A Silver Pin and a Shattered Trust

Panic, sharp and blinding, clawed at Luca’s throat.

He crushed the drawing in his fist and sprinted out of the bedroom. He didn't yell for security—if Vanessa had people inside the house, raising an alarm might put Leo in immediate danger. He needed to find his son quietly.

He checked the adjacent playrooms, the bathrooms, the third-floor balcony. Nothing.

Then, he noticed a faint beam of light spilling from beneath the doors of the private library on the second floor.

Luca drew the heavy silver flashlight from the security box in the hall, gripping it like a weapon. He eased the library door open.

The massive room was silent, lined with thousands of leather-bound books. But in the far corner, near the fireplace, someone was sitting on the floor.

It was Leo.

The boy was curled into a tight ball beneath his father’s oak desk, clutching a beautiful, antique silver rosary to his chest.

“Leo,” Luca breathed, dropping to his knees and sliding under the desk. He pulled his son into his arms. The boy was trembling violently. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

“Daddy,” Leo whispered, his voice thick with tears. “She came into my room.”

“Was it Vanessa?” Luca asked, his heart pounding.

Leo shook his head, burying his face in Luca’s neck. “No. It was the lady who smells like peppermints. She said I had to come with her because you didn't want me anymore.”

Luca’s blood ran cold. The lady who smells like peppermints.

Maria.

His former housekeeper, Maria, used to keep peppermint candies in her apron pockets. Leo remembered the smell from when he was an infant. Maria was in the house tonight.

“Where did she go, Leo?” Luca asked urgently.

“She heard a noise and ran away,” Leo sniffled, holding up the silver rosary. “She dropped this.”

Luca recognized the rosary instantly. It had belonged to Anna. It was the exact rosary that had supposedly been lost in the wreckage of the car crash that took her life.

Maria had been at the crash site. Or worse, she had orchestrated it.

Before Luca could process the horror of that thought, a piercing scream echoed up from the first floor.

It came from the staff quarters.

Grace.

Luca scooped Leo into his arms. “Hold on tight,” he ordered. He bolted out of the library, sprinting toward the back stairwell. The engagement party in the dining room was completely oblivious to the nightmare unfolding in the wings of the house.

He reached the staff corridor just in time to see a woman in a dark coat trying to drag Grace out the back service door.

Grace was fighting fiercely, using her good arm to push the woman away.