Chapter 5 - THE VELVET BOX
The small orange flame from Dante’s lighter cast terrifying, dancing shadows across the dining room walls.
The darkness was suffocating. The backup generators hadn't kicked in. Dante’s men had cut the main power lines from the outside. We were entirely isolated.
“Nobody moves!” Dante barked, the barrel of his handgun pressed firmly against Marco’s temple. “Guns on the table. Now.”
In the flickering light, I could see Luca’s men hesitating. They couldn't risk a blind shootout with civilians in the room. Slowly, the heavy thuds of firearms hitting the mahogany table echoed through the dark.
“Luca,” Marco choked out, the cold steel digging into his skin. “Don't listen to him. I never touched your father.”
“Shut up,” Dante snapped, pressing the gun harder.
Luca stood at the head of the table, clutching his father’s cracked Rolex. The faint orange light caught the devastating betrayal in his eyes.
“Why did you have the watch, Marco?” Luca asked, his voice breaking.
“I told you, he gave it to me!” Marco pleaded. “He cornered me in the alley behind the restaurant yesterday. He told me he was crashing the dinner tonight. He said if I didn't help Vanessa frame me, he would send that watch to the police with my DNA planted on it.”
Answer one. Marco wasn't just tired of fighting Vanessa. He had taken the blame tonight to protect himself from being framed for a ten-year-old murder.
But it opened two new questions: If Dante had the watch, did his family kill Luca’s father? And why did Dante need Marco’s compliance so badly if he already had Vanessa opening the doors?
Dante chuckled softly in the dark.
“A touching story, Marco,” Dante said. “But you’re leaving out the best part. The part about what you stole from me.”
“I didn't steal anything!”
Dante turned his cold eyes toward Vanessa, who was huddled on the floor near Luca’s legs, weeping quietly.
“Vanessa,” Dante called out softly. “Tell your fiancé what you lost at the card tables in Macau.”
Vanessa whimpered, shaking her head. “Please. Don't.”
“Tell him!” Dante roared.
Vanessa slowly raised her head. In the dim light, her tear-streaked face looked like a shattered porcelain mask.
“I didn't just lose money, Luca,” Vanessa sobbed, her voice barely audible. “I lost collateral.”
Luca stared down at her. “What collateral?”
Vanessa reached a trembling hand toward her own chest. She fumbled with the clasp of her diamond necklace, but her hands were shaking too badly.
“The engagement ring,” Dante answered for her.
My heart skipped a beat.
The reversal clicked into place. Dante wasn't here for revenge over a murder. He was here for a specific object.
“Your fiancée put up the three-million-dollar Moretti family diamond as collateral at our tables, Luca,” Dante smiled cruelly. “When she couldn't pay, my bosses took the ring. We brought it to Chicago to sell it on the black market.”
Dante shoved the barrel of his gun harder against Marco’s head.
“But two days ago, my hotel safe was cracked,” Dante spat. “The ring was gone. And the only person who knew I was in town holding that diamond was the man Vanessa sent to negotiate for her.”
Dante glared at Marco.
“Where is the ring, Marco?”
Marco stared straight ahead, his jaw locked tight. “I don't know what you’re talking about.”
Dante cocked the hammer of the gun. The loud click echoed like a death sentence.
“Last chance, manager,” Dante hissed.
“Stop!”
The word ripped from my throat before I could stop it.
Dante’s eyes snapped toward me. The small orange flame illuminated the sheer terror in my own face.
“Well?” Dante asked. “The maid wants to speak?”
I looked at Marco. He had been a good man to me. He made sure I got the shifts I needed to pay for my father’s physical therapy. He didn't deserve to die in the dark for Vanessa’s sins.
“It’s upstairs,” I said quickly, my voice trembling.
Marco’s eyes widened in horror. “Emma, no!”
“Shut up,” Dante ordered Marco. He looked at me. “Where upstairs?”
“In the master bedroom,” I said, looking at Luca, praying he understood what I was doing. “In the hidden wall safe behind the mirror. I… I saw Marco put a small, black velvet box inside it this morning while I was cleaning.”
Dante smiled. A slow, greedy smile.
He didn't know the layout of the house. He didn't know the safe combination.
“Go get it,” Dante commanded me.
“I don't know the combination,” I lied perfectly.
“Then take him with you,” Dante said, gesturing to Luca with his chin. “The boss opens the safe. The maid carries the box. Anyone else moves, the manager gets a bullet in his skull.”
Luca looked at me. His face was unreadable in the flickering light.
“Let’s go, Emma,” Luca said quietly.
I stood up, my legs shaking. I walked around the table, feeling the heat of Dante’s lighter as I passed him.
Luca and I walked out of the dining room and into the pitch-black hallway.
We moved silently up the grand, sweeping staircase. The silence of the massive estate was terrifying. Dante’s men were likely waiting outside, watching the perimeter.
We reached the master bedroom. Luca closed the heavy oak door behind us.
He didn't turn on a flashlight. He walked entirely by memory in the dark, moving toward the massive floor-to-ceiling mirror.
He pressed a hidden button. The mirror slid open with a soft mechanical whir, revealing the digital keypad of the safe.
Luca quickly punched in a six-digit code. The safe clicked open.
He reached inside and pulled out a small, black velvet box.
He didn't open it. He handed it to me.
“You just saved Marco’s life, Emma,” Luca whispered in the dark. “But you also just gave the syndicate my family’s legacy.”
I took the velvet box. It felt surprisingly light.
“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered back, my voice barely audible. “Marco didn't put this in the safe this morning.”
Luca paused. “What do you mean?”
“I put it in there,” I said.
Luca’s eyes narrowed in the darkness. “Why?”
I opened the velvet box.
Inside the box, resting on the white silk cushion, wasn't a three-million-dollar diamond ring.
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It was a small, clear glass vial, filled with a thick, amber-colored liquid.
“Because when I was cleaning Vanessa’s vanity this morning,” I whispered, “I found this hidden inside her makeup bag. Next to a receipt from a private toxicology lab.”
