Chapter 3 - THE BRACELET WAS NEVER HERS
The two guards stepped into the chapel.
They were big men. Ex-military.
Men who worked exclusively for the Bellini family, not the Morettis.
“Stop right there,” Luca said.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it stopped the men dead in their tracks.
Vanessa’s smile tightened.
“Darling, please. Let them do their jobs. My diamond bracelet went missing right after she served dessert. I knew she was desperate for money.”
She took a step closer, her heels clicking against the stone floor.
“A maid who complains about her wages is always the first suspect.”
I stood frozen.
I had seventy-one dollars to my name.
I was wearing a uniform that I had mended myself three times.
But I wasn’t a thief.
Luca stepped directly in front of me.
He shielded me completely from the guards.
“She didn’t steal your bracelet, Vanessa.”
“How can you be so sure?” she challenged, her eyes narrowing. “You’ve always had a blind spot for the help.”
“Because,” Luca said coldly, “she’s been with me since she left the dining room.”
Vanessa’s expression flickered.
She hadn’t expected that.
She thought he had just come to the chapel alone to inspect the damage.
She looked at me, standing slightly behind Luca’s broad shoulders.
Her eyes dropped to my hands.
Then to my apron pocket.
She was looking for the bulge of the silver watch.
She knew.
She didn’t care about a missing bracelet.
She knew the window had cracked, and she suspected the watch had fallen out.
This was a shakedown.
“Even so,” Vanessa said, recovering quickly. “I’d feel better if they just checked her pockets. For my own peace of mind.”
She nodded at the guards.
One of them took a step forward.
Before the man’s foot could hit the floor, Luca reached inside his jacket.
He didn’t pull a weapon.
He pulled out a small, glittering object.
He tossed it onto the nearest wooden pew.
It landed with a soft clink.
Vanessa gasped.
It was a diamond tennis bracelet.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Luca asked.
Vanessa stared at the diamonds shining against the dark wood.
Her face went completely pale.
“Where… where did you find that?”
“In your bedroom,” Luca said quietly. “Under your pillow. Before I came out here.”
The chapel was dead silent.
I looked at Luca in shock.
He had known she was setting a trap before he even walked out the door.
Vanessa swallowed hard.
“I… I must have misplaced it. I was so exhausted from the dinner.”
“You misplaced it,” Luca repeated.
He took a slow step toward her.
“Just like you misplaced my mother’s memorial plaque?”
Vanessa backed up a step.
The guards looked at each other, unsure of what to do.
They were Bellini men, but they were standing in Luca Moretti’s territory.
“The wedding planner said the stone clashed with the floral arrangements,” Vanessa lied smoothly, though her voice shook. “I was going to surprise you with a new one.”
“A new one,” Luca said.
He wasn’t yelling. It would have been less terrifying if he were.
“And the stained glass? The one my father commissioned?”
“It was cracked,” Vanessa insisted. “It was a hazard.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“A hazard.”
He reached into his pocket.
My breath caught.
I thought he was going to pull out the silver watch. I thought he was going to show her the bank receipt and end the engagement right there.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Luca pulled out a black velvet coat.
It was a man’s coat.
He threw it at Vanessa’s feet.
“Then why was this in the trunk of your car, Vanessa?”
Vanessa looked down at the coat.
All the color drained from her face.
She looked like she was going to be sick.
I recognized the coat.
I had seen it earlier this week, hanging in the mudroom.
It smelled strongly of cheap, sweet cigar smoke.
“I don’t know what that is,” Vanessa whispered.
“It belongs to Victor Thorne,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “The man you’re selling my mother’s window to tonight.”
Vanessa’s eyes darted to the guards.
She was trapped.
And she knew it.
“You’re crazy,” she choked out. “Victor Thorne has been dead for twelve years.”
“Then he must be very cold,” Luca said. “Because he left this coat in my house.”
He stepped closer to her.
“The engagement is over, Vanessa. Take your men. Take your ring. Get out of my house before I have you thrown out.”
Vanessa stood frozen.
Tears of humiliation welled in her eyes.
She looked at the coat, then at Luca, and finally at me.
The hatred in her expression was pure venom.
She reached for her left hand and yanked the massive diamond engagement ring off her finger.
She threw it hard.
It bounced off Luca’s chest and clattered onto the stone floor.
“You’re going to regret this, Luca,” she hissed.
She turned on her heel and stormed out of the chapel.
The two guards quickly followed her.
The heavy doors slammed shut.
The silence rushed back in.
I let out a shaky breath, my knees suddenly feeling weak.
Luca stood completely still, staring at the closed doors.
“Mr. Moretti…” I started.
He held up a hand, silencing me.
He walked over to the velvet coat on the floor.
He knelt down and reached into the deep inside pocket.
“He didn’t just leave the coat,” Luca murmured.
He pulled something out of the pocket.
It was a small, framed photograph.
He turned it over so I could see it.
My heart stopped.
May you like
Because the woman in the photograph wasn’t Vanessa.
It was me.
