Chapter 6 - The Framing Game
|
The brazen accusation hung in the sterile hospital corridor like toxic smoke.
I stood up from the stool beside Benjamin’s bed, my heart thumping against my ribs as Vanessa’s venomous words echoed through the glass partition.
"Are you seriously standing in this hospital accusing Claire?" Luca asked, his voice dangerously soft and calm.
"Of course I am!" Vanessa exclaimed, gaining false confidence as she stepped closer to Luca, playing the role of the protective matriarch.
"Think about it logically, Luca!"
"Claire has been struggling financially ever since her mother fell ill in Ohio."
"She has unlimited access to Benjamin's meals, his snacks, and his bedtime water glasses."
"She probably made him sick on purpose so she could swoop in, play the hero, and ask you for a massive bonus or financial settlement!"
Marco stepped forward, holding the encrypted tablet with a grim look on his weathered face.
"Mrs. Moretti," Marco interrupted with icy professionalism, "if Claire poisoned the boy, perhaps you can explain what occurred thirty minutes ago in the servants' quarters."
Vanessa’s pale face lost a fraction of its color, her eyes darting nervously toward the elevator bank.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Vanessa said defensively, pulling her cashmere coat tighter around herself.
Marco tapped the screen and held it up for Luca to see clearly.
The high-definition night-vision feed displayed Claire's modest private room on the third floor of the Moretti estate.
The timestamp at the bottom showed the recording was taken less than forty-five minutes ago, while the ambulance was speeding toward the hospital.
On the screen, Vanessa herself could be seen creeping into Claire's dark bedroom, wearing black leather driving gloves.
The video captured her opening Claire's wooden wardrobe, lifting the hem of a spare maid's uniform, and sliding an identical amber dropper bottle directly into the apron pocket.
She then took an unprescribed syringe, wiped it with a cloth, and tucked it beneath Claire's mattress before quietly slipping out the door.
Luca watched the screen in absolute silence, every muscle in his neck tightening until his veins bulged against his collar.
"You went into Claire's private room while my son was dying in my arms," Luca said, his voice a low rumble that sounded like grinding granite.
Vanessa began to tremble violently, her aristocratic facade crumbling into pieces right before our eyes.
"Luca, listen to me, that was... someone planted that video to frame me!" she gasped, taking two panicked steps backward.
"The camera in that hallway is an encrypted military-grade unit connected directly to my personal satellite server," Marco stated flatly.
"It cannot be hacked, looped, or manipulated from an outside network."
"You poisoned my nine-year-old child with a neuro-depressant, canceled his medical appointments so he would slowly asphyxiate, and then rushed to plant the remaining poison on an innocent woman who saved his life," Luca whispered.
Vanessa looked frantically around the corridor, but Luca’s security team had already blocked both stairwell doors and the elevator exits.
"I am a Bellini!" Vanessa screamed, her voice shrill with desperation.
"My family carries half the political and shipping connections in this city!"
"If you lay a single finger on me, Luca Moretti, my brothers will wage war against your empire until this whole city burns to the ground!"
Luca stepped into her personal space, towering over her like an executioner delivering a final verdict.
"Your brothers will be begging me for mercy before the sun rises over Lake Michigan, Vanessa."
May you like
"Take her to the holding suite in the basement of the downtown warehouse," Luca ordered without turning his head.
"Strip her of everything, search every seam of her clothing, and do not give her a drop of water until I arrive to question her myself."
