Chapter 2 - The Truth Hidden In The Driveway
“Vanessa, how many times did Ellen's son come here trying to see his mother—and how many times did you send him away without telling her?”
Luca’s voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
In the mafia world, Luca Moretti never raised his voice when he was truly angry. He only grew quieter.
Vanessa’s pale hands gripped the edges of her red satin gown.
The twenty-eight guests in the dining room were perfectly silent. No one touched their champagne. No one moved.
“Luca,” she stammered, attempting a fragile, victimized smile. “You’re overreacting. He’s an addict. I was protecting our home. Protecting you.”
“Answer the question,” Luca said softly.
Vanessa looked toward the security guards, as if expecting them to intervene on her behalf. But Daniel, the head of security, simply crossed his arms and stared back at her.
“Three times,” she finally whispered.
My heart shattered.
Three times.
Three times my son had stood outside this estate, trying to reach me. Trying to apologize. Trying to show me he was healing. And three times, this woman had turned him away in the cold, leaving me to believe he still didn't care.
Matthew’s hand tightened around mine.
He didn't look angry. He just looked impossibly tired.
“Four times,” Matthew corrected her quietly.
Vanessa’s eyes flashed with sudden, venomous panic. “Don't you dare lie to him! You're a thief and a junkie, and nobody here is going to take your word over mine!”
“Four times,” Matthew repeated, his voice remarkably steady. He looked at Luca, not Vanessa. “The first three times, she told me my mother was ashamed of me. She said if I truly loved my mom, I’d stay away and let her live in peace. So I did.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
“But today was the fourth time.”
I turned to him, confused. “Today? You were here earlier today?”
Matthew nodded slowly, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “At noon. I wanted to drop off the plant early so you wouldn't have to worry about me interrupting the big dinner. But Miss Bellini intercepted me at the delivery gate.”
Vanessa took a step back, her chest heaving. “Luca, he’s making this up to ruin me! He wants a payout!”
“Let him speak,” Teresa Moretti said. The older woman stepped forward, her silver hair catching the chandelier light. She looked at Matthew with a gentle, encouraging nod. “What happened at noon, Matthew?”
My son took a deep breath.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled piece of paper. It wasn't the address to his woodworking shop. It was something else. A receipt of some kind.
“She didn't just tell me to leave,” Matthew said. “She told me she knew my secret. She said if I ever came near my mother again, she would call Child Protective Services and tell them I was using again.”
The entire room seemed to lose its air.
I stared at him. My ears were ringing.
“Child Protective Services?” I whispered, the words feeling foreign in my mouth. “Matthew… what are you talking about?”
Matthew closed his eyes. A single tear escaped, tracking down his cheek.
When he opened them, the fear in his expression was entirely stripped away, replaced by a fierce, desperate kind of love I had never seen in him before.
“Mom,” he choked out, his voice cracking. “I didn't just get sober for myself.”
The floor beneath my feet felt like it was tilting.
“Matthew… do you…”
He nodded, gripping my fingers so tightly it ached.
“Her name is Lily. She’s five years old.”
A grandchild.
I had a grandchild.
For five years, while I had been weeping in my empty house, praying for my lost son, there had been a little girl. A piece of my family.
“Her mother passed away two years ago,” Matthew explained, his voice breaking. “I got custody when I finished rehab. She’s my whole world, Mom. She’s the reason I wake up every day. She’s the reason I learned to make wooden toys, so I could bring them home to her. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to bring her to you so badly. But I was so scared. I wanted to be a man you could be proud of first. I didn't want you to look at her and worry that I was going to ruin her life like I ruined yours.”
I was sobbing now, my hand covering my mouth.
“Oh, my beautiful boy,” I wept. “You could never ruin anything for me.”
Vanessa let out a sharp, cruel laugh. “Oh, please! This is a manipulative sob story! He’s using a child to get sympathy because he knows he’s a criminal!”
Luca’s expression was terrifyingly calm. He stepped closer to his fiancée.
“You threatened to take a man’s child away,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a lethal register. “You threatened to use the state to steal a little girl from a father who has fought for his life to get clean. Just to keep a maid from being distracted at your engagement party?”
“She’s not just a maid!” Vanessa snapped, losing her composure entirely. “She’s a liability! And he’s trash! You think he’s changed? Once a junkie, always a junkie!”
“Where is she?” I asked, ignoring Vanessa entirely. I grabbed Matthew’s arms. “Matthew, where is my granddaughter?”
Matthew looked toward the tall, arched windows of the dining room. Outside, the rain had begun to fall, sweeping across the dark estate grounds.
“I couldn't leave her at home,” he whispered. “I couldn't afford a babysitter. And after what Miss Bellini threatened today… I was terrified to let her out of my sight.”
He looked back at me, his eyes wide with a frantic, protective panic.
“Mom, she’s out there. Right now. I left her in my truck parked outside the main security gate. I told her I’d only be five minutes to give you the plant.”
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Luca immediately turned to his head of security.
“Daniel,” Luca commanded. “Bring the truck through the gates. Now.”
