Chapter 2 - THE FIFTY-THOUSAND-DOLLAR ENVELOPE
The silence in the dining room was suffocating.
Thirty guests. Mafia lieutenants. Wealthy socialites. None of them dared to breathe.
Luca Moretti stared at the thick white envelope resting on the mahogany table. Then he looked at Vanessa. She didn’t look like a woman celebrating her engagement anymore. She looked like a woman calculating the distance to the nearest exit.
"Fifty thousand dollars," Luca said. His voice was barely a whisper, yet it echoed off the crystal chandeliers. "You tried to pay my aunt to miss our engagement dinner."
Vanessa swallowed hard. "Luca, she misunderstood. I offered to send her on a luxury cruise. I wanted her to relax."
"A cruise?" Teresa asked. The old woman leaned forward on her cane. "You handed me a manila envelope of cash in the greenhouse, Vanessa. You told me my presence would 'complicate the aesthetic' of your night."
Luca’s jaw tightened. He reached for the envelope Teresa had placed on the table. He tore it open. Stacks of hundred-dollar bills spilled out onto the imported Italian lace.
"Answer her," Luca demanded. Vanessa’s hands trembled. "Luca, please. Not in front of the guests."
"The guests are my family," Luca said coldly. "And my family doesn't hide."
I stood frozen by the sideboard, the chipped porcelain plate still resting near my hand. I shouldn't be here. I was just the housekeeper. But I couldn't look away.
Vanessa stood up. Her chair scraped violently against the marble floor. "Fine! Yes! I asked her to stay away. She hates me, Luca. She judges everything I do. I just wanted one night where I wasn't being scrutinized by the ghost of your mother and her bitter sister!"
It was an answer. But it didn't explain the sheer panic in Vanessa’s eyes.
Teresa wasn't finished. "If it was just about my attitude, Vanessa, you would have offered five thousand. Fifty thousand is hush money."
Luca turned back to his aunt. "Hush money for what?"
"For what she was wearing yesterday afternoon," Teresa said quietly.
Vanessa’s face went entirely bloodless.
"Emma," Teresa called out without looking at me. "When you unpacked Miss Bellini’s dry cleaning this morning, what was missing?"
I jolted. All eyes turned to me. I gripped the edge of my apron. "I... I shouldn't say."
"Speak, Emma," Luca commanded. It wasn't a request. It was an order from a man who ruled Chicago’s underworld.
"Her vintage silver watch, sir," I whispered. "The one she wears every day. It wasn't in her jewelry box."
Luca frowned. "A watch?"
Teresa nodded. She reached into her navy cardigan. She pulled out a silver watch with a cracked glass face. She placed it on the table next to the cash.
"I found this in the garden," Teresa said. "Near the back gates. The gates that are supposed to be locked to outsiders."
Luca picked up the watch. He turned it over. Engraved on the back were the initials: V.B.
"You lost your watch in the garden," Luca said to Vanessa. "So what?"
"Open the clasp, Luca," Teresa instructed.
Luca pressed the small latch. The watch popped open. It wasn't just a timepiece. It was a locket. A tiny photograph was hidden inside.
Luca stared at the picture. His broad shoulders went rigid. The veins in his neck strained against his tailored collar.
"Where did you get this?" Luca asked, his voice shaking with a rage I had never seen before.
Vanessa backed away from the table. "Luca, I can explain."
He slammed his fist on the table. The crystal glasses rattled. "Where did you get a picture of my brother?"
My breath hitched. Luca’s brother, Matteo, had been murdered five years ago. The case was never solved.
"It's not what you think," Vanessa cried.
May you like
Luca threw the watch onto the chipped porcelain plate. The sound of metal hitting china rang out like a gunshot.
"My brother is dead," Luca roared. "And you have a picture of him holding a newborn baby. Who is the child, Vanessa?"
