Chapter 4 - THE BLUE COAT
Luca didn’t hesitate. He stepped in front of me and Leo, his broad shoulders blocking the doorway.
A heavy-set man appeared in the hall, clutching a baseball bat. His eyes darted from Luca’s expensive suit to me, and finally to the little boy trembling on the bare mattress.
“You ain’t supposed to be here,” the man growled, gripping the bat tighter. “The arrangement was clear. We keep the kid quiet, we get the monthly drop. Nobody visits.”
“Who made the arrangement?” Luca asked, his voice eerily calm.
“None of your business. Leave the kid and get out.”
I pulled Leo close to me. The boy buried his face in my shoulder, his small fingers digging into my sweater. He felt so light, so fragile.
Luca didn’t flinch. He reached into his suit jacket, but he didn’t pull out a wallet this time. He pulled out a sleek, black firearm, holding it casually by his side.
The man with the bat froze. The color drained from his face.
“I will ask you one more time,” Luca said, taking a slow step forward. “Who made the arrangement?”
“A woman!” the man stammered, dropping the bat. It clattered loudly against the hardwood floor. “Fancy lady. Wore a lot of perfume. She came by this morning and took the other one. Said she only had use for one of them now.”
My stomach churned. Vanessa. She had known the wedding was approaching. She had known Margaret was getting desperate. She was cleaning up her loose ends.
“Let’s go, Emma,” Luca commanded, not taking his eyes off the man.
I scooped Leo into my arms. He buried his face in my neck, holding tight to his crumpled drawing. We rushed out of the suffocating house and back into the cold night air.
When we reached the SUV, Margaret burst into tears at the sight of her grandson. She reached out, and I gently set Leo into her lap in the backseat. The boy clung to her, burying his face in her faded coat.
Luca slid into the driver’s seat. He didn’t start the engine immediately. He gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white.
“She separated them,” I said quietly, sitting in the passenger seat. “She took Lucas this morning.”
“She took him as leverage,” Luca corrected, his jaw tight. “If she knew her mother was going to expose her, she needed an insurance policy.”
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
“Marco. I need you to go to the guest house. Now.”
There was a pause as Marco spoke on the other end. I watched Luca’s expression darken.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Luca demanded.
My heart dropped.
“The window was broken from the inside,” Luca repeated Marco’s words, his voice deadly quiet. “Fine. Check the perimeter cameras. Track her phone.”
He hung up and slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “She escaped. She’s got a six-hour head start.”
I looked back at Leo. The little boy had fallen asleep against his grandmother’s chest, exhausted from the fear and the cold. But peeking out from under the boy’s thin collar was something bright blue.
“Margaret,” I whispered. “What is he wearing under his shirt?”
Margaret looked down. Gently, she unbuttoned the top of Leo’s oversized shirt. Beneath it, the boy was wearing a small, beautifully tailored blue wool vest. It looked incredibly expensive, completely out of place in that dirty foster home.
Luca turned around to look. His breath caught in his throat.
“Where did he get that?” Luca asked sharply.
Margaret looked confused. “I don’t know. Thomas bought all their clothes at thrift stores.”
“That isn’t thrift store clothing,” Luca said. He reached over the seat and gently checked the inner lining of the small blue vest.
He pulled out a heavy gold pin attached to the fabric. It was a crest. Two lions facing a shield.
“That’s the Moretti family crest,” I realized, recognizing it from the iron gates of Luca’s mansion.
Luca stared at the pin, his eyes narrowing in furious realization. “Vanessa didn’t just hide these children, Emma. She didn’t abandon them at a hospital.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Thomas Cole didn’t raise these boys alone. He had help. Someone from my family was funding him.”
Luca turned back to the windshield, starting the engine with a vicious twist of the key.
“My younger brother, Antonio. He died in a car crash six years ago. The exact same year these boys were born.”
I stared at him in shock. “You think… Vanessa’s first husband…”
“I think Thomas Cole was never her husband,” Luca said, pulling the SUV away from the curb. “I think he was a caretaker. And I think Vanessa has been lying to my face from the very beginning.”
Before I could process the magnitude of what he was saying, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was an unknown number.
I answered it hesitantly. “Hello?”
“Emma,” Vanessa’s voice purred through the speaker. There was no panic in her tone anymore. Only a chilling, metallic calm. “I see you found the defective one.”
“Where is Lucas, Vanessa?” I demanded, putting the phone on speaker so Luca could hear.
Vanessa laughed. “He’s right here with me. And if Luca wants his precious nephew back, he’s going to transfer ten million dollars into the offshore account I just texted you. If he calls the police, or if his goons come looking for me…”
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There was a pause, followed by the sound of a train whistle blowing in the background.
“I’ll leave this one on the tracks just like I left his father.”
