Chapter 2
Luca watched the video three times.
Nobody interrupted him.
Not Marco.
Not Vanessa.
Not me.
Antonio Moretti stood in the recording beside a dark wood desk.
Gray hair.
Same blue eyes as Luca.
Older than the photographs hanging around the estate.
Alive.
Four years ago.
He spoke to someone off camera.
“We wait until the marriage.”
A man answered:
“Luca will ask questions.”
Antonio laughed.
“My son always asks questions too late.”
Luca stopped the video.
His face looked empty.
I had worked in his house for two years.
I knew his expressions.
Anger was easy.
Annoyance.
Amusement.
Exhaustion.
This was different.
Something underneath all of them had cracked.
“My father died.”
No one answered.
He looked at Vanessa.
“You attended the funeral.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Your father knew.”
“I think so.”
“You think.”
“I only saw this recording last month.”
“On the phone.”
“Yes.”
“What did Robert tell you?”
“That Antonio survived.”
“How?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Why?”
“He said the death was necessary.”
Luca laughed.
“Necessary.”
His voice turned bitter.
“Everyone in this family loves that word.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
She froze.
“I mean it.”
“That doesn’t make it useful.”
He walked toward the fountain.
The courtyard stones were still stained with my footprints.
Dr. Hayes had cut away the worst part of my stockings and wrapped both knees.
I sat on the bench with a blanket around my legs.
Diesel lay across my shoes.
His head rested on one paw.
But his eyes never left Vanessa.
Luca stared at the water.
“My mother believed he was dead.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“Did she?”
He turned.
“Did Isabella know?”
“I don’t know.”
His jaw tightened.
“Another excellent answer.”
Marco stepped forward.
“We can identify the room.”
“How?”
“Video metadata. furniture. background.”
“Do it.”
Vanessa looked at the phone.
“There are other files.”
Luca stared.
“You’ve heard them.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
“Out of seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“What’s on them?”
She hesitated.
Diesel growled.
I whispered:
“Diesel.”
He stopped.
Luca noticed.
Again.
He looked at Vanessa.
“Keep talking.”
“One recording is my father and Julian.”
“About?”
“The account.”
“Another?”
“Julian and Antonio.”
Luca froze.
“My father spoke to Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Recently?”
“Three years ago.”
“Another?”
“My father and a woman.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did they discuss?”
“Claire.”
My entire body went cold.
Luca turned.
“What?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“The name Claire Mason.”
I stared.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
My heart started pounding.
“Why would your father discuss me?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca walked back toward us.
“Play it.”
Marco found the file.
Audio only.
Robert Bellini’s voice:
“Claire is still at the estate.”
A woman answered:
“She was supposed to leave last year.”
Robert:
“She didn’t.”
Woman:
“Does Luca know who she is?”
Robert:
“No.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca’s face hardened.
The woman continued:
“Then leave it alone.”
Robert:
“Julian won’t.”
Audio ended.
Nobody spoke.
I felt dizzy.
Luca crouched in front of me.
“Claire.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Do you know Robert Bellini?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
“No.”
“Your parents?”
“My father died when I was sixteen. My mother when I was nineteen.”
“Names?”
“Thomas Mason. Anna Mason.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Small.
But Luca saw.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Anna.”
My skin crawled.
“You know my mother’s name.”
Vanessa looked trapped.
“I’ve heard it.”
“Where?”
“From my father.”
Silence.
Luca stood slowly.
“Why would Robert know Anna Mason?”
Vanessa whispered:
“She worked for Antonio.”
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
“She did.”
“My mother was a nurse.”
“At the end.”
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Before that she worked for Moretti Maritime.”
I laughed nervously.
“That’s impossible.”
“Claire.”
Luca’s voice softened.
I looked at him.
He was not accusing.
Just preparing me.
I hated that.
Vanessa continued.
“She was in corporate medical.”
“What is that?”
“Private health records for crews. executives. international travel.”
I stared.
“My mother never told me.”
“She left before you were born.”
“Why?”
Vanessa looked toward Luca.
“Because she found something.”
Luca’s expression sharpened.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“My father said she copied records.”
“What records?”
“Medical.”
“Of who?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Antonio.”
Everything returned to him.
Antonio alive.
Antonio dead.
Antonio hidden.
Antonio’s medical file.
I looked at Luca.
“Maybe she knew he survived.”
He stared.
“Maybe.”
Marco’s phone buzzed.
“Tech found geolocation on the video.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
He looked at Luca.
“It was recorded at a private clinic in Connecticut.”
Luca went still.
“What clinic?”
“St. Dominic’s.”
Vanessa whispered:
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“My father goes there.”
“For what?”
“He doesn’t.”
“Then why did you react?”
She stared at the floor.
“Julian was born there.”
