Chapter 3 - THE BLOOD ON THE SILVER CLASP
The dining room descended into absolute pandemonium.
Several guests cried out, scrambling backward from their chairs, eager to put as much distance between themselves and the man pinned by Luca’s security guards.
I stared at the silver hummingbird charm dangling from Luca’s hand.
Blood.
My mother had died in a hit-and-run accident ten years ago. I had been wearing her bracelet the night I was fired from the hotel. There had been no blood on it then.
“What do you mean, blood?” I choked out, stepping forward despite my trembling legs.
Luca didn’t look at me. His dark, furious eyes remained locked on Marcus.
“There is dried blood caught inside the hinge of the clasp,” Luca said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. “And unless you cut yourself putting it in your pocket, Marcus, I want to know exactly whose it is.”
Marcus struggled against the two massive guards holding him, but their grip was ironclad.
“It’s a misunderstanding, Luca,” Marcus spat, his sophisticated veneer completely shattering. “I bought that bracelet at a pawn shop! I was going to give it to my niece!”
“You bought a broken, bloodstained bracelet for your niece?” Luca asked. He didn’t raise his voice, but the terrifying calm in his tone made the hair on my arms stand up.
Vanessa stepped forward, her hands raised in a frantic, placating gesture.
“Luca, please,” she begged, her voice pitching high with panic. “He’s telling the truth! We were looking for a gift together. Hannah is just trying to ruin this evening because she’s jealous!”
Luca slowly turned his head to look at his fiancée.
“You went to a pawn shop with Marcus?” Luca asked softly.
Vanessa swallowed hard, realizing her mistake. “I… yes. We bumped into each other downtown.”
“When?”
“Tuesday,” she lied smoothly.
Luca’s expression didn’t change. He held up the silver bracelet.
“Hannah,” Luca said, his eyes still fixed on Vanessa. “When exactly was the night you were fired from the hotel? The night this bracelet was ripped from your wrist.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart.
“It was exactly six months ago, sir. October fourteenth.”
Luca looked back at Vanessa.
“If she lost it six months ago, and Marcus bought it on Tuesday…” Luca tilted his head. “Why did Marcus use this exact bracelet to secure a loan from our private accountant three months ago?”
The color drained entirely from Vanessa’s face.
Marcus went completely rigid.
“You thought I wouldn’t notice a piece of collateral logged into my own family’s vault?” Luca asked, stepping closer to his second-in-command. “I saw the photograph in the ledger. I recognized the hummingbird. I just didn’t know who it belonged to. Until tonight.”
Luca walked back toward the head of the table, leaving Marcus in the grip of the guards.
He stopped in front of me. The terrifying mob boss who had just dismantled his lieutenant’s alibi looked down at me with an expression of profound, agonizing regret.
“Hannah,” Luca said gently, holding the bracelet out to me. “I am deeply sorry this was taken from you.”
I reached out with shaking fingers and took the cold silver metal. I ran my thumb over the tiny hummingbird charm. It felt exactly as I remembered. But as I turned the clasp over, I saw the dark, rust-colored stain wedged deep inside the tiny hinge.
It wasn’t fresh. It was old blood.
“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered, looking up at him. “Why is there blood on it?”
Before Luca could answer, Marcus let out a harsh, bitter laugh.
“Tell her, Luca,” Marcus sneered, thrashing against the guards. “Tell the little maid the truth. You’re so desperate to play the hero tonight. Tell her why her precious mother’s bracelet has blood on it!”
Luca spun around. “Shut your mouth, Marcus.”
“Why not?” Marcus shouted, his eyes wide and manic. “She’s going to find out anyway! You think bringing her into your house was going to keep the secret buried forever?”
My stomach plummeted into my shoes.
I looked at Luca. His face was pale. The fierce protector from a moment ago suddenly looked like a man standing on the edge of a cliff.
“You knew?” I breathed, stepping backward. “You knew who I was when you hired me?”
