Chapter 5 - THE COAT IN THE SERVANT'S HALLWAY
I scrambled out of the fake squad car, my mind struggling to process the impossible sight before me.
“Leo!” I cried, dropping to my knees and pulling the six-year-old boy into a desperate hug.
“Auntie Olivia!” Leo sobbed, burying his face in my shoulder.
I looked up at Elias Thorne.
The man who was supposed to be dead two years ago looked exactly like the driver from the delivery truck, but up close, the weariness in his eyes was profound.
“I’m sorry to frighten you, Olivia,” Elias said, his voice deep and raspy. “But it was the only way to get you and the boy out of Vanessa’s reach.”
I stood up, holding Leo tightly behind me. I glared at Daniel.
“You work for him?” I demanded, pointing at the head of security. “You betrayed Luca?”
“I didn’t betray Luca,” Daniel said firmly. “I’m trying to save him. Vanessa bought the police captain two days ago. If you had gone to the precinct, she would have had you killed in holding to tie up loose ends.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, looking at Elias. “If you’re alive, why did you let Luca mourn you? Why are you hiding?”
Elias sighed, walking toward a small, dimly lit office in the back of the warehouse. He gestured for us to follow.
“Because Vanessa tried to kill me two years ago,” Elias explained as we walked. “She tampered with my car. When it crashed and burned, I barely made it out alive. I realized someone inside the family was moving against us.”
“Why didn’t you tell Luca?”
“Because I didn’t know who the traitor was,” Elias said, leaning against a rusted desk. “Until three weeks ago. I found out Vanessa wasn’t just a gold-digging fiancée. She was working for the Russian syndicate. They sent her to infiltrate Luca’s life, destroy his empire from the inside, and seize his assets.”
My stomach plummeted.
“She killed Michael to pave the way,” Daniel added grimly. “Michael figured out she was a Russian plant. He was going to expose her. She murdered him and stole his watch as proof for her bosses.”
The pieces fell into place with sickening clarity.
Vanessa hadn’t just broken a vase to humiliate me. She was methodically dismantling everything Luca loved, removing his allies, and isolating him so she could take over.
“But the black notebook,” I realized, remembering the auction. “You bought it. Why did she sell it?”
Elias pulled the black leather notebook from his heavy coat pocket.
“She didn’t sell it for money,” Elias said. “She sold it because she thought it was encrypted with my old access codes. She wanted the Russians to crack it and drain the Moretti offshore accounts.”
He tossed the notebook onto the desk.
“But it wasn’t my notebook,” Elias smiled grimly. “It belonged to Luca’s father. And it’s completely useless to her. The real ledger—the one that proves she’s a Russian agent, the one Michael hid before he died—is still inside Luca’s mansion.”
I froze.
“Inside the mansion?”
“Yes,” Elias said, looking directly at me. “Michael told me he hid it in a place only someone who understands history would ever look. I need you to go back in, Olivia. You know that house better than anyone.”
“Are you insane?!” I gasped. “The police are swarming the estate! Vanessa is there!”
“The police will leave by dawn,” Daniel assured me. “Vanessa will think she’s won. She’ll let her guard down. I can get you through the servant’s entrance undetected.”
“I’m not a spy!” I cried, tears welling in my eyes. “I’m a maid! I have a brother who depends on me. I can’t risk going to prison!”
Elias stepped forward. The hardened mobster looked at me with genuine, desperate pleading in his eyes.
“Olivia. Luca is sitting in a federal holding cell right now. By tomorrow night, Vanessa’s people in the prison will murder him, making it look like a suicide out of guilt for his brother’s death.”
I stopped breathing.
“If we don’t find that ledger today,” Elias whispered, “Luca dies. And Vanessa takes everything.”
I looked down at Leo. The little boy was gripping my apron, completely terrified, completely innocent.
Luca had been the only person in that house who treated me with dignity. He had knelt on the floor to help me pick up broken porcelain.
I couldn’t let him die.
“Okay,” I said, my voice shaking but resolute. “What am I looking for?”
Three hours later, the sun began to rise over Chicago.
Daniel had smuggled me through the underground delivery tunnels into the servant’s wing of the Moretti estate.
The house was eerily silent. The police had finished their sweep and left.
I crept down the hallway in my dark clothes, my heart pounding so loudly I thought it would wake the dead.
I needed to search the library.
As I passed the hallway closet near the kitchen, a faint, buzzing sound stopped me in my tracks.
It was coming from inside the closet.
I slowly turned the brass knob and pulled the door open.
Hanging among the winter coats was a pristine white trench coat. Vanessa’s coat.
The buzzing was coming from the pocket.
I reached inside and pulled out a cheap, plastic burner phone.
I shouldn’t have answered it. I should have kept moving.
But I pressed the green button and held it to my ear.
“Vanessa,” a man’s voice spoke in a thick, heavy Russian accent. “The police transfer is scheduled for 8:00 PM. We have a guard on the inside. Luca Moretti will not live to see tomorrow.”
I covered my mouth to muffle my gasp.
“But there is a complication,” the Russian continued.
“What complication?” I whispered, trying to mimic Vanessa’s haughty tone.
The man on the other end paused.
“You are not Vanessa,” the voice said coldly.
Before I could hang up, the man said something that made my blood freeze.
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“Tell the little maid that if she doesn't surrender herself to the front gate in ten minutes, we will burn down her brother's apartment building. He is sleeping very soundly right now.”
TITLE: The Voice On The Burner Phone
