Chapter 2 - THE SILVER STAR
The silence at the engagement table broke the second the front doors were pushed open.
Cold Chicago wind rushed into the dining room, making the crystal chandeliers sway above the white tablecloths.
Daniel walked in first, carrying the small pink suitcase by its handle.
The faded silver star swung back and forth against the fabric.
Behind him came eight-year-old Sophie.
She was wearing her navy wool coat over her flannel pajamas, her dark curls tangled from the wind, and her arms wrapped tightly around a folded piece of drawing paper.
Behind Sophie walked two of Luca’s guards, their hands firm on the shoulders of Adrian Costa.
Adrian was sixty-five, tall even with his shoulders slightly stooped, his gray hair damp from the sleet outside.
He didn’t look like a kidnapper.
He looked like an old man bracing himself for a blow he knew he couldn’t stop.
“Daddy!”
Sophie broke away from Daniel and ran toward the head of the table.
Luca dropped to one knee and caught her, burying his face in her hair while one hand checked the back of her head and shoulders as if making sure she was whole.
“I’m here, principessa,” Luca murmured against her coat. “You’re okay. Daddy’s got you.”
“Grandpa said we were going to the lake house,” Sophie said in a small, confused voice. “Vanessa packed my bag. She gave me my sleepy juice, and she said you were going to meet us there tomorrow.”
Every guest in the room looked at Vanessa.
Waiters stood frozen against the paneled walls with silver trays in their hands.
Luca slowly lifted his head.
“Sleepy juice?” he repeated quietly.
Sophie nodded against his chest, her eyelids heavy. “The sweet pink one in the little cup. Why are the guards holding Grandpa’s arms?”
Luca stood up, keeping one hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
He looked at me.
“Hannah.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Take Sophie into the library next door. Stay with her and my mother until I come in.”
Before I could wheel Teresa forward, Vanessa stepped away from the table, her silk gown rustling loudly in the quiet room.
“Luca, let me explain,” Vanessa said, her voice shaking despite her raised chin. “You have been tearing yourself apart trying to balance this business and a child who reminds you of Elena every time you look at her. Her own grandfather offered to give her a peaceful life in Lake Geneva, away from the guards and the armored cars!”
“You drugged my daughter,” Luca said.
“It was children’s allergy medicine! Just enough so she wouldn’t be scared during the drive!” Vanessa’s eyes darted to her father, Vito Bellini, who was sitting three chairs down with a grim, livid face. “I did it for us, Luca! A child shouldn’t grow up in a fortress!”
Adrian Costa spoke from between the two guards.
His voice was gravelly, tired, and remarkably steady.
“Stop lying to him, Vanessa.”
Vanessa spun around. “Shut up, old man!”
Adrian kept his eyes on Luca. “You think I came here tonight to steal my granddaughter behind your back? Look at my coat pocket, Luca. Right side.”
Luca nodded once at Daniel.
Daniel reached into Adrian’s dark wool coat and pulled out a heavy cream-colored envelope.
He brought it to Luca.
Luca opened it with one hand and pulled out a cashier’s check and a typed receipt.
His eyes moved across the paper.
A muscle feathered in his jaw.
“Fifty thousand dollars,” Luca read aloud, his voice dropping an octave. “Drawn from the Bellini family account.”
“Wait,” I heard one of the guests whisper. “She paid him to take the kid?”
“No,” Adrian said clearly, shaking his head. “I didn’t take a dime from her. That is the check I gave Vanessa three days ago. My life savings from selling my hardware store.”
Luca stared at the older man. “You paid her?”
“She called me last week,” Adrian said, his voice cracking with a grief he had carried for four years. “She told me you were sending Sophie to a boarding school in Switzerland next month because you couldn’t bear having Elena’s daughter in the house once you remarried. She said for fifty thousand, she would slip the gate codes to me during the engagement dinner so I could take Sophie across state lines before you signed the boarding school papers.”
The air seemed to leave the room all at once.
Vito Bellini slowly stood up from the table, staring at his daughter in horror. “Vanessa… what have you done?”
“He’s lying!” Vanessa cried, backing toward the marble fireplace. “He’s a bitter old man who blames Luca for Elena’s death! Why would I need fifty thousand dollars? My family has millions!”
Teresa’s hand shot out from beneath her blanket and gripped the edge of the dining table.
Her knuckles turned white.
“Blackmail,” Teresa rasped.
Everyone turned toward the wheelchair.
Teresa’s chest rose and fell hard, her dark eyes fixed on Vanessa’s left wrist, where a diamond tennis bracelet glittered under the chandelier light.
“Tell… him… who… you… pay,” Teresa forced out, every word scraping her throat.
Vanessaclutched her wrist as if covering a burn.
Luca took a slow step toward his fiancée.
I had seen Luca angry when shipments were delayed or when men disrespected him in his study, but I had never seen him look at someone as if they were already gone.
“Who are you paying, Vanessa?” Luca asked.
“Nobody! Look at her, she’s had a stroke, she doesn’t know what she’s saying!”
I knelt beside Sophie to unbutton her heavy navy coat, because her forehead was damp and she was swaying on her feet.
As I pulled her left arm out of the sleeve, something fell from the inside pocket of the coat onto the Persian rug.
It wasn’t a toy.
It was a heavy gold pocket watch with a cracked glass face, stopped at 11:42.
I picked it up before I could stop myself.
Luca’s gaze dropped to my hand.
Every drop of color drained from his face.
“Where did you get that?” Luca whispered.
Sophie blinked sleepily at the watch in my palm. “It was in the closet where Vanessa got my suitcase. Inside the blue velvet box. It looked like Mommy’s watch, so I put it in my pocket.”
Adrian Costa made a choked sound in the back of his throat.
“That’s Elena’s father’s watch,” Adrian breathed, straining against the guards. “She was wearing it in her coat the night her car went off the bridge into the river. The police said the current swept her bag and coat away.”
Luca took the watch from my hand, his fingers trembling as he turned it over.
May you like
Scratched into the gold back were the initials E.C.
And underneath the hinged lid, tucked behind the gold casing where it had stayed dry for four years, was a folded yellow pawn ticket dated two months after Elena Moretti died.
