Chapter 4 - The Secret Beneath the Cedar Bench|
I returned to the Moretti mansion shortly after two in the morning.
Luca remained at the clinic with Rex while Marco arranged security around the veterinary building.
I had insisted on returning because someone needed to collect Rex's medications, food, and favorite blanket.
There was another reason too.
I wanted to understand why Vanessa had locked a helpless animal outside during a thunderstorm.
The mansion was strangely quiet when I entered.
Most of the staff had gone to their rooms.
Only the night guards remained, stationed near the front entrance and along the garden corridor.
Vanessa's bedroom door was closed.
I hoped it would stay that way.
I collected Rex's blanket from the laundry room and carried it toward the small mudroom beside the garden.
That was where we kept his brushes, towels, and old toys.
I had spent countless afternoons there with him.
Sometimes, after finishing my duties, I would sit on the floor while he rested his enormous head in my lap.
He had never cared whether I was wearing an expensive dress or a housekeeper's uniform.
He only cared whether I was kind.
As I reached for his favorite stuffed rabbit, I noticed something unusual.
The cedar bench against the garden wall had been moved.
A few inches of pale flooring were visible where the bench normally stood.
I stopped.
That bench had belonged to Salvatore Moretti.
The old man had commissioned it years earlier, insisting that it remain in the mudroom because Rex liked sleeping beneath it.
Vanessa hated the thing.
She called it ugly and complained that it made the room look like a hunting lodge.
Last month, she had ordered two workers to remove it.
Rex had growled so fiercely that they refused to touch it.
I remembered laughing when I heard the story.
Tonight, I wasn't laughing.
I set down the blanket and examined the bench.
A shallow scratch ran along its wooden base.
Something had recently scraped across the floor.
I knelt.
Underneath the bench, near the back, was a narrow wooden panel.
I had never noticed it before.
I touched the edge.
The panel shifted.
A small brass latch appeared.
My heart began beating faster.
I should have called Marco immediately.
I knew that.
But curiosity pulled my hand forward.
I lifted the latch.
Inside the hidden compartment lay a faded envelope, a small notebook, and an old photograph.
The envelope was addressed to Luca.
The handwriting was unmistakably Salvatore Moretti's.
I had seen it on Christmas cards and birthday notes left for the staff.
I stared at the envelope for a long moment.
Then I took out my phone.
Luca answered on the second ring.
"Claire, is everything all right?"
"Rex's blanket is fine."
He sounded confused.
"All right."
"But I found something."
"What?"
"A hidden compartment underneath your father's cedar bench."
Silence.
"There's an envelope addressed to you."
Luca didn't answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice was strained.
"Don't open it."
"I won't."
"And don't let Vanessa see it."
"I understand."
"Marco is sending someone to bring you back here."
I looked toward the garden doors.
Rain still streaked the glass.
"Mr. Moretti, I think someone has already searched this room."
"What makes you say that?"
"The bench has been moved."
His breathing changed.
"Claire, listen carefully."
"I'm listening."
"Take the envelope and notebook."
I gathered them together.
"Done."
"Now leave that room."
I turned toward the doorway.
And nearly screamed.
Vanessa stood in the entrance, wearing a silk robe.
Her hair fell loose over her shoulders.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were completely alert.
"What are you doing?"
I quickly lowered my phone.
"Collecting Rex's things."
She looked at the envelope in my hand.
"What's that?"
"Something belonging to Mr. Moretti."
She stepped forward.
"Give it to me."
I moved backward.
"I'm supposed to deliver it to him."
Vanessa smiled.
"Claire, don't be difficult."
Her voice was almost gentle.
"I'm the lady of this house."
"I understand, Mrs. Moretti."
"Then hand it over."
I tightened my fingers around the envelope.
"Mr. Moretti asked me to keep it."
The smile vanished.
She took another step.
"Do you think he'll always protect you?"
I said nothing.
"You're a maid."
Her voice sharpened.
"Women like you don't understand what happens when powerful families turn against one another."
I felt the wall behind me.
Vanessa lowered her voice.
"You have no idea what you're holding."
"Then why do you want it?"
The question escaped before I could stop myself.
For a moment, her expression became frighteningly empty.
Then she reached for my wrist.
I pulled away.
"Don't touch me."
Her eyes widened.
"How dare you?"
My phone was still connected.
Luca's voice suddenly came through the speaker.
"Vanessa."
She froze.
"Luca?"
"Take one more step toward Claire and you'll have to explain it in front of every witness in that house."
Vanessa stared at the phone.
For a brief moment, I thought she might throw it against the wall.
Instead, she laughed.
"You're being ridiculous."
Luca ignored her.
"Claire, Marco's men are coming."
Vanessa stepped aside.
I walked past her with my heart pounding so violently that I could barely breathe.
At the doorway, she leaned toward me.
"That envelope won't save you."
I kept walking.
Within twenty minutes, I was sitting beside Luca in the clinic's private waiting room.
Rex was sleeping more comfortably now.
Dr. Park had assured us that his body temperature was stabilizing.
But Luca barely seemed to hear her.
He was staring at the envelope in his hands.
The paper had yellowed with age.
He broke the seal.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
I turned away, believing he deserved privacy.
"Stay," Luca said quietly.
I looked back.
He unfolded the page.
Then he began reading aloud.
"My son, if you're reading this, someone has finally come looking for the truth about Hawthorne Court."
Luca stopped.
His throat moved.
He forced himself to continue.
"I built much of our family's fortune by trusting men who valued money more than human lives."
The room seemed to grow colder.
"I made mistakes that cannot be erased by charity, apologies, or another generation's silence."
Luca's voice trembled.
"Forty-eight families are living in homes that were supposed to be protected from the people I once called partners."
He glanced at the small notebook.
"The original trust documents are important, but the truth of what happened to those families is even more important."
I watched his face change as he reached the final paragraph.
"Adrian Voss knows enough to destroy what I tried to repair."
Luca lowered the paper.
Neither of us spoke.
Then he read the last sentence.
"If the box is ever stolen, find Lucia Navarro before Carlo Bellini finds her first."
My stomach dropped.
Luca stared at the letter.
For the first time, I saw him truly understand that the theft was only the beginning.
He picked up the notebook.
Inside were names, apartment numbers, and handwritten payment records dating back almost twenty years.
At the bottom of one page, a single sentence had been underlined twice.
The trust belongs to the families, not the men who claim to own them.
Luca slowly closed the notebook.
Then he looked through the glass at Rex.
"My father knew someone would come for those documents."
I nodded.
"And he hid this where Rex would guard it."
Luca pressed the letter against his chest.
For several moments, he looked less like Chicago's most feared mafia boss and more like a son discovering that his father had died with unfinished business.
Then he called Marco.
"Find Lucia tonight."
"Boss, we're still looking."
"Double the search."
There was a pause.
"And what about Mrs. Moretti?"
Luca looked at the muddy wool coat lying beside my chair.
His expression hardened.
"Keep her away from Claire."
He paused.
"And check every entrance to Hawthorne Court."
I heard Marco ask why.
May you like
Luca answered with words I would never forget.
"Because whoever chained my dog outside was trying to open a door my father died keeping shut."
