Chapter 7 - THE DRIVER WHO CHANGED HIS MIND
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“He said my mother wasn't supposed to survive?”
Luca's voice was so quiet that I almost didn't hear him.
Detective Morales nodded.
“That's what the responding officers reported.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Mrs. Moretti stared at her son.
I could see her trying to understand what he'd just been told.
I crouched beside her and signed the words slowly.
Her expression crumpled.
For several seconds, she didn't move.
Then she reached up and touched my cheek.
I survived because of him.
I blinked.
“Because of Dominic?”
She nodded.
I translated.
Luca turned toward Morales.
“Then I want to know exactly what happened in that car.”
“So do I,” the detective replied. “But Dominic has requested counsel. We need to handle the interview legally.”
Luca looked ready to argue.
Then his mother touched his arm.
Listen.
He looked down.
She signed again.
Please.
Something changed in his face.
He stepped back.
“Fine.”
Morales made several calls.
I remained beside Mrs. Moretti while a doctor examined her.
Her blood pressure was elevated, but she was stable.
The doctor recommended rest.
Naturally, Mrs. Moretti refused.
She signed:
I'm not finished.
I almost smiled.
She reminded me so much of my mother.
An hour later, Morales returned with new information from the original accident report.
Mrs. Moretti had been driving her black sedan along a quiet road outside Chicago when the vehicle failed to stop at an intersection.
It struck a concrete barrier.
The passenger door was badly damaged.
The passenger had disappeared before emergency responders arrived.
For three months, that passenger had never been identified.
“Dominic,” Luca whispered.
Morales nodded.
“The responding paramedics reported evidence that someone else had been in the vehicle. The original investigators were told it was probably debris or equipment.”
“Who told them that?”
Morales looked at him.
“Dominic Russo.”
Luca pressed both hands against the desk.
“He was at the hospital afterward. He told me he had been coordinating the search.”
“According to the dispatch timeline,” Morales said, “he arrived at the hospital almost two hours after the crash.”
I remembered something.
“Mrs. Moretti said Dominic warned her not to drive.”
Everyone turned toward me.
I faced her and signed:
Why did Dominic get into the car with you?
Her fingers moved slowly.
He came to warn me.
“About what?”
Vanessa.
Luca's expression hardened.
I continued.
Mrs. Moretti explained that Dominic had arrived at the mansion late that afternoon.
He was pale and nervous.
He told her that Vanessa had arranged for someone to alter the brake system on her sedan.
He begged her not to use the vehicle.
But Mrs. Moretti refused to believe him.
She accused him of trying to frighten her.
When he insisted, she demanded that he accompany her to the police station.
He climbed into the passenger seat.
A few minutes later, the brakes stopped responding.
Dominic tried to help her control the car.
At the last moment, he grabbed the steering wheel and directed the sedan away from oncoming traffic.
The vehicle struck the barrier instead.
He survived with injuries.
Then fled.
“Why would he run?” Luca asked.
Mrs. Moretti signed:
He was involved.
Morales wrote something down.
“Did he tell you that?”
Mrs. Moretti nodded.
Her next words came slowly.
He took money.
A terrible possibility settled over the room.
Dominic had helped the people planning Mrs. Moretti's death.
Then lost his nerve.
Luca closed his eyes.
His best friend had accepted money to betray his mother.
And the woman he intended to marry was connected to it.
For a long moment, I thought Luca might explode.
Instead, he pulled out his phone and called Anthony.
“Make sure Vanessa and her father are still on the property.”
Anthony hesitated.
“Boss, Mrs. Bellini is gone.”
Luca's head snapped up.
“What?”
“She left through the service entrance during the commotion. One of the catering vans was missing.”
Morales immediately started making calls.
I watched Luca's face.
He looked less angry than devastated.
“She's been living in my house for two years,” he whispered.
Mrs. Moretti reached for his hand.
He knelt beside her.
“Mom, why didn't you tell me you were afraid of Vanessa?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
She signed:
I tried.
Luca lowered his head.
Then she touched his chin and made him look at her.
You wouldn't listen.
The words hurt him more than any accusation could have.
“I know,” he whispered.
She signed again.
Listen now.
Before Luca could answer, my phone rang.
It was Lily.
I answered immediately.
“Claire, the police are still outside, but something happened.”
“What?”
“Dad found the blue box.”
Relief rushed through me.
“Good. Don't touch anything inside. The detective is going to send someone.”
Lily's voice broke.
“Claire, there's a letter in here with your name on it.”
I stopped breathing.
“From who?”
“Mom.”
I pressed my free hand against my chest.
Lily swallowed.
“She wrote it before she died.”
“What does it say?”
My sister began crying.
“Claire, she says if you ever end up working for the Morettis, you need to know why she asked them to hire you.”
I stared at Mrs. Moretti.
Then at Luca.
My mother had been dead for four years.
May you like
Yet somehow, she had arranged for me to enter this house.
And I was only now discovering that my employment had never been an accident.
