a stick figure of Vanessa standing next to a rose bush. Towering over her was a massive, dark figure with red squiggles for eyes and a harsh, jagged scar across its cheek.
My blood ran cold. Carmine had a jagged scar across his cheek.
Luca’s expression darkened. He looked up at Vanessa. “What does this mean? Has Carmine been threatening you?”
Vanessa wrapped her arms around herself, trembling. “Leo was playing in the garden two weeks ago. He... he heard a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear.”
Carmine scoffed, walking slowly toward them. “Don’t listen to this hysterical nonsense. The kid has a wild imagination. I merely told our future bride that she needed to respect the family traditions.”
“You told her she had to pay you,” Leo piped up. His voice was tiny, but it carried across the silent room. “You said if she didn’t give you the money, you would hurt her daddy.”
The room erupted into murmurs.
Luca stood up, shielding Leo behind his legs. He glared at his uncle. “You’ve been extorting my fiancée?”
“She’s a gold-digger, Luca!” Carmine roared, dropping the calm facade. “She tracked you down! She didn’t meet you by accident at that charity gala. She targeted you because her pathetic father owed me fifty thousand dollars!”
Vanessa flinched as if she’d been struck. She looked down at the floor.
Luca turned to her, his voice breaking. “Is that true? Did you seek me out for the money?”
Vanessa didn’t answer. She just cried silently.
“Answer him!” Carmine demanded.
Frank stepped in front of Vanessa, shielding her from the room’s harsh stares. “Leave her alone. I owed the debt. I borrowed the money from Carmine to pay for my wife’s cancer treatments ten years ago. He’s been bleeding me dry with interest ever since. Vanessa only found out last month.”
“So you were extorting my driver to line your own pockets,” Luca said to Carmine, his voice deathly calm. “While he was driving my son to school.”
Carmine sneered. “It’s business, Luca. You’re too soft to understand.”
“I understand perfectly,” Luca said. “Guards, escort my uncle to his car. He’s no longer welcome in this house.”
The guards hesitated. Carmine had been a powerful boss for a long time.
“I wouldn’t do that, nephews,” Carmine warned, reaching into his pocket.
Before he could draw whatever weapon he had, Vanessa lunged forward to pull Leo out of the way. As she did, her silver evening clutch snagged on the edge of the dining table and tore open.
Lipstick, keys, and a compact scattered across the marble floor.
And something else.
A heavy, tarnished silver bracelet rolled across the floor and stopped against Luca’s shoe.
Luca froze. He reached down and picked it up.
It was a thick silver cuff, engraved with intertwining roses.
“Where did you get this?” Luca asked, his voice barely a whisper.
May you like
Vanessa’s face went chalk-white. “Luca, please—”
“I asked where you got this!” Luca shouted. “This is my mother’s bracelet. The one she lost the night she died in this very house twenty years ago.”
