Chapter 3
No one moved.
Even Vanessa.
Luca stared at Marco’s radio as if the voice had come from the grave itself.
“The night before?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Bring the drive here.”
Vanessa spoke immediately.
“No.”
Every eye turned toward her.
She realized what she had done.
Again.
“I mean this isn’t appropriate in front of Matteo.”
Luca’s gaze hardened.
“That decision belongs to me.”
“And to him,” I said quietly.
Vanessa looked at me with murder in her eyes.
Matteo stood.
“I want to see it.”
Luca looked at his son.
“You don’t know what’s on it.”
“Neither do you.”
“That’s exactly why—”
“She was my mom.”
The words stopped Luca.
Matteo swallowed.
“You always decide what I can handle after someone else already decided what I’m allowed to know.”
Luca’s face tightened.
That landed.
He looked at me.
I didn’t know why.
Maybe because I had been the one standing beside Matteo when he found the program.
Maybe because Luca suddenly understood that protecting a child and hiding truth from him could start looking dangerously similar.
He nodded once.
“You can stay.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“This is a mistake.”
Luca looked at her.
“You can leave.”
She didn’t.
Of course she didn’t.
Ten minutes later, a security technician entered with a laptop and a small black drive sealed inside a clear bag.
He placed the laptop on the library table.
“This is a copy,” he said. “Original is secured.”
“Play the file,” Luca said.
The technician hesitated.
“There’s audio.”
“Play it.”
The screen lit.
Sarah appeared.
The date in the corner was six years earlier.
I had only seen her in photographs.
She was beautiful in a soft, unpolished way Vanessa never allowed herself to be.
Dark hair tied loosely.
No makeup.
A pale robe.
She sat on the edge of a bed.
Thin.
Tired.
Alive.
Matteo made a sound beside me.
Barely a breath.
Luca’s hands clenched.
Sarah looked toward someone off camera.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
A man answered.
The voice was muffled.
“Neither should you.”
Luca leaned toward the screen.
“Turn it up.”
The technician did.
Sarah said, “I already told Luca.”
The man laughed.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I told him enough.”
“No. You told him you were worried about accounts. You didn’t tell him names.”
Sarah looked frightened.
Luca’s face changed.
The man continued.
“If you give him the ledger, you destroy people who protected this family before you married into it.”
Sarah replied, “Stealing from Matteo’s trust isn’t protecting anybody.”
Matteo’s head snapped toward Luca.
Luca did not move.
On screen, Sarah stood.
The camera angle did not show the other person.
Only a dark sleeve near the edge.
“Get out.”
The man said something too low to hear.
Sarah’s face went white.
Then she whispered, “You wouldn’t.”
The man answered, “Try me.”
The video ended.
Black screen.
Nobody spoke.
Matteo stared at the laptop.
“That’s it?”
The technician nodded.
“For that file.”
“Who was the man?” Luca asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Voice analysis?”
“We can try.”
Vanessa spoke from near the door.
“It could have been anyone.”
Luca slowly turned.
“You seem eager for that.”
“I’m being rational.”
“Were you in this house six years ago?”
Her chin lifted.
“You know I wasn’t.”
That was true.
Luca and Vanessa had met three years after Sarah died.
At least officially.
The technician cleared his throat.
“There are more files.”
Luca turned back.
“How many?”
“From this room? Eleven.”
“Play the previous one.”
“Sir, that’s three days earlier.”
“Play it.”
Another video.
Sarah sat at a desk.
This time alone.
She held a small leather ledger.
She opened it.
Spoke directly toward the camera.
“If Luca finds this recording, the account ending 4417 is not ours.”
Luca’s face sharpened.
Sarah continued.
“Transfers were authorized using his father’s signature after his father was already hospitalized.”
Rosa crossed herself again.
Sarah looked exhausted.
“I think someone is moving money through Bellini Development.”
Vanessa made a sound.
Not quite a gasp.
Everyone heard it.
Luca turned his head.
“What?”
She recovered.
“Bellini is a common name.”
“No,” Marco said. “Not in our vendor ledger.”
Vanessa looked at him.
Marco continued.
“We have Bellini Development on three historic renovation invoices.”
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“Your family company?”
“My father has dozens of companies.”
“Did he know Sarah?”
“No.”
Too quick.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Did he?”
“No.”
The technician clicked another file.
Two days before Sarah died.
She was on the phone.
We heard only her side.
“I want the meeting tomorrow.”
Pause.
“No. Luca cannot know yet.”
Pause.
“Because if I’m wrong, I destroy his relationship with his uncle.”
Luca went still.
“Uncle?”
Matteo looked at him.
“Uncle Dominic?”
Luca’s expression darkened.
Dominic Moretti was his father’s younger brother.
He lived in Florida now.
He came to Christmas every other year.
He had hugged Matteo at Easter.
The video continued.
Sarah said, “I have the ledger. I have copies. If Dominic explains the transfers, fine. If he doesn’t, I go to Luca.”
The file ended.
Luca stepped away from the table.
He looked like he needed air.
