Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH|
"WHO ELSE KNEW CLARA WAS ALIVE?"
Luca Moretti's question echoed through the ballroom like a gunshot.
Vanessa Bellini stood beside the ruined wedding bouquet, her perfectly painted lips trembling.
For the first time since Clara Bennett had entered the Moretti mansion six months earlier, the future Mrs. Moretti had absolutely nothing to say.
Outside, wedding guests were beginning to arrive.
A string quartet played somewhere beyond the terrace.
White roses decorated every doorway, and hundreds of candles flickered beneath crystal chandeliers.
Everything looked perfect.
Everything except the family standing in the center of the room.
"Answer me, Vanessa," Luca demanded.
Vanessa pressed a hand against her chest.
"You're frightening me."
Luca didn't move.
"You had my sister's bracelet."
"I already explained that."
"You had flowers delivered under your personal account."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"And you were about to make my mother sign away property that belonged to Sofia's descendants."
Vanessa's eyes darted toward the door.
"Your mother hasn't been capable of making financial decisions for months."
From her wheelchair, Eleanor Moretti made a sharp, desperate sound.
Clara immediately knelt beside her.
"Mrs. Moretti?"
Eleanor gripped Clara's fingers.
Her hand was cold.
Her eyes were filled with terror.
"Don't," Eleanor whispered.
Clara leaned closer.
"Don't what?"
"Let... her... leave."
Luca heard every word.
He turned toward his security chief, Marco DeLuca, a broad-shouldered former police detective who had served the Moretti family for almost fifteen years.
"Marco, make sure nobody removes anything from this room."
Marco nodded.
"Already called the police, boss."
"And the guests?"
"I've told the event coordinator there's a family emergency."
Luca glanced toward the entrance.
"Send them home."
Vanessa gasped.
"Luca, you can't humiliate me like this!"
He looked at her with an expression Clara had never seen before.
It wasn't anger.
It was disappointment so complete that it had become something colder.
"Twenty minutes ago, I was going to marry you."
Vanessa began crying.
"We can still fix this."
"No."
"Luca, please."
"My mother was afraid of her own wedding flowers."
Vanessa opened her mouth.
He raised one tattooed hand.
"And you laughed at her."
The silence afterward was unbearable.
Clara looked down at her swollen wrist.
For months, she had believed she was simply a housekeeper working for a wealthy family.
Now an eighty-two-year-old woman was holding her hand as though she were the most precious thing in the world.
A dead woman might have been her mother.
A powerful man might have been her uncle.
And someone had apparently wanted her kept away from the mansion forever.
Walter cleared his throat.
"Mr. Moretti, there's something you need to see."
He was holding a small silver tag he had removed from one of the flower arrangements before the police arrived.
Luca approached.
"What is it?"
"The greenhouse inventory number."
Walter turned it over.
"The roses were labeled as coming from the west garden, but these tags belong to a wholesale supplier."
"Which supplier?"
Walter hesitated.
"Bellini Floral Imports."
Vanessa's father owned Bellini Floral Imports.
Luca slowly turned toward his fiancée.
Vanessa shook her head.
"My father supplies flowers to half the weddings in New York."
"Then you won't mind explaining the order."
"I didn't arrange the flowers myself!"
"Good."
Luca reached for his phone.
"Then we'll ask whoever did."
Vanessa rushed forward.
"Don't call my father!"
Clara flinched at the sudden movement.
Eleanor squeezed her hand harder.
Luca stopped.
"Why not?"
Vanessa stared at him.
Then she whispered something unexpected.
"Because he doesn't know what you've found."
Nobody spoke.
Even Walter seemed to stop breathing.
Luca lowered the phone.
"What exactly have we found, Vanessa?"
Her face crumpled.
"I didn't know about Clara when we first started dating."
"When did you know?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"Please don't make me say this in front of everyone."
Luca pointed toward Clara.
"You made her kneel on a marble floor with an injured wrist while you insulted my mother."
His voice dropped.
"You don't get privacy now simply because the truth embarrasses you."
Vanessa looked at Clara.
For one strange moment, Clara thought she saw genuine fear in the woman's eyes.
Not fear of Luca.
Fear of somebody else.
"It was three months ago," Vanessa finally whispered.
"Go on."
"I found an old file in your father's study."
Luca stiffened.
"My father's study has been locked since his death."
Vanessa swallowed.
"Your mother gave me the key."
Eleanor immediately shook her head.
"No."
Vanessa turned toward her.
