Chapter 1
Nobody moved.
Not Luca.
Not Vanessa.
Not me.
The contract trembled slightly between Luca’s tattooed fingers.
On the white linen tablecloth, red wine spread around Vanessa’s place setting like a stain that had been waiting for permission to show itself.
Six guests stared openly now.
Four others pretended not to.
My left hand throbbed against my lap.
The gauze was soaked through.
Blood had begun to slip between my fingers.
Luca’s eyes dropped to it.
Then rose to Vanessa.
“Start talking.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“I told you. It was an appraisal.”
“This is an auction agreement.”
“A preliminary one.”
“It has your signature.”
“I was considering options.”
“For my mother’s jewelry?”
Her chin lifted.
“You gave me access to the vault.”
“To select one piece for the engagement gala.”
“I selected several.”
“You catalogued six.”
She said nothing.
Luca unfolded the second page.
“Lot six.”
His voice was very calm.
That was worse.
“The Lucia Moretti Collection.”
Vanessa looked toward the guests.
“Can we not do this here?”
Luca did not blink.
“You did it here.”
“What?”
“You brought the broker into my house.”
“It is our house.”
His expression changed by half an inch.
“No.”
Silence.
Vanessa went pale.
Luca looked toward Marco, his cousin, seated two places down.
“Please ask everyone to leave.”
Vanessa snapped, “Absolutely not.”
Luca ignored her.
Marco stood.
“Dinner’s over.”
A senator’s wife reached for her clutch.
Two investors exchanged a glance.
No one argued.
I wanted to disappear with them.
Instead, Luca turned toward me.
“Claire.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Stay.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Of course.”
Luca looked at her.
“Do you want to explain that reaction?”
“No.”
“Good.”
The room cleared in less than three minutes.
Clara, the housekeeper, appeared from the service hall with a first-aid kit.
She saw my hand and went white.
“Claire.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
She knelt beside me.
Luca moved the tray away.
“Can you unwrap it?”
Clara looked at him.
“She needs a doctor.”
“I already called one.”
I stared.
“When?”
“When she nearly collapsed.”
Of course he had.
Vanessa made a sharp sound.
“She doesn’t need a private physician because she cut herself on a door.”
Luca turned.
“She did not cut herself.”
“You don’t know that.”
He held up the auction sticker.
“I know enough.”
Clara carefully peeled the gauze from my wrist.
I hissed.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Several narrow cuts crossed the back of my hand and wrist.
One finger had swollen badly.
The deepest line sat beneath my thumb.
Vanessa looked away.
Luca noticed.
“How did this happen?”
I swallowed.
“The office door.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I looked at Vanessa.
Her eyes warned me.
There was still something about her that frightened me.
Maybe because four hours earlier, she had not looked embarrassed.
She had looked furious.
I forced myself to speak.
“I entered without knocking.”
Luca’s gaze stayed on me.
“Then?”
“There was a man sitting across from her desk.”
“The broker?”
“Yes.”
“Name?”
“I heard him say Daniel Kessler.”
Luca’s face changed.
“Daniel Kessler?”
Vanessa’s eyes closed briefly.
Marco stopped near the doorway.
“What?”
Luca looked at him.
“You know him.”
Marco nodded.
“Kessler handles private estate liquidations.”
“Not appraisals.”
“No.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“This is ridiculous.”
Luca turned back to me.
“What happened next?”
I looked at the hand.
“The bracelet was on the desk.”
“And the contract?”
“Beside it.”
“The six pieces?”
“Photographs.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“No.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“She grabbed the contract.”
“I did not.”
Luca looked at her.
“Let her speak.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Something passed between them.
Six years of history.
One engagement ring.
A table full of people who had just left.
And one document that had changed the room.
I continued.
“Vanessa stood up.”
My throat tightened.
“She asked what I saw.”
“What did you say?”
“That I was sorry and would leave.”
“And then?”
“She told me to close the door.”
Luca’s blue eyes sharpened.
“From inside?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“I wanted privacy.”
Luca looked at her.
“You already had it.”
She went still.
I continued.
“Mr. Kessler packed the jewelry photos.”
“Did he take the bracelet?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Vanessa.”
Her face hardened.
Luca looked at her left wrist.
Bare.
Then toward her clutch.
“Where is it?”
She did not answer.
“Vanessa.”
“It’s safe.”
“Where?”
“At my apartment.”
Luca stared.
“You removed my mother’s bracelet from this house.”
“For safekeeping.”
“Without telling me.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
She looked away.
Luca’s voice dropped.
“When the auction closed?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
The words landed badly.
Very badly.
Marco looked down.
Clara stopped touching my bandage.
Even I felt the change in the air.
Luca stepped closer.
“My mother wore that bracelet on my graduation day.”
Vanessa’s face softened.
“I know.”
“She wore it at my father’s funeral.”
“I know.”
“She left it to me.”