Matteo whispered, “Did Uncle Dominic steal from me?”
“We don’t know.”
“But Mom thought he did.”
“She thought something was wrong.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“This has nothing to do with the wedding.”
Luca laughed once.
No humor.
“My dead wife finds transfers through your family’s company connected to my uncle, and you’ve been secretly recording my archive through a passage she knew about.”
“My father’s company had hundreds of clients.”
“You said he never knew Sarah.”
“He didn’t.”
“Then why did you react when she said Bellini Development?”
“Because it’s my name.”
Luca walked toward her.
“And why did you know she suspected people before we played the video?”
Vanessa stared.
“I’ve heard family gossip.”
“From who?”
“Dominic.”
Silence.
Luca stopped.
“When?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
She had stepped into it.
“Years ago.”
“We met three years after Sarah died.”
“I know.”
“Dominic moved to Florida before we met.”
“I know.”
“So when exactly did he tell you?”
She looked toward the door.
Marco stepped in front of it.
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“You cannot hold me here.”
Luca spoke evenly.
“You can leave whenever you want.”
Marco stepped aside.
“But your phone stays.”
Vanessa laughed.
“My phone?”
“And the copied archive key.”
“You already took it.”
“Any other copies.”
“I don’t have any.”
“Your laptop stays too.”
“No.”
“Then call the police.”
Her mouth closed.
Luca continued.
“Tell them you found a hidden camera inside my private archive connected through your dressing room and you’d like to remove the device storing the recordings.”
Vanessa stared.
I almost forgot my arm hurt.
Almost.
Matteo sat beside me now.
His knee bounced.
I put my hand lightly over it.
He stopped.
Luca saw.
His gaze lingered on my bandaged fingers for a second.
Then returned to Vanessa.
“When did you first meet Dominic?”
She said nothing.
“When?”
“Before you.”
“How long before?”
“A few years.”
“Before Sarah died?”
Silence.
That was the answer.
Matteo whispered, “Oh.”
Luca’s face went empty.
“You knew my uncle while my wife was alive.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Barely.”
“How?”
“My father.”
“Your father who never knew Sarah?”
“I said my father didn’t know Sarah personally.”
“That isn’t what you said.”
She clenched her jaw.
Luca looked at Marco.
“Call Dominic.”
Vanessa snapped, “Don’t.”
Everyone froze.
Luca stared at her.
She closed her eyes.
Too late again.
“Why not?”
“Because he’ll make this worse.”
“For who?”
“For everyone.”
“Call him.”
Marco took out his phone.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Luca, listen to me.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“Interesting word.”
Her expression cracked.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
She looked at Matteo.
Then at me.
“Not here.”
Luca didn’t move.
“Say it.”
“I can’t.”
“Say it.”
Vanessa’s voice lowered.
“Sarah was planning to leave you.”
Matteo flinched.
Luca went still.
“That’s a lie.”
“She met with a lawyer.”
“About the trust.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know my wife.”
“Did you?”
The cruelty of it shocked even me.
Luca’s face hardened.
Vanessa continued, desperate now.
“She was hiding money. She had documents. Dominic believed she was preparing to take Matteo.”
Matteo stood.
“Stop.”
Vanessa looked at him.
He was shaking.
“Stop talking about my mom.”
Her face softened falsely.
“Matteo, sweetheart—”
“Don’t call me that.”
Luca stepped beside his son.
Vanessa looked at them.
Something bitter entered her face.
“You see? This is exactly what she wanted.”
“Who?” Luca asked.
“Sarah.”
“To what?”
“To control you after she died.”
The library doors opened.
One of the guards entered.
“Sir.”
Luca looked over.
“We reached Dominic.”
“And?”
“He says he’s already in New Jersey.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“He landed this morning.”
Vanessa went pale.
The guard continued.
“He says Mrs. Moretti asked him to come.”
No one breathed.
Luca slowly turned toward Vanessa.
She backed up.
“One last wedding conversation,” the guard added.
Luca’s eyes never left her.
“What conversation?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“He wouldn’t say.”
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
“Gate.”
He answered.
Listened.
His expression hardened.
“He’s here.”
Matteo’s fingers dug into my sleeve.
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“You invited my uncle here two days before our wedding and didn’t tell me.”
Vanessa whispered, “Luca—”
“No.”
He pointed toward the library door.
“Bring Dominic in.”
Five minutes later, Dominic Moretti entered.
Sixty-one.
Silver hair.
Tan skin.
Expensive gray suit.
He smiled as if he had walked into Sunday dinner.
“Luca.”
Luca did not greet him.
Dominic’s eyes moved to the laptop.
Then the letter.
Then Matteo.
Finally Vanessa.
His smile disappeared.
“You played the recordings.”
Vanessa whispered, “I told you to destroy that drive.”
The words left her mouth before she could stop them.
Luca slowly looked at her.
Then at Dominic.
Dominic closed his eyes.
May you like
And Matteo, thirteen years old, said the only thing anyone in the room needed to say.
“So both of you knew.”