"You don't remember."
Eleanor struck the armrest of her wheelchair.
"No!"
Clara reached for her.
"Mrs. Moretti, it's okay."
But Eleanor wouldn't stop shaking her head.
Luca stepped between them.
"Enough."
He looked at Vanessa.
"Tell me about the file."
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
"It was about Sofia."
Clara felt her heart pounding.
"What did it say?"
Vanessa glanced at her.
"That Sofia gave birth to a daughter shortly before she disappeared."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"My sister died in a car accident."
Vanessa looked at the floor.
"That's what the file said happened afterward."
Clara noticed the wording immediately.
"Afterward?"
Vanessa went silent.
Clara stood slowly.
"After what?"
Nobody answered.
For the first time in her life, Clara felt a strange certainty rising beneath her fear.
She was no longer willing to be the frightened girl who apologized whenever somebody raised their voice.
"My adoptive mother died when I was nineteen," she said.
Luca turned toward her.
"Clara—"
"She told me I was loved before I was born."
Her voice cracked.
"She said my birth mother wanted me to have a beautiful life."
Eleanor began crying quietly.
Clara took a breath.
"And now you're telling me my mother might have disappeared before she died."
Vanessa covered her mouth.
"I never said that."
"You said afterward."
The distant music stopped.
Somewhere outside, a car door slammed.
Then Marco's phone rang.
He answered, listened briefly, and approached Luca.
"The police are here."
Luca nodded.
"Bring them in."
Marco hesitated.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The hospital called about Clara's brother."
Clara's stomach tightened.
"Ben?"
Marco looked apologetic.
"The surgeon's office has been trying to reach you."
Clara immediately reached into her apron pocket.
Her phone was missing.
She remembered leaving it beside the flower arrangements after Vanessa grabbed her wrist.
"Is he okay?"
Marco nodded.
"He's stable."
Clara exhaled.
"They need confirmation about Monday's surgery deposit."
Her relief vanished.
The deposit.
Twenty-seven thousand dollars.
The amount she'd spent almost two years trying to save.
She had borrowed money, worked double shifts, skipped meals, and taken every extra cleaning job she could find.
But the final payment was still due.
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
"Well, at least now we know why she's suddenly so interested in being part of this family."
Clara froze.
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
"Not another word."
Vanessa lifted her chin.
"She's a housekeeper with medical bills, Luca."
He took one step closer.
"She's a woman who protected my mother when nobody else was paying attention."
Vanessa's smile disappeared.
"And that makes her family?"
"No."
Luca looked toward Clara.
"Blood might make her family."
Then he added quietly, "What she did for my mother makes her someone I owe an apology to, whether we're related or not."
Clara's eyes burned.
Before she could answer, Eleanor reached into the pocket of her cardigan.
She removed a folded piece of blue paper.
It was covered in shaky handwriting.
Clara gently opened it.
Across the top were three words.
FIND THE BABY.
Underneath was a name.
DR. ADRIAN KESSLER.
And beneath the name was an address in Queens.
Luca went completely still.
"I know that name."
Clara looked up.
"Who is he?"
Luca stared at the paper.
"He was the doctor who treated Sofia after her accident."
Eleanor began shaking again.
Luca knelt beside her.
"Mom, what are you trying to tell us?"
She struggled to form the words.
"Not... accident."
Luca's face changed.
"What?"
Eleanor gripped his sleeve.
"Not... an... accident."
At that moment, a uniformed officer entered the ballroom.
Behind him was a woman in a dark blue suit carrying a leather folder.
She introduced herself as Detective Rachel Mercer.
"We've secured the floral arrangements for testing," she said.
Then she looked directly at Luca.
"But there's something I need to tell you before anyone leaves."
Luca stood.
"What is it?"
The detective opened her folder.
"We checked the name Dr. Adrian Kessler after your security chief mentioned it."
She paused.
"His office burned down seventeen years ago."
Clara felt a chill.
"And the doctor?"
Detective Mercer looked at the old photograph in Clara's hand.
"He's been officially missing since the fire."
Vanessa suddenly sat down.
Eleanor began whispering the same word over and over.
"Alive."
Clara leaned toward her.
"Who is alive?"
Eleanor's trembling finger touched Sofia's face in the photograph.
Then she looked directly into Luca's eyes.
May you like
And somehow, despite the damage the stroke had done to her speech, she forced out five unmistakable words.
"YOUR SISTER NEVER DIED, LUCA."
