Chapter 4 - THE STAIRS BENEATH THE MANSION
The heavy iron key lay on the floor between us.
Nobody moved.
Then Luca stepped forward and picked it up.
He didn't say a word to Vanessa. He just walked past her, out the library doors, and headed straight for the grand staircase leading to the basement.
“Mr. Moretti, wait!” I called out, running after him.
Teresa struggled to stand. “Hannah, please. Bring my grandson back.”
“I will, Mrs. Moretti,” I promised, leaving her in the safety of the library as I chased after Luca.
The basement of the Moretti mansion was massive, a sprawling labyrinth of storage rooms, mechanical equipment, and the original wine cellar built in the 1920s.
It was cold. And it was completely silent.
Luca reached the heavy oak door of the wine cellar.
He slid the iron key into the antique lock.
It turned with a loud, metallic click.
He pushed the door open, reaching for the light switch.
The dim, yellow bulbs flickered to life, illuminating rows of dusty wine racks.
At the very back of the room, sitting on a wooden crate, was a small boy.
He was wearing a torn blue sweater.
He had a nasty bruise on his cheek, and a small cut on his elbow that had bled onto his sleeve.
“Leo!” Luca shouted, rushing forward.
The ten-year-old boy looked up. His eyes were wide with terror, but he didn't cry.
“Uncle Luca,” Leo whispered.
Luca fell to his knees, pulling the boy into a tight embrace.
“Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”
Leo shook his head slowly. “She just locked me in here. She said if I made a sound, she would send Grandma away to a place where we could never visit her.”
My heart broke.
I walked over and gently touched Leo’s shoulder. “You’re safe now, sweetie.”
Leo looked up at me. Then he looked at Luca.
“Where is my dad?” Leo asked.
Luca’s expression tightened. “He’s… he had to step away for a minute. We’re going to find him.”
Leo reached into his pocket.
“Dad told me to give you this if he didn't come back.”
The boy pulled out a small, folded piece of paper.
Luca took it. He unfolded it under the dim cellar light.
I watched his face go completely still.
“What is it?” I asked.
Luca didn't answer. He just handed the paper to me.
It was a bank transfer receipt.
Dated yesterday.
Five million dollars had been transferred from the Moretti estate trust into an offshore account.
And the signature authorizing the transfer belonged to Michael Moretti.
“Michael stole from the trust?” I whispered, unable to believe it.
“No,” Luca said softly. “Michael didn't steal it.”
He pointed to a handwritten note scribbled on the back of the receipt.
“Luca. She found out about the money I borrowed to keep my wife’s clinic open. She said if I didn't sign the trust transfer to her offshore account, she would show you the records and have me disinherited. When I refused, she took Leo.”
The pieces fell into place with terrifying clarity.
Vanessa hadn't just been planning to commit Teresa.
She was systematically blackmailing Michael to drain the family’s wealth before the wedding. She knew Luca would never sign over the accounts himself, so she used Michael’s one moment of weakness to force his hand.
“She’s stealing everything,” I whispered.
Luca stood up, his eyes burning with a rage I had never seen before.
“Take Leo upstairs. Keep him with my mother.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make Vanessa tell me where my brother is.”
I took Leo’s hand and led him up the stairs.
But when we reached the main floor, the library doors were wide open.
And the room was empty.
Teresa was gone.
Vanessa was gone.
The gray-haired man was gone.
“Mrs. Moretti!” I shouted, running into the hallway.
The mansion was completely silent. The engagement guests had already fled when the shouting began.
I ran to the front door. It was wide open, the cold Chicago wind blowing snow into the foyer.
On the marble floor, just inside the doorway, lay Teresa’s thick wool cardigan.
And pinned to the fabric was a note.
“The marriage certificate for the trust transfer. Tomorrow at 9 AM. Or your mother goes to Sunset Pines, and your brother goes to the morgue.”
Luca came up the stairs behind me.
He saw the open door.
He saw the cardigan.
And for the first time since I had met him, the powerful, unshakable mafia boss looked completely terrified.
Because Vanessa didn't just want the money.
She wanted the entire empire.
And she had just taken the only person Luca loved more than his own life.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said, my voice trembling as I picked up the cardigan.
A small, heavy object fell from the pocket and clattered onto the floor.
It wasn't a key.
It was a silver locket.
Teresa never took it off.
I opened the clasp.
Inside wasn't a picture of Luca, or Michael, or even her late husband.
It was a photograph of a woman I had never seen before.
May you like
And written on the back of the photo were three words:
“Vanessa’s real name.”