Vanessa let out a sharp, triumphant laugh. She walked around the table, the burgundy silk of her dress dragging across the floor.
“Of course he knew, you stupid girl,” Vanessa mocked, her eyes blazing with cruel satisfaction. “Did you really think the great Luca Moretti randomly selected a hotel maid to work in his multi-million dollar estate? Did you think you were special?”
“Vanessa, that’s enough,” Luca warned, his voice cracking with a terrifying anger.
“No, let her hear it!” Vanessa screamed, pointing a manicured finger at me. “She thinks you’re her savior! She thinks you care about her!”
Vanessa turned to me, her smile twisting into something ugly and vicious.
“Your mother didn’t die in a random hit-and-run accident ten years ago, Hannah,” Vanessa spat. “She was murdered. And the car that hit her was registered to the Moretti family.”
The dining room vanished. The crystal chandeliers, the wealthy guests, the guards—everything dissolved into a sickening, ringing static in my ears.
My mother. Her bright smile. The way she smelled like vanilla and cheap laundry detergent. The night the police knocked on our door and told me and my little sister that she was gone.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head violently. “No, they said it was a drunk driver. They said they never found the car.”
“Because Luca’s father paid the police chief to destroy the evidence,” Marcus yelled from across the room. “Antonio Moretti ordered the hit, and I drove the car!”
My knees gave out.
I collapsed onto the marble floor, the silver bracelet slipping from my hands and clattering loudly against the stone.
“Hannah!” Luca shouted, dropping to his knees beside me. He reached out to grab my shoulders, his dark eyes filled with absolute, devastating panic.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed, shoving his hands away with a strength I didn’t know I possessed.
I scrambled backward on the floor, pressing my back against the heavy mahogany legs of the dining table. My chest heaved. I couldn’t pull enough air into my lungs.
The man who had given me a job, the man who had just defended my honor in front of forty guests… was the heir to the family that had slaughtered my mother.
“Hannah, please listen to me,” Luca begged, his voice breaking. He stayed on his knees, refusing to tower over me. “I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know until the night you were fired from the hotel.”
I stared at him through a blur of hot, furious tears.
“You brought me into this house,” I sobbed, my voice echoing in the dead-silent room. “I cooked your food. I cleaned your floors. I washed the clothes of the men who murdered my mother.”
“I brought you here to protect you!” Luca yelled, his own tears finally spilling over. “When I found out what Marcus did, when I realized my father ordered the hit… I knew they would eventually come for you to tie up loose ends. I hired you so I could put a wall of security between you and the men who wanted you dead!”
“By lying to me?!” I screamed back.
“By keeping you alive!” Luca countered, his chest heaving with desperate emotion.
Vanessa laughed again. It was a cold, heartless sound.
“How romantic,” Vanessa sneered. “The mafia prince saving the poor little orphan. But you forgot one crucial detail, Luca.”
Luca slowly stood up, turning to face his fiancée. His eyes were entirely black. The grief was gone, replaced by a lethal, simmering violence.
“What detail, Vanessa?” Luca asked quietly.
Vanessa reached into her small, crystal-studded evening clutch.
She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. Not a letter. A receipt.
“You thought bringing her here would keep her safe,” Vanessa smiled wickedly. “But you didn’t protect her little sister.”
My heart stopped completely.
My little sister, Lily. She was nineteen, away at her first year of college in a dorm three hours away. I worked this job to pay her tuition.
“What did you do?” I whispered, scrambling to my feet.
Vanessa tossed the crumpled receipt onto the dining table.
“Marcus and I didn’t just meet at the hotel to discuss the ledger,” Vanessa said, looking directly at Luca. “We met there to arrange a pickup. And according to the text I received five minutes ago, my men just checked your precious little sister out of her dormitory.”
Vanessa smiled, a terrifying, victorious smirk.
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“She’s in the trunk of a car right now, Hannah. And if Luca doesn’t give us the codes to the main vault in the next ten minutes, she’s going to join your mother.”
TITLE: The Receipt On The Mahogany Table
