Chapter 2 - THE LIST OF NAMES VICTORIA TRIED TO ERASE
The grand dining room of the DeLuca estate was so quiet you could hear the crystal chandeliers softly clinking above us.
Eighty of Chicago’s wealthiest elites sat frozen at their tables. Nobody touched their champagne. Nobody whispered.
All eyes were on the folded fifty-thousand-dollar check resting on the pristine white tablecloth.
Nico stared at the check. The muscle in his jaw clenched, a dangerous rhythm that every employee in this house knew meant a storm was coming.
“A list,” Nico repeated, his voice dangerously low. He didn't yell. He didn't have to. The quietness of his voice was terrifying enough. “You have a list of people you paid off, Victoria?”
Victoria’s pale face flushed with sudden panic. She reached out to touch his arm. “Nico, please. You’re misunderstanding this. I was trying to protect you. Protect our future.”
Nico didn't pull away. He just looked at her hand resting on his tuxedo sleeve until she slowly withdrew it.
“Protect me from what?” Nico asked.
“From your past!” Victoria’s voice pitched higher, desperation cracking her polished exterior. “You are the head of the DeLuca family now. You are a respected businessman. You can’t have these… these ghosts dragging you down. I was cleaning up loose ends. For us.”
Ruth stood up straight, despite her frail frame. She didn't look intimidated by Victoria’s diamonds or her designer gown.
“I am not a loose end,” Ruth said softly. “I am the woman who bought him his first suit for his high school graduation when his own father wouldn't even look at him.”
Nico closed his eyes for a brief second. When he opened them, they were completely cold.
“Show me the list,” Nico demanded.
Victoria shook her head, tears finally spilling over her carefully applied makeup. “Nico, don’t do this here. Not in front of the guests. Not in front of the help.” She shot a venomous glare at me.
“The list. Now.”
Victoria’s hands trembled as she reached into her designer clutch. She pulled out a small, leather-bound notebook and placed it on the table next to the check.
Nico picked it up. He flipped it open. I watched his eyes scan the first page.
I expected him to explode. I expected him to throw the book.
Instead, he went completely pale.
“Where did you get these names?” Nico asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“From your private safe,” Victoria confessed, sobbing now. “I found the old files. I just wanted to make sure nobody could blackmail you—”
“You paid off Father Thomas?” Nico asked, reading from the page. “The priest who let me sleep in the church basement?”
“He was asking questions about your business!”
“You paid off Maria? The baker who gave me day-old bread?”
“She’s a nobody, Nico!”
Nico turned the page. He stopped breathing.
The silence stretched for ten agonizing seconds.
“Nico?” Ruth asked gently. “What is it?”
Nico looked up. He didn't look at Victoria. He looked directly at me.
“Hannah,” he said.
My heart hammered against my ribs. “Yes, Mr. DeLuca?”
“What is your mother’s maiden name?”
I blinked, completely taken aback by the question. “S-Sullivan, sir. Mary Sullivan.”
Nico turned the notebook around so I could see the page.
There, written in Victoria’s neat handwriting, was an entry:
Mary Sullivan - $100,000 (To keep her daughter away).
My knees went weak. My mother died three years ago. She was a waitress. We had nothing.
“Victoria,” Nico said, his voice breaking. “Why is Hannah's mother in this book?”
Before Victoria could answer, Ruth gasped. She pointed a shaking finger at Victoria’s open clutch.
“Nicholas,” Ruth whispered. “Look inside her purse.”
Protruding from the silk lining of Victoria’s bag was a tarnished silver pocket watch.
I recognized it immediately. I dusted Nico's bedroom every day. That watch had been missing from his nightstand for a week.
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But it wasn't just any watch. It was the watch Nico's younger brother was wearing the night he disappeared fifteen years ago.
And Victoria had it.
