Chapter 6 - THE GHOSTS WE HIDE IN OUR APRON POCKETS
Luca stared at the photograph.
His dark eyes flicked from my husband’s smiling face to Vanessa’s cold one.
“Who was he?” Luca asked.
“His name was David,” I said, my voice barely holding together. “He was an accountant for Bellini Industries. Vanessa’s father’s company.”
The concrete walls of the safe house felt like they were closing in.
“Four years ago, David found out Vanessa was embezzling company funds to pay off her gambling debts,” I explained. “Millions of dollars. She was draining her own family’s empire.”
Luca’s expression hardened. “And he confronted her.”
“He threatened to go to her father.” I wiped a tear from my cheek. “Two days later, David was killed in a hit-and-run. The police said it was a tragic accident. But the car that hit him was traced to a shell company.”
I pointed at Vanessa’s face in the photo.
“A shell company registered in Vanessa’s maiden name.”
Luca slowly handed the photograph back to me.
Everything clicked into place.
Vanessa hadn’t just bankrupted her family. She had murdered my husband to cover it up, and then set her sights on the Moretti wealth to save herself from ruin.
“Why did you come to work at my estate?” Luca asked.
“To find proof,” I admitted. “I knew she was circling you. I got hired as a housekeeper so I could search her things. But then she killed your mother, and I got terrified for Leo.”
Luca looked at my six-year-old son, who was sleeping on a leather sofa nearby.
“You’re not a scared housekeeper, Rebecca,” Luca said softly. “You’re a mother hunting a killer.”
He pulled his phone out.
“If we go to the police, Vanessa’s lawyers will tie it up for years. She’ll slip away.”
“So what do we do?”
“We play her game. But we rig the board.”
Luca made a call.
“Bring Teresa to the estate,” he ordered his men. “And unlock the main vault. Let Vanessa think she has full access.”
He hung up and looked at me.
“You said you wanted to help?”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa needs my signature to sell those deeds,” Luca said. “She’ll try to forge it, but the buyer won’t accept it without a witness.”
He handed me a small, hidden earpiece.
“You’re going back to the estate, Rebecca. You’re going to be her witness.”
My breath caught. “She’ll kill me when it’s done.”
“She won’t get the chance. My men will be listening. The second she admits to the forgery, we move in.”
An hour later, I was back in my housekeeper uniform.
My bandaged arm throbbed, but my mind was violently clear.
I walked through the back entrance of the Moretti estate.
The house was eerily silent.
I found Vanessa in the library.
She was standing over Luca’s desk, aggressively stamping a wax seal onto a stack of property deeds.
She looked up. Her eyes narrowed into slits.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped. “You were dismissed.”
“I left my coat, Miss Bellini,” I said, keeping my head bowed.
She stared at me for a long moment.
Then, a wicked, calculated smile spread across her face.
“Actually, Rebecca. You’re exactly who I need.”
She picked up a heavy fountain pen and held it out to me.
“Luca had an emergency in the city. He asked me to finalize these property transfers. But the notary requires a witness signature.”
I stepped forward.
My heart pounded against my ribs.
“I don’t think I should sign legal documents, ma’am.”
“You’ll sign them if you want to keep your miserable life,” she hissed, dropping the sweet act completely.
She grabbed my injured arm, digging her manicured nails directly into my fresh stitches.
I gasped in pain.
“Sign the paper,” she whispered.
I picked up the pen.
I looked down at the document.
The buyer’s name wasn’t a corporation.
It was a person.
May you like
Lorenzo Romano.
TITLE: THE DEVIL WORE A RED SILK GOWN
