Chapter 4 - THE NOTE ON THE BLUE CRAYON DRAWING
My trembling fingers flipped the blue crayon drawing over.
Written on the back, in Vanessa’s elegant, sweeping handwriting, were five words:
He has his father’s eyes.
A broken sob tore from my throat. I crumpled the paper against my chest, the pain in my crushed fingers completely forgotten beneath the sheer, suffocating terror of a mother realizing her child was in danger.
“She has him,” I wept, sliding down the front of the armoire until I hit the carpet. “Luca, she has Leo.”
Luca knelt in front of me. He didn't tell me to calm down. He didn't offer empty platitudes. He reached out, his large, warm hands gripping my shoulders with a grounding force.
“Listen to me, Lily,” he said, his eyes burning with a fierce, protective fire. “I am not going to let anyone touch your son. Do you understand me? You are under my roof. That makes you and your boy my responsibility.”
I stared at him through blurred tears. The ruthless Mafia boss everyone whispered about was gone. In his place was a man who looked ready to burn the city to the ground for a maid.
“Why is she doing this?” I choked out.
“To control me,” Luca snarled, standing up and backing away from the door. “She needed leverage. She knew if I found out she was stealing from the syndicate, I’d kill her. So she found the one person in this house with a vulnerability she could exploit.”
He backed up until his shoulders hit the far wall.
“Stand back, Lily.”
I scrambled away.
Luca raised his right leg and kicked the heavy oak door directly next to the lock. The wood splintered with a deafening crack. He kicked it again. On the third strike, the doorframe shattered, and the door swung violently outward.
We burst into the hallway.
“Daniel!” Luca roared.
The head of security came sprinting up the stairs, his gun already drawn. “Boss! The cameras just went down on the east wing.”
“Get a car to Lily’s apartment right now,” Luca ordered. “Vanessa sent someone for her son.”
Daniel’s face paled, but before he could move, a calm, chilling voice echoed from the top of the grand staircase.
“There’s no need for a car, Daniel.”
We all froze.
Standing on the landing, still wearing her blood-red silk engagement gown, was Vanessa.
She held a crystal champagne flute in one hand.
In her other hand, dangling by a thin gold chain, was a heavy silver watch.
My breath stopped in my lungs.
I recognized the scratched face of the watch immediately. It was the watch David had been wearing the night he was killed in the hit-and-run. The watch the police told me had been lost in the wreckage.
“Looking for this, Lily?” Vanessa asked, taking a sip of her champagne.
“Where did you get that?” I demanded, stepping forward, my maternal rage overriding my fear.
Vanessa smiled, a cold, empty expression. “You’ve been asking the wrong questions all night, Lily. You think my family killed your husband because we wanted to hurt you?”
She laughed, the sound echoing in the silent hallway.
“We didn't kill David,” Vanessa said softly. She turned her dark eyes to Luca. “Your father did.”
A profound, sickening silence dropped over the house.
“You’re lying,” Luca said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.
“Am I?” Vanessa asked, stepping closer to the banister. “David was an accountant, Luca. Do you know who he was auditing three years ago? The St. Jude Sanatorium. The facility where your father secretly locked away your mother.”
My mind spun. David had never told me who his clients were. He said it was for our safety.
“David found out your mother wasn't dying,” Vanessa continued, her eyes gleaming with malice. “He found out she was perfectly healthy, and your father had heavily sedated her to take control of her trust fund. David was going to blow the whistle. So, your father had him run off the road.”
I looked at Luca. He looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
The man he had worshipped, the father he had mourned, was a monster.
“And you?” Luca rasped. “Where do you fit into this, Vanessa?”
“My family found out,” she said simply. “We threatened to expose your father unless he arranged a marriage between you and me. The engagement was a blackmail payment.”
It all clicked. The forced engagement. The fake mother. Vanessa wasn't just stealing money; she was enforcing an old extortion scheme.
“Where is my son?” I screamed, my voice tearing.
Vanessa sighed, looking bored. “He’s safe. For now. But if you cancel this wedding, Luca... if you try to break our deal, the boy pays the price.”
Before Luca could lunge at her, a loud, terrified scream shattered the air.
It came from downstairs.
From the private study where we had hidden Helen.
“Helen!” I cried, racing toward the stairs.
Luca was right behind me. We shoved past Vanessa, flying down the steps to the main floor.
The door to the study was wide open.
Inside, the room was completely trashed. Books were torn from the shelves. The antique desk was overturned.
And lying on the Persian rug, unconscious and bleeding from a cut on her forehead, was Helen.
I fell to my knees beside her, sobbing as I cradled her head. “Mama! Mama, wake up!”
Luca knelt beside us, checking her pulse. “She’s alive. She’s breathing.”
But as I pulled Helen closer, my hand brushed against something thick and heavy bunched underneath her body.
I pulled it free.
It was a child’s winter coat.
It was small, navy blue, with a bright yellow zipper.
I stared at it in absolute horror.
“Lily?” Luca asked, seeing the look on my face. “What is it?”
May you like
My hands shook violently as I gripped the fabric.
“This is Leo’s coat,” I whispered, staring at the empty sleeves. “He was here. They brought him here.”