Silence.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Thirty-something years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And my father was recorded there four years ago.”
“Yes.”
Marco looked at me.
“And Claire’s mother worked there.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
He turned his tablet.
Employment search.
ANNA MASON.
Registered nurse.
St. Dominic’s Private Clinic.
Dates:
Twenty-nine years ago through twenty-one years ago.
Eight years.
Including the year I was born.
Luca stared.
“My father.”
I knew what he was thinking.
No.
I said it first.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“No what?”
“My mother did not have an affair with your father.”
“I didn’t say she did.”
“But you thought it.”
“I thought she knew him.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
It still frightened me.
Vanessa spoke.
“There’s more.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“My father asked me once if Claire had blue eyes.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca’s eyes were blue.
Antonio’s were blue.
Mine were green.
Not relevant.
Probably.
“What did you say?”
“That yours were green.”
“Then?”
“He said good.”
I stared.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Your father has too many opinions about my employee.”
Vanessa almost laughed.
“Your employee.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“No. Say it.”
She looked at me.
Then Luca.
“Robert didn’t think Claire was staff.”
Silence.
“What did he think she was?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“A witness.”
I felt cold.
“To what?”
“The night Antonio died.”
My mouth went dry.
“I was seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t there.”
Vanessa looked at me with pity.
“I think you were.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
I remembered that night.
Or thought I did.
My mother woke me.
Drove somewhere.
A hospital corridor.
Rain.
A man shouting.
Maybe.
I had always believed it was the night my father died.
But Thomas died a year earlier.
No.
The memory belonged to something else.
I touched my forehead.
Luca crouched again.
“Claire.”
“I remember a hospital.”
“What hospital?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
I closed my eyes.
Blue eyes.
A man lying in a bed.
Someone saying:
“He cannot stay Antonio.”
My eyes opened.
Luca stared.
“What?”
“I heard that.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa went pale.
Marco looked at Luca.
“St. Dominic’s.”
My pulse hammered.
Maybe my mother took me there.
Maybe I saw Antonio alive.
Maybe that was why Robert knew my name.
Maybe that was why the mysterious woman wanted me gone from the estate.
Luca stood.
“We go to Connecticut.”
Dr. Hayes cleared his throat.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“She is not going anywhere tonight.”
“I’m going,” I said.
“No.”
Luca looked at me.
I glared.
He almost smiled.
“Not because I’m stopping you.”
“Then?”
“Because the doctor is.”
Dr. Hayes nodded proudly.
“Finally, someone respects medicine.”
I folded my arms.
Diesel lifted his head.
Vanessa looked toward the dog.
“He should not come.”
Diesel growled.
I looked at her.
“He’s coming.”
Luca looked at me.
“Of course he is.”
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face went pale.
“What?”
Luca asked.
Marco turned the screen.
Live estate camera.
North gate.
One black sedan waiting outside.
A man stood beside it.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Same blue eyes as Luca.
Vanessa whispered:
“Julian.”
Luca stopped breathing.
His hidden half brother had come to the estate.
Before Marco could end the camera feed, Diesel stood and walked toward the screen.
His nose nearly touched Julian’s image.
Then he whined.
Not growled.
Whined.
I looked at Luca.
“That’s different.”
“What?”
“He recognizes him.”
Vanessa went pale.
“No.”
I stared at her.
“What do you mean no?”
She shook her head.
“Julian has never been here.”
Diesel whined again.
Then pawed once at the screen.
Marco frowned.
“Dogs don’t recognize video reliably like that.”
“Diesel does.”
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
“When would he have met Julian?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
She folded her arms.
“I said I don’t know.”
I watched Diesel.
Memory surfaced.
A year earlier.
A man in a baseball cap near the kennel.
Diesel had gone crazy with excitement.
I had assumed he was one of the trainers.
Tall.
Dark hair.
I had only seen him from behind.
My stomach tightened.
“Someone came to the kennel.”
Luca looked at me.
“When?”
“Last spring.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. I thought staff.”
“Did he meet Diesel?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Luca saw.
“You know.”
She whispered:
“Julian used to train estate dogs.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Years ago.”
“Under what name?”
“Jules Bennett.”
Marco immediately searched.
His expression changed.
“Employment record. Temporary canine contractor. Three years.”
I stared.
Julian had not merely known Diesel.
He had helped train him.
Luca looked at the camera feed.
“So my hidden half brother has been inside my security system through the dog program.”
Vanessa nodded.
“And nobody told me.”
“Yes.”
His laugh was short and bitter.
“Wonderful.”
I looked at Diesel.
He sat beside me again.
Whatever Julian had done, Diesel had chosen me afterward.
That mattered.
Maybe more than history.
And in one hand—
May you like
he held a hospital bracelet with my name on it.
END PART
