Chapter 2 - THE SILVER WATCH
The silence in Luca Moretti’s study was heavy enough to crush stone.
He stared at the old photograph in his hands. His thumb gently brushed over the face of the nurse holding him as a baby.
Then he looked up at me.
"Vanessa said I would never marry her if I knew who this woman was?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat. My left shoulder throbbed in time with my racing heartbeat.
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
"I don't know," I whispered, terrified of his intense, dark gaze. "She snatched the photo from me. She tried to tear it, but Daniel knocked on the carriage house door to check on the delivery. She shoved it into my apron and told me if I ever mentioned it, she would make sure I couldn't get a job anywhere in Chicago."
Luca’s jaw clenched. The muscles in his neck tightened beneath his crisp white collar.
For a man who controlled half the city’s underground and legitimate real estate, he suddenly looked like a man who had lost his grounding.
"Claire," he said, his voice dangerously soft. "Did she take anything else from the crate?"
I hesitated. I needed this job. But the look in Luca's eyes told me that lying to him now would be the biggest mistake of my life.
"Yes."
He leaned forward. "What was it?"
"A silver pocket watch. It was wrapped in velvet, wedged into the bottom corner of the frame."
Luca went completely still.
"A silver watch with a cracked face?"
"I couldn't see the face. But the chain was broken. She put it in her purse before the delivery men came back."
Before Luca could respond, three sharp knocks echoed against the study doors.
"Luca? Darling?"
Vanessa.
Panic seized my chest. If she saw me in here, she would ruin me. She knew where I lived. She knew about my six-year-old son, Toby.
Luca saw the sheer terror in my eyes.
He stood up smoothly, moved around the mahogany desk, and pointed to the heavy velvet curtains that led to his private adjoining library.
"Go," he mouthed.
I slipped behind the thick fabric just as the study doors swung open.
"There you are," Vanessa said. Her voice was pure honey, completely stripped of the venom she had used on me in the carriage house. "The guests are starting to ask for you. What are you doing in here with the security feeds?"
"Just checking on a perimeter alert," Luca said smoothly. I heard the sound of his laptop closing. "Did you enjoy dessert?"
"It was wonderful. But I missed you."
I heard her heels click across the hardwood floor. I held my breath, pressing my good shoulder against the bookshelves.
"You look tense, Luca," she murmured.
"It's been a long day. And I was just thinking about my mother’s portrait."
The silence that followed was brief, but electric.
"What about it?" Vanessa asked, her voice dropping a fraction of an octave.
"I want it moved to our bedroom after the wedding," Luca said. "It means a lot to me."
"Oh, sweetheart," Vanessa sighed, a perfect, sympathetic sound. "I didn't want to tell you this tonight, but... I was in the carriage house earlier. The humidity must have ruined the canvas. It was practically falling apart. I told Daniel to have it sent out for restoration."
A blatant, flawless lie.
"Is that so?" Luca asked.
"Yes. You know I'd never let anything happen to your mother's memory."
I peeked through a tiny gap in the velvet curtains.
Vanessa had her arms wrapped around Luca’s neck. But Luca wasn’t looking at her face.
He was looking at her left wrist.
Gleaming against her pale skin was a heavy, antique gold bracelet.
I recognized it instantly. It was the same bracelet the nurse had been wearing in the thirty-one-year-old photograph.
And Luca recognized it too.
"That's a beautiful bracelet, Vanessa," he said quietly. "I've never seen it before."
Vanessa's smile faltered for a microsecond. She quickly pulled her arm down.
"Oh, this? It's just a vintage piece I picked up in Paris. Let's go back to the guests, darling."
As she turned and walked out of the study, Luca didn't follow her immediately.
He stood by his desk, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles were white.
May you like
He walked over and pulled the curtains back.
"She's wearing it," he said, his voice vibrating with a terrifying, cold fury. "That bracelet belonged to my adoptive mother. And it was buried with her ten years ago."
