Chapter 11 - THE LETTER FROM THE BAKER
Luca stared at the old envelope.
He slowly sat down next to me, his broad shoulders suddenly tense.
He recognized the handwriting immediately.
“My father’s handwriting,” Luca whispered.
He carefully broke the old wax seal and pulled out a single sheet of paper.
As he read it, his eyes widened. His breathing slowed.
He read it twice. Then he looked up at me.
“What does it say?” I asked softly.
Luca didn't answer right away. He looked at my father.
“You knew about this?” Luca asked.
My father nodded. “I was there when he hid it.”
Luca handed the letter to me.
I looked down at the faded ink.
My dearest Luca,
If you are reading this, I am gone. Catherine Bellini thinks she has won. She thinks she has taken all our wealth and destroyed our family.
She is wrong.
The true Moretti legacy is not in the bank accounts she froze. It is in the floorboards beneath the grand piano in the ballroom. A safety box. Use your mother’s waltz to open it. Rebuild our family. Love fiercely.
- Dad.
We stood in the ballroom an hour later.
Arthur Greene had driven over as soon as Luca called him.
“Under the piano?” Arthur asked, looking at the pristine hardwood floor.
Luca and his men carefully rolled the grand piano a few feet to the left.
There, perfectly disguised in the grain of the wood, was a small square seam.
Luca used a pocket knife to pry up the board.
Beneath it was a heavy iron safe with a digital keypad.
“It needs a code,” Luca said.
“Use your mother’s waltz,” I reminded him, reading from the letter.
Arthur Greene smiled. “The four notes.”
He walked over to the piano and pressed the four starting notes of Lucia’s Waltz.
C - E - G - B.
Luca typed the numbers corresponding to the keys.
3 - 5 - 7 - 9.
The safe clicked.
Luca pulled the heavy door open.
Inside wasn't gold or cash.
It was a velvet pouch, and a stack of original property deeds to half the real estate in downtown Chicago. Wealth that Catherine Bellini could never touch.
But Luca didn't care about the deeds.
He picked up the velvet pouch and opened it.
Inside was a stunning, antique diamond ring.
May you like
Luca looked at the ring, completely stunned.
Then, he slowly turned and looked at me.
