Chapter 1
The recorder felt too small to hold that much danger.
Luca Moretti stood in the middle of the private gallery with the black device pinched between two tattooed fingers. The broken statue lay at his feet, one horn several feet away, the split wing showing the hollow cavity where the recorder had been hidden.
Vanessa Bellini’s face had gone pale.
Not frightened pale.
Angry pale.
The kind that made her beauty sharpen instead of soften.
“Give me that,” she said again.
Luca didn’t move.
Behind him, I held my injured arm close to my body and tried not to sway.
The room smelled like marble dust and expensive perfume.
My mouth tasted like blood.
Luca pressed PLAY.
Vanessa’s recorded voice filled the room once more.
“When Luca signs the marriage papers, the collection becomes accessible.”
A man’s voice answered.
“And if he finds the recorder?”
“He never touches that ugly statue.”
The recording continued this time.
A small rustle.
Then the man again.
“What about the Moretti trust?”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“The marriage gets me closer. The trust gets us everything.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa lunged.
He caught her wrist before she reached the recorder.
It happened so fast I barely saw it.
One second she was moving.
The next, his hand had closed around her wrist and his eyes had turned flat and cold.
“Don’t,” he said.
Vanessa stared at him.
“You’re hurting me.”
“No,” Luca replied. “I’m stopping you.”
Her breathing changed.
“So this is what we’re doing now? You’re going to believe a hidden recording over me?”
Luca looked at the recorder.
“It has your voice.”
“That can be manipulated.”
“Then we’ll have it verified.”
She pulled her wrist free.
“And while you’re doing that, are you going to explain why your maid is standing in your private gallery bleeding all over the floor?”
Silence.
Luca turned to me.
I wished he hadn’t.
His eyes went over every bruise again.
The swelling around my left eye.
The cuts.
My split lip.
The dried blood.
He took one step toward me.
I stepped back.
His expression changed.
Not offended.
Something worse.
Understanding.
“Julia,” he said carefully. “Who hurt you?”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“She told you. She fell.”
Luca kept looking at me.
“Julia.”
I couldn’t breathe right.
Vanessa had made sure of that.
Not by hitting my throat.
By telling me exactly what would happen if I spoke.
My brother would lose his job.
My mother’s rent would suddenly become a problem.
The agency that placed me in the Moretti house would blacklist me.
She had said it all while pressing a diamond bracelet into my cheek hard enough to leave a cut.
Some people didn’t need fists.
They had power.
“I fell,” I whispered.
Luca’s eyes hardened.
Vanessa smiled.
“There. Done.”
“No,” Luca said.
He pulled his phone from his pocket.
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling Dr. Ellis.”
“I don’t need a doctor,” I said quickly.
Luca looked at me.
“That wasn’t a request.”
I stiffened.
Then he seemed to realize how that sounded.
His voice lowered.
“You’re injured. You’re getting checked.”
Vanessa laughed under her breath.
“Oh, this is ridiculous.”
Luca dialed.
She walked toward the gallery doors.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To dinner.”
“No.”
She stopped.
Luca lowered the phone from his ear.
“You’re staying in the house.”
Her head turned slowly.
“Excuse me?”
“Until I know what’s on this recorder.”
“You’re locking me in?”
“I’m asking you not to leave.”
“And if I do?”
Luca watched her.
“Then you’ll make this much uglier than it needs to be.”
Vanessa’s nostrils flared.
For the first time since I’d met her, she looked at Luca and seemed unsure of what he might do.
Not because he was loud.
Luca Moretti almost never raised his voice.
That was what made him frightening.
He didn’t need volume.
He had control.
Vanessa pointed at me.
“This is her fault.”
Luca’s eyes didn’t leave Vanessa.
“No. The recorder was there before Julia dropped the statue.”
“She had no right to be in here.”
“You sent her in here.”
“She was cleaning.”
“You told her to move something that weighs nearly seventy pounds.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“How would you know what I told her?”
Luca looked at me.
I said nothing.
Then something unexpected happened.
He crouched beside the broken statue.
With careful fingers, he reached into the cracked wing.
There was another object inside.
Not electronic.
Paper.
A folded slip sealed inside a tiny plastic sleeve.
Vanessa’s face changed.
Only for half a second.
But Luca saw it.
He pulled the paper free.