“I know.”
“Then why is your name on an auction contract?”
Vanessa’s lips tightened.
“Because I needed liquidity.”
The room went silent.
Luca stared.
“For what?”
“That is private.”
“We are engaged.”
“Exactly.”
“That did not answer me.”
She folded her arms.
“I have obligations.”
“What obligations require four hundred twenty thousand dollars from my mother’s bracelet?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Luca looked at the contract again.
“The six pieces together are worth over two million.”
“I wasn’t selling all of them.”
“The document says six lots.”
“Auction houses catalog everything.”
“Why?”
No answer.
He looked at Marco.
“Call Kessler.”
Vanessa snapped, “No.”
Luca turned.
“Why not?”
“He will misunderstand.”
“What?”
“That there’s a dispute.”
“There is.”
“You’ll embarrass me.”
He stared.
“You closed an oak door on my employee’s hand and tried to sell my mother’s jewelry.”
“I did not cut her.”
Everyone looked at me.
Vanessa’s face flushed.
I swallowed.
“She closed the door.”
“How?”
Luca asked.
I could hear the moment again.
The wood.
The crack of pain.
My scream.
Vanessa’s voice saying keep your hand out of the way.
“I reached for the handle.”
“Why?”
“Because she locked it.”
Luca turned slowly.
“Locked it?”
Vanessa went pale.
“I wanted to talk.”
I continued before fear stopped me.
“She unlocked it when I said Clara would notice I was missing.”
“What happened to your hand?”
I looked down.
“When I reached for the edge, she shut the door.”
“On your hand.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa exploded.
“You put your hand there!”
The room froze.
Luca’s expression went completely blank.
There it was.
The admission.
Too clean to pull back.
Vanessa realized it instantly.
“I didn’t mean—”
Luca stepped toward her.
“You closed a solid oak door on her hand.”
“She was trying to leave with the contract.”
“I was trying to get out.”
“You had no right to be in my office.”
Luca’s voice cut through hers.
“And you had no right to trap her.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“I was protecting us.”
“From my maid?”
“From scandal.”
He held up the paper.
“You created the scandal.”
Clara wrapped fresh gauze around my hand.
Her fingers were gentle.
My finger still would not bend.
Luca noticed.
“Can you move that one?”
“Not really.”
His jaw tightened.
“Dr. Hayes will be here in ten minutes.”
“I don’t need—”
“Yes.”
I stopped.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You care more about her hand than our engagement.”
Luca looked at her.
“At this moment?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
She flinched.
He continued.
“Because your engagement ring is intact.”
Her eyes widened.
“My employee’s hand is not.”
Silence.
I wanted to disappear.
The last thing I wanted was to be placed between them.
But maybe I had been the moment I opened that office door.
Marco’s phone buzzed.
He looked down.
“Kessler’s calling back.”
Luca held out his hand.
“Put him on speaker.”
Vanessa crossed the room.
“Luca.”
He ignored her.
Marco answered.
“Daniel.”
A man’s voice.
“Marco. I got your message.”
Luca spoke.
“Mr. Kessler.”
Silence.
Then:
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Did Vanessa Bellini contract you to auction six pieces belonging to the Lucia Moretti estate?”
Kessler hesitated.
“Mr. Moretti, I think this should go through counsel.”
“That is a yes.”
“I was told Ms. Bellini had authority.”
“By whom?”
Another pause.
“By her attorney.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Luca looked at her.
“Name?”
Kessler answered:
“Arthur Vale.”
Marco swore quietly.
Vanessa’s face changed.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Arthur Vale represents the Bellini family.”
“Yes.”
“Why would he certify authority over Moretti property?”
Kessler hesitated.
“Because the documentation states the jewelry reverted to the Bellini trust.”
Luca went still.
“What trust?”
No one moved.
Kessler’s voice continued.
“The Lucia Bellini Restoration Trust.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Daniel, stop.”
Too late.
Luca stared at her.
“What is the Lucia Bellini Restoration Trust?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Kessler continued carefully.
“The trust claims ownership of certain assets Lucia Moretti brought into the marriage.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“Those pieces were my mother’s.”
“Yes.”
“Left to me.”
“The trust disputes that.”
“Since when?”
Kessler looked at his own documents.
“Since eleven years ago.”
The year Lucia died.
My stomach tightened.
Luca’s voice dropped.
“My mother created this trust?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
A pause.
“Her sister.”
Luca’s eyes moved toward Vanessa.
“Which sister?”
Vanessa whispered:
“Don’t.”
Kessler said the name anyway.
“Elena Bellini.”
Nobody breathed.
Luca stared.
“My mother never had a living sister.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
And from somewhere upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Then another.
Slow footsteps.
Clara looked toward the ceiling.
Marco frowned.
Luca’s gaze hardened.
“Who else is in this house?”
May you like
Vanessa did not answer.
That was the worst answer possible.
