Chapter 2 - THE PANTRY HELD MORE THAN JUST PLACE CARDS TONIGHT
I turned my back on the dining room and walked toward the swinging doors of the kitchen.
Every step felt heavy.
The silence behind me was absolute.
Thirty-two powerful guests were holding their breath, waiting to see what I would bring back.
I pushed through the brass-plated doors and walked past the stainless steel prep stations. The catering chef looked up, sensing the shift in my energy, but I didn’t stop to explain.
I headed straight for the butler’s pantry at the back of the house.
It was a narrow, dimly lit room where we kept the extra crystal and emergency linens.
I opened the second oak drawer.
The four thick cream cards were exactly where I had hidden them.
FRANK DELUCA.
ANTHONY ROMANO.
PETER COSTA.
MICHAEL VITALE.
I reached for them.
Then I heard the click of the pantry door locking behind me.
I spun around.
Vanessa Bellini stood leaning against the wood.
Her red silk gown looked like blood in the shadows of the small room.
She was breathing fast, the collected, arrogant mask completely gone.
“You are not taking those out there,” she said.
Her voice was barely a whisper, but it was shaking.
“Mr. Moretti asked for them,” I said.
I kept my distance. The pantry was too small.
“Mr. Moretti doesn’t know what he’s asking for.” Vanessa stepped forward, extending her hand. “Give them to me, Emma. I’ll double the money. Ten thousand dollars. Cash. Tonight.”
“I don’t want your money, Mrs. Bellini.”
“Fifteen.”
“It’s not about the money.”
“Everything is about money!” she snapped, dropping the polite facade. “You think you’re being noble? You think you’re protecting Luca’s precious loyal family? You have no idea what is actually happening in this house tonight.”
I gripped the place cards tighter.
“I know you moved his friends away from him so your family could surround him.”
Vanessa let out a harsh, desperate laugh.
“His friends? You think Frank DeLuca is his friend?”
She closed the distance between us, her perfume suddenly overwhelming.
“I didn’t move those four men to disrespect them, Emma. I moved them because I found out what they were planning to do to Luca when the champagne was poured.”
My heart skipped a beat.
A reversal.
I stared at her, trying to read the panic in her eyes. Was this another lie to save her engagement, or was she telling the truth?
“If they were planning something, you would have told Mr. Moretti,” I said.
“Luca doesn’t listen when it comes to Frank! He looks at Frank and sees a father. If I warned him, he’d demand proof I didn’t have. And by the time I found it, Luca would be dead.”
She reached out and grabbed my wrist. Her fingers were ice cold.
“Please. If you walk out there with those cards and expose me, Luca will kick my family out of this house. He’ll invite Frank and the others back to his side. And he will be completely unprotected.”
I looked down at her hand on my wrist.
Then I looked at the open drawer.
“Answer one question for me, then,” I said quietly.
Vanessa nodded quickly. “Anything.”
“If you were trying to protect Mr. Moretti from Frank…”
I reached into the back of the drawer. When I had hidden the cards earlier, my fingers had brushed against something cold and metal shoved into the very corner.
I pulled it out now.
It was a heavy silver pocket watch.
Its chain was broken.
“...Then why did I find this shoved in the drawer right behind the cards?”
Vanessa’s eyes widened in pure horror.
She recognized it immediately.
I had seen that watch before, too. Luca had shown it to me a month ago when I was dusting his study. It had belonged to his older brother, Marco, who had died three years ago. Luca cherished it. He never let it out of his sight.
“Where did you get that?” Vanessa breathed.
“It was in the drawer.”
“No. No, that’s impossible.” She stumbled back. “Adrian had that.”
The answer slipped out before she could catch it.
I stared at her. “Your brother stole Marco’s watch?”
“It wasn’t a theft!” she panicked. “It was collateral.”
“Collateral for what?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
She had given away one secret, only to expose a massive, terrifying new one.
Before she could answer, the pantry door handle violently rattled.
Someone was trying to get in.
“Emma!”
It was Luca’s voice. Hard. Demanding.
“Unlock this door.”
Vanessa looked at me, terrified.
She pointed a trembling finger at the watch in my hand.
“If you show him that watch,” she whispered, tears finally spilling over her mascara, “they won’t just kill Luca. They’ll kill the boy.”
I froze.
The boy.
Leo. Marco’s six-year-old son.
The handle rattled again, and this time, the wood of the door cracked as Luca shoved his shoulder against it.
“I am kicking this in, Emma. Step back.”
I looked at Vanessa. I looked at the silver watch.
May you like
And then the door crashed open.
TITLE: A BROKEN CHAIN AND A ONE-WAY TICKET
