Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much|
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Luca Moretti stood in the doorway of his mother's living room, holding the forged nursing home authorization in one hand and staring at his new wife as though she had suddenly become a stranger.
Vanessa's carefully painted smile had disappeared.
Behind her, the distant sounds of dinner guests laughing beneath the chandeliers seemed almost obscene.
"Answer me, Vanessa."
Luca's voice was dangerously quiet.
"How do you know anything about my father's death?"
Vanessa glanced toward the dining room.
"Luca, this is hardly the appropriate time."
"My father has been dead for eighteen months."
He took one step toward her.
"And my mother just told me you threatened her with something that happened the night he died."
Rosa tightened her trembling fingers around mine.
I could feel how frightened she was.
Not frightened of Luca.
Frightened of what Vanessa might say next.
"Darling," Vanessa began, "your mother has been terribly emotional lately."
"Stop talking about my mother's age."
Luca held up the nursing facility letter.
"Tell me why you forged my signature."
Vanessa looked at the envelope.
For a moment, something ugly flashed across her face.
Then she sighed dramatically.
"I was trying to do what was best for this family."
"By sending my mother away without telling me?"
"She needs professional supervision."
"She needs dinner with her children."
Vanessa's jaw tightened.
"You're making this unnecessarily difficult."
Luca turned toward me.
"Claire, has my mother been eating alone before tonight?"
I hesitated.
Vanessa's eyes locked on mine.
I knew exactly what that look meant.
My job depended on the answer.
But Rosa's hand was shaking so badly that she could barely hold her spoon.
"Yes, Mr. Moretti."
Vanessa gasped.
"Claire!"
I forced myself to continue.
"Three times this week."
Luca went completely still.
"Three times?"
"Mrs. Rosa was told that the dining room was being reserved for your wife and her guests."
"That's a lie!" Vanessa snapped.
I swallowed.
"Yesterday, she ate a piece of toast in the laundry room because the kitchen staff had been instructed not to serve her dinner."
Rosa covered her face.
"Oh, Claire, sweetheart."
Luca looked at his mother.
Something in his expression broke.
He was a man whose reputation could silence an entire Chicago nightclub with a single glance.
But right then, he looked like a little boy discovering that someone had hurt the person he loved most.
"Mama, why didn't you tell me?"
Rosa lowered her hands.
"Because you looked happy again."
Her voice cracked.
"After your father died, I thought perhaps you deserved a little happiness."
Luca closed his eyes.
For a moment, I thought he might cry.
Instead, he turned toward the hallway.
"Anthony!"
His head of household security appeared almost immediately.
"Yes, Mr. Moretti?"
"Please tell our guests that dinner is over."
Vanessa lunged forward.
"Luca, you cannot dismiss twelve important people because your mother doesn't like the seating arrangements!"
Luca didn't even look at her.
"Anthony, arrange transportation for anyone who needs it."
"Of course, sir."
"And preserve every household security recording from the past thirty days."
Vanessa's face changed.
Only slightly.
But I noticed.
Luca noticed too.
"Is there something on those recordings I shouldn't see?"
"You're being paranoid."
"No."
He placed the nursing home letter on the side table.
"I'm beginning to pay attention."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"Fine."
Her voice suddenly grew cold.
"You want to know about your father?"
Rosa made a small, frightened sound.
"Vanessa, please."
Vanessa ignored her.
"Frank Moretti wasn't the perfect man you remember, Luca."
Luca stared at her.
"Be careful."
"Your father was involved in things he never told you about."
"My father told me more than you ever have."
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
"Then perhaps he told you what happened in his study that night."
The silence that followed was almost unbearable.
Rosa's hand slipped from mine.
Luca slowly approached his wife.
"What study?"
"The one where he collapsed."
Every muscle in Luca's face tightened.
According to the family, Frank Moretti had suffered a sudden heart attack in his private study.
Luca had been in Detroit when it happened.
By the time he returned to Chicago, his father was already gone.
The doctors had called it a tragic cardiac event.
Nobody had ever suggested otherwise.
Until now.
"Who told you where he collapsed?" Luca asked.
Vanessa blinked.
"Everyone knows that."
"No."
Luca shook his head.
"The newspapers said he died at home."
He looked toward his mother.
"Only the family and the people who were there knew he was found in the study."
Rosa began trembling harder.
"Son, please don't do this tonight."
Luca knelt beside her again.
"Mama, did Vanessa know my father before I introduced you?"
Rosa stared at the carpet.
"Yes."
The word barely escaped her lips.
Vanessa quickly interrupted.
"I attended several charitable events."
Luca looked up.
"You told me you'd never spoken to my father."
"I meant we weren't close."
Rosa suddenly reached for his sleeve.
"She was here that night, Luca."
Vanessa's face went white.
"Rosa!"
But the elderly woman kept speaking.
"She came with a lawyer."
My heart began pounding.
Luca slowly stood.
"What lawyer?"
Rosa's lips trembled.
"Julian Cross."
Luca looked stunned.
I recognized the name.
Julian Cross had recently become Vanessa's personal attorney.
He was also the man who had encouraged Luca to transfer several family properties into a newly established holding company.
"Why was Julian Cross meeting my father?" Luca asked.
Vanessa took a step backward.
"It was business."
"What business?"
"Private business."
Luca moved toward the door.
"Then we'll ask him."
Vanessa caught his arm.
"Don't!"
The desperation in her voice startled everyone.
She released him immediately.
"I mean, don't turn a family misunderstanding into a legal nightmare."
Luca looked down at the hand she had placed on his sleeve.
Then he looked directly into her eyes.
"You arranged to remove my eighty-three-year-old mother from her own home."
He pointed toward the letter.
"You forged my signature."
His voice dropped.
"And now I discover that you lied about knowing my father."
Vanessa said nothing.
Luca stepped away from her.
"From this moment forward, you will not make another decision concerning my mother."
"You can't speak to your wife that way!"
"I can speak to someone who betrayed my family exactly this way."
Vanessa turned and walked toward the doorway.
But before leaving, she stopped.
"You should ask your mother what she was doing outside Frank's locked study while he was dying."
Rosa let out a broken sob.
Luca turned toward her.
"Mama?"
Vanessa's final words came almost as a whisper.
"Ask her why she waited so long to call for help."
Then she disappeared into the hallway.
I felt Rosa's fingers digging into my wrist.
Luca knelt beside his mother.
"Mama, look at me."
Tears streamed down Rosa's face.
"I tried to help him."
Luca's expression changed.
"Help him how?"
She could barely breathe.
"I heard your father calling my name."
The room seemed to grow colder.
"From behind the study door."
Luca stared at her.
Rosa began sobbing.
"And when I tried to open it, someone had locked it from the outside."
She looked toward the hallway where Vanessa had disappeared.
"Son, your father wasn't alone when he died."
May you like
Then she whispered something that made my blood run cold.
"Someone wanted me to believe I was the reason he never came out."
