Chapter 2 - THE BLUE STONE
I stared at the blue diamond resting against the elderly woman’s collarbone.
The restaurant around us hummed with the quiet clinking of expensive crystal.
But at table twelve, the air felt like it had been pulled from the room.
“Twelve years ago,” I repeated slowly.
My voice sounded hollow.
“Yes,” she said.
She didn’t look away from me.
Luca Moretti sat back in his chair. He didn’t look surprised by his mother’s words. He looked like a man watching a trap finally snap shut.
“A young woman lost it,” his mother continued. Her voice was incredibly gentle, which somehow made the words heavier. “A waitress. She was carrying a tray of champagne. A guest bumped into her. The tray fell. In the chaos, this necklace slipped from her pocket onto the floor.”
My hands turned to ice.
“Why did a waitress have your diamond necklace in her pocket?” I asked.
“Because she was accused of stealing it from the manager’s office,” Luca said.
His voice was a low rumble.
I looked at him.
“She swore she found it on the floor,” Luca continued, his dark eyes locking onto mine. “She swore she was just holding it until the end of her shift. Nobody believed her.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Twelve years ago.
I was sixteen.
My older sister, Clara, was twenty-two.
Clara had worked at Bellamy’s. Clara had come home one night crying so hard she couldn’t breathe, talking about a missing necklace, about the police, about a manager who wouldn’t listen.
Two days later, Clara was arrested.
Three months after that, she died in a state women’s correctional facility. The official report said pneumonia.
I gripped the edge of my serving tray.
“My sister didn’t steal anything,” I whispered.
The words came out before I could stop them. I didn’t care who Luca Moretti was. I didn’t care about his money or the men standing by the door.
Luca didn’t blink.
“I know.”
The simplicity of his answer hit me like a physical blow.
“You know?” I choked out.
“I know she was innocent, Anna,” he said quietly.
He knew my name.
He hadn’t looked at my name tag. He wasn’t guessing.
“You didn’t come here for dinner,” I said, stepping back from the table. “You came here for me.”
His mother reached out, her hand hovering in the air between us.
“Anna, please listen. We didn’t know the truth until it was too late. I let them take Clara away. I have lived with that guilt every single day.”
“Guilt doesn’t bring her back,” I said, my voice trembling.
I turned around to leave. To quit. To walk out the back door and never set foot in Bellamy’s again.
But before I could take a step, Richard Hale materialized from the kitchen hallway.
My manager.
He was sweating. His polite smile was completely gone.
“Is there a problem here, Mr. Moretti?” Richard asked, glaring at me. “Is Anna bothering you?”
Luca slowly turned his head to look at Richard.
“She was just answering a question, Richard.”
Richard stiffened. “Sir, I can have another server take this table. Anna has a history of... overstepping.”
“Does she?” Luca asked.
“Yes. I’ve been meaning to let her go. This confirms it.”
Luca stood up.
He was half a foot taller than Richard, and he didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.
“You’ve been the general manager here for fifteen years, haven’t you, Richard?”
Richard puffed his chest slightly. “Yes, sir.”
“So you were the manager who found the necklace in Clara Reed’s pocket twelve years ago.”
Richard’s face drained of all color.
He looked at me. Then back at Luca.
“She was a thief,” Richard stammered.
“Was she?” Luca asked.
Luca reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
He didn’t pull out a gun.
He pulled out a small, folded piece of thick silver paper.
He dropped it onto the white tablecloth.
It was a train ticket.
“My mother didn’t lose her necklace tonight by accident, Anna,” Luca said, not taking his eyes off Richard. “She intentionally dropped it to see what you would do. To see if you were like your sister.”
I stared at the ticket. “What does that mean?”
May you like
Luca finally looked at me.
“It means your sister didn’t die in prison, Anna. She bought this train ticket in Seattle yesterday morning.”
