Chapter 7 - THE STOLEN RING
The ring slipped off Vanessa’s finger with a sickening scrape, leaving a red welt across her knuckle.
She let out a sharp cry, clutching her bare hand to her chest.
“Luca, stop! You’re hurting me!” she gasped, her eyes darting between him and the stairway.
Luca held the ring up to the dim attic light.
He looked at the three-carat center stone. Then he looked at the empty vintage setting in the plastic bag.
“It was her diamond,” Luca whispered, his voice trembling with a rage so deep it barely sounded human. “You took the stone from Elena’s wedding ring. The one I searched the hospital for for three days.”
Vanessa backed away, hitting the wall. The victim act evaporated. Cornered, she reverted to pure venom.
“She didn’t need it anymore!” Vanessa spat, tears of frustration streaming down her face. “She was a corpse, Luca! I’m alive! I was the one holding your hand at the funeral. I was the one who fixed this house when you were too drunk to get out of bed! I earned it!”
Luca stepped toward her. The sheer menace in his posture made her press flat against the cedar planks.
“You earned nothing,” he said, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. “You sedated my dying wife so she couldn't speak to me. You kept her trapped in a fog while you robbed her.”
“She was arrogant!” Vanessa screamed back, desperate. “She thought she was untouchable because she had money! She wouldn't give me a dime to save my life!”
“So you took hers,” Teresa said coldly from the top of the stairs.
Vanessa snapped her head toward the older woman.
“You brought me into this house, you old hag!” Vanessa sneered. “You hired me! You were too busy traveling to Europe to sit by your own daughter-in-law's deathbed!”
Teresa didn’t flinch. “And I will live with that guilt for the rest of my life. But you won't live in this house for another second.”
Luca turned back to Vanessa.
“Get out.”
Vanessa stared at him. “What?”
“Get out of my house,” Luca said, his voice hollow. “Don’t pack your bags. Don’t go to your room. Walk down those stairs, walk out the front door, and never come near my family again.”
Vanessa’s face twisted into an ugly sneer.
She looked at me, sitting on the floor holding my bruised ribs.
“You think you won?” she hissed at me. “You think you’re a hero? My brother is making a phone call tonight, Rachel. Your sister is going to wish you had minded your own business.”
My heart plummeted into my stomach.
I had exposed Vanessa, but the cost was going to be my family’s safety.
“Your brother won’t be making any phone calls,” Luca said quietly.
Vanessa snapped her attention back to him.
“You don't know who my family is, Luca. You can't touch him.”
Luca pulled out his cell phone.
He didn't dial a number. He just pressed a single button on his speed dial.
“Marcus,” Luca said into the phone.
I recognized the name. Marcus was Luca’s head of security, a former federal agent who usually stayed at the gates.
“Vanessa is leaving,” Luca said, his eyes locked on her. “I want you to escort her off the property. Then, I want you to call the district attorney. Tell him I have physical evidence of elder abuse, theft, and unauthorized chemical restraint by a licensed medical professional.”
Vanessa’s face went paper white.
“Luca, no—”
“And tell him,” Luca continued, cutting her off, “that if the parole board member who happens to be her brother grants early release to an inmate named…” He paused, looking at me.
“Thomas,” I whispered.
“An inmate named Thomas,” Luca finished into the phone, “I will personally fund a private investigation into every bank account her brother has ever owned.”
Luca hung up the phone.
He looked at Vanessa.
“Your brother is going to disown you by midnight to save his own pension. You have nothing.”
Vanessa stood shaking. Her leverage was gone. Her diamond was gone. Her future was gone.
For a second, I thought she was going to attack him. Her hands balled into fists.
But then she looked at Emma, who was standing behind Teresa, clutching the sleeve of her pink sweater.
Vanessa’s lips curled into a nasty, vindictive smile.
“You think you’re so smart, Luca,” she whispered. “But you don't even know what you’ve already lost.”
Luca frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Did you really think I spent eight months in this house just trying on her clothes?” Vanessa laughed dryly. “I had a lot of free time while you were at the office. And Elena had a lot of secrets.”
She walked toward the stairs, stepping over the shattered mirror.
As she passed me, she leaned down and whispered so only I could hear.
“Check the safety deposit box at First National, Rachel. Ask yourself why Elena never told him the truth about you.”
Answer one: Vanessa was gone. The immediate threat was neutralized.
Open two: What did Elena hide in the bank? And what did it have to do with me?
Vanessa walked past Luca, past Teresa, and disappeared down the dark stairs.
A moment later, we heard the heavy front door slam shut, echoing through the massive house.
The silence that followed was heavy, like the air after a violent thunderstorm.
Luca stood perfectly still for a long time. Then, his shoulders collapsed. The fierce protector vanished, leaving behind a broken, exhausted man.
He dropped to his knees on the dusty floorboards.
He covered his face with his hands, and a terrible, wrenching sob tore from his throat.
He was crying for the wife he couldn't save, and the daughter he had almost failed.
Emma didn't hesitate.
She ran across the attic, her pink sweater flapping, and threw her arms around her father’s neck.
“I’m here, Daddy,” she cried, pressing her small face against his wet cheek. “I’m here. We don't have to pack the room anymore.”
Luca wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the soft pink yarn of the sweater Elena had made.
“Never,” he choked out, holding her tight. “We’re never packing it. I promise.”
I watched them, tears blurring my vision.
The main nightmare was over. The house was theirs again.
May you like
But as I touched the letter in my apron pocket, Vanessa’s final words echoed in my mind.
Ask yourself why Elena never told him the truth about you.