“Interesting,” he murmured.
Vanessa took a step back.
“What is it?”
Luca opened the plastic.
Inside was a handwritten list.
Seven names.
Each with a date beside it.
I recognized two.
Victor Moretti.
Daniel Caruso.
The first was Luca’s uncle.
The second was a lawyer whose death had been in the news months earlier.
Luca read the list once.
Then again.
His expression became unreadable.
Vanessa’s eyes went to the door.
Luca noticed.
“Don’t.”
She froze.
He held up the paper.
“What is this?”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“Wrong answer.”
“Because you’ve decided I’m guilty?”
“Because you looked at the door before you looked at the list.”
Vanessa stared at him.
The silence stretched.
Then footsteps approached.
Fast.
A large man in a dark suit entered the gallery.
Marco.
Luca’s security chief.
He stopped when he saw the broken statue.
Then me.
Then Vanessa.
Then Luca.
“Sir?”
Luca handed him the recorder.
“Get this copied. No network. No cloud. Three physical copies. One goes to my safe. One goes off-site with you. The third goes to Bishop.”
Vanessa went rigid.
“Bishop?”
That name meant something to her.
Luca saw that too.
“So you do know him.”
“I know of him.”
“From where?”
She didn’t answer.
Marco took the recorder.
Luca handed him the list.
“And run every name. Quietly.”
Marco glanced down.
His expression shifted at Daniel Caruso’s name.
“Understood.”
“Also,” Luca added, “nobody leaves the property without my approval.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You cannot be serious.”
Luca turned to Marco.
“Especially Vanessa.”
Her face went still.
Marco nodded.
“Understood.”
Vanessa stared at Luca for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
It was the most frightening smile I had ever seen on her.
“You think you just found the truth.”
Luca said nothing.
She looked at the broken statue.
“You found bait.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
Vanessa slowly moved closer to him.
“Ask yourself why someone would hide a recorder in a statue I supposedly knew you never touched.”
Luca’s face didn’t change.
She continued.
“Ask why it would be so easy to find.”
“You didn’t seem happy when I found it.”
“Because I knew exactly what you would think.”
“And what should I think?”
“That someone wants you suspicious.”
“Of you.”
“Of everyone.”
She looked at me.
Including me.
My skin went cold.
Vanessa tilted her head.
“You should ask where your maid was before she came in here.”
Luca looked at me.
I swallowed.
“I was in the laundry room.”
“All afternoon?” Vanessa asked.
“No.”
“Where else?”
“I cleaned the upstairs hall.”
“And?”
“The guest rooms.”
“And?”
I hesitated.
Luca noticed.
“Julia?”
I looked at him.
“There was a delivery.”
Vanessa smiled.
“What delivery?”
“I don’t know. A box.”
“Who signed for it?”
“I did.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened.
“For who?”
“It was addressed to you.”
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“Where is it?”
I looked toward the hall.
“I left it in the library.”
Luca started walking immediately.
We followed.
My legs felt weak.
By the time we reached the library, Marco was already calling someone from the hallway.
The box was where I had left it.
Dark brown wrapping.
No company name.
No return address.
Only:
LUCA MORETTI
PRIVATE
Luca approached slowly.
Vanessa stood several feet away.
“Maybe don’t touch that,” she said.
He glanced at her.
“Now you’re concerned?”
“I’m not stupid.”
Luca looked at Marco.
“Gloves.”
Marco handed him a pair from a security kit.
Luca put them on and opened the box.
I had worked in rich houses before. I knew how quickly gossip moved and how slowly help came. But this felt different. Every hallway suddenly seemed to contain a witness, every closed door a secret. Luca looked at me once, as if silently promising that whatever happened next would not be buried. I wanted to believe him. I was not sure I could.
Inside was a framed photograph.
A wedding photograph.
Luca’s parents.
His father looked young.
His mother beautiful.
Between the glass and the picture was a white envelope.
Luca removed it.
His name was written across the front.
He opened it.
Inside was a single line.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO IS LYING, ASK JULIA WHY SHE WAS REALLY HIRED.
Nobody spoke.
I stopped breathing.
Luca slowly lifted his eyes to me.
Vanessa smiled.
And for once,
May you like
she looked completely innocent.
Nothing about that night would ever feel accidental again.
