Chapter 6 - THE GHOST IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
The silence in my small bedroom felt suffocating.
Luca couldn’t look away from the photograph. His thumbs were gripping the glossy edges so tightly his knuckles had turned white.
“Where did you get this?” Luca asked. His voice was a hollow, terrifying whisper.
“I’ve never seen it before,” I said quickly, my heart hammering in my throat. “I swear. Whoever stole my money and put it back must have slipped it inside the envelope.”
Teresa leaned heavily heavily on her cane, peering over Luca’s arm. When her eyes focused on the image of her late husband holding hands with Vanessa, she didn’t scream. She didn't cry.
Instead, a chilling calmness settled over her face.
“August 14th,” Teresa murmured, her voice steady. “The day Antonio told me he was flying to New York on business. He said it was a private trip. Just him and his accountant.”
Luca looked at his mother. The betrayal written on his face was agonizing.
“Vanessa’s father was the accountant,” Luca realized aloud, the puzzle pieces clicking together in real time.
The Bellini family hadn't just arranged a marriage to merge two powerful families. They had been deeply, intimately involved with Antonio Moretti in the weeks before his death.
And Vanessa, who claimed to have met Luca only two years ago at a charity gala, had known his father years earlier.
“She planted the envelope,” Luca said, his voice growing dangerously cold. “She wanted security to find the cash and the train ticket to frame Rachel. But she didn't realize she had accidentally slipped her own photograph inside when she was rushing to hide her tracks.”
He looked at me. The terrifying mob boss who had just kicked down my door was gone. In his place was a man who realized he had almost exiled the only innocent person left in his house.
“Rachel,” Luca swallowed hard, the apology unspoken but heavy in the air. “I’m sorry.”
Before I could answer, the radio clipped to Luca’s belt crackled to life.
“Boss,” Daniel’s voice buzzed through the static. “We have a problem at the front gate.”
Luca grabbed the radio. “Did she try to leave?”
“No,” Daniel replied. “She’s sitting in her car. Refusing to move. But there are three black SUVs pulling up to the perimeter. They’re Bellini men. heavily armed. They’re demanding we let Vanessa go with her belongings.”
Luca’s jaw clamped shut. “Lock the gate. Nobody gets in. Bring Vanessa to the main study. Now.”
He turned off the radio and looked at his mother. “Mom, stay here with Leo and Rachel. Keep the door locked.”
“No,” Teresa said firmly.
Luca frowned. “Mom, this isn’t safe.”
“That woman spent the last six months making me feel like a burden in my own home,” Teresa said, her voice laced with steel. She gripped her cane tightly. “She terrorized my grandson. She tried to frame this girl. I am going to the study, Luca. Because I want to look her in the eye when she explains what she was doing with my husband.”
Luca stared at his mother. For the first time all evening, a tiny, proud smile ghosted across his lips.
“Okay,” he nodded. “Rachel, keep Leo here.”
I knelt down in front of the little boy, who was still clutching his torn drawing. “Come on, Leo. Let’s read a book.”
But Leo shook his head. His small hands grabbed Luca’s pant leg.
“Don't leave me,” Leo whispered. “Vanessa said if I stayed in this house, the bad men would come take me away.”
Luca knelt down, his suit pants pressing into the cheap rug. He took Leo’s small face in his hands.
“Listen to me, buddy,” Luca said, his voice thick with emotion. “Nobody is ever taking you away. You are a Moretti. This is your house. And I promise you, Vanessa will never scare you again.”
Luca stood up, picked up his mother’s arm to support her, and the two of them walked down the hallway toward the main study.
I stayed in the room with Leo. We sat on the bed. I tried to read him a story, but my hands were shaking too much to turn the pages.
Ten minutes passed.
Then, twenty.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the front of the house. It sounded like shattering glass.
Leo jumped, burying his face into my shoulder.
I wrapped my arms around him, my heart racing. I remembered the heavy gold pocket watch still hidden in my apron pocket. The key to the vault. The object Vanessa’s father was sending armed men to retrieve.
I couldn't just sit here waiting. If those men broke through the gates, the study would be the first place they went.
“Leo,” I whispered, lifting the boy into my arms. “We’re going to go for a little walk, okay? We’re going to find a really good hiding spot.”
I carried him down the back service hallway, moving quickly through the shadows. We reached the heavy oak door that led into the library, adjacent to the study.
Through the adjoining doors, I could hear shouting.
“I didn't kill him!” Vanessa’s voice screamed hysterically. “He was already dying, Luca! He had cancer! He told my father everything!”
I froze, clutching Leo tighter.
“My father didn't steal the money!” Vanessa sobbed loudly. “Antonio hid it! He hid it to protect it from the Commission! And he promised my father half of it if we helped him fake his death!”
My blood ran cold.
Fake his death?
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“You’re lying,” Luca’s voice boomed, rattling the walls.
“Am I?” Vanessa laughed, a wild, hysterical sound. “Then ask your perfect mother, Luca! Ask her why Antonio really left the heirloom necklace to the boy. Ask her whose child Leo actually is!”
