Chapter 2 - THE KEY THAT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO LEAVE HER NECK
“Uncle Anthony isn't really your brother.”
Ten-year-old Ben Moretti said those words so quietly that Luca almost missed them.
But Emma Sullivan heard every syllable.
The young maid stood beside Luca's desk, her burned hand wrapped in fresh gauze, watching the most feared man in Boston go completely still.
“Who told you that, Ben?” Luca asked.
“Mom.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
Beyond the closed study doors, eighty guests were still celebrating his engagement to Vanessa Ashford.
Crystal glasses clinked.
A string quartet played.
Somewhere downstairs, Vanessa was probably smiling for photographs.
And upstairs, a frightened little boy had just suggested that Luca's entire family history was a lie.
“Tell me exactly what your mother said.”
Ben wiped his nose with his sleeve.
“She said Grandpa told everybody something about Uncle Anthony that wasn't true. She said there were papers proving it.”
“What papers?”
“The ones in Rosie's box.”
Luca felt his stomach tighten.
His sister, Sofia, had always been unusually protective of her children's inheritance.
Before her death eighteen months earlier, she had established strict instructions regarding the eighteen-million-dollar trust.
Luca could manage the children's daily needs.
But the sealed deposit box would remain untouched until Rosie turned eighteen.
Sofia had insisted on that arrangement.
At the time, Luca thought she was simply being cautious.
Now he wasn't so sure.
“Did your mother tell you what was inside?”
Ben shook his head.
“She said it was grown-up stuff.”
Then his face crumpled.
“She said Uncle Anthony might get angry if he found out.”
Luca pulled the boy close.
“You did the right thing telling me.”
“Will Rosie have to leave?”
“No.”
“Vanessa said the judge would make us go.”
Luca looked at Emma.
Her expression told him that she had heard the same threat.
Before he could speak, a small voice came from the doorway.
“Uncle Luca?”
Rosie stood there in pink pajamas.
Her dark hair hung over one shoulder, and her little brass key rested against her chest.
“Are you mad at me?”
Luca crossed the room.
“Of course not, sweetheart.”
“Vanessa said I ruined your party.”
The words hurt more than Luca expected.
He knelt in front of her.
“You didn't ruin anything.”
“But everybody was dressed up.”
“Rosie, listen to me.”
He took her small hands.
“People can have another party. I can't have another you.”
Rosie threw her arms around his neck.
Emma looked away.
She had spent three years working in the Moretti household.
She had never seen Luca cry.
But his eyes were wet now.
A sharp knock interrupted them.
Luca's head of security, Daniel Price, entered carrying a tablet.
“Sir, your attorney sent another document.”
Luca stood.
“What now?”
“The emergency guardianship petition includes a statement from Miss Ashford.”
Luca scanned the screen.
Vanessa claimed that Emma had negligently exposed Rosie to scalding water.
She further claimed that Luca had repeatedly ignored warnings about unsafe conditions inside the mansion.
The statement was dated that morning.
Before the urn had overturned.
Before Emma had been burned.
Before Rosie had nearly been injured.
Luca read it twice.
Then he looked at Daniel.
“Where's Vanessa?”
“In the ballroom.”
“Bring her to the study.”
Emma stiffened.
“Sir, please don't tell her I said anything.”
Luca turned toward her.
“Emma, she injured you, threatened your job, and tried to blame you for saving a child.”
“She knows about my mother.”
“What about your mother?”
Emma hesitated.
“Her care facility costs twenty-eight hundred dollars a month. Vanessa knows I'm behind on the next payment.”
Luca's expression changed.
“How does she know?”
“She asked the housekeeper supervisor for my employment file.”
Daniel glanced at the tablet.
“Sir, there's something else. Miss Ashford requested copies of the entire domestic staff's emergency contacts last week.”
Luca stared at him.
“Why?”
“She said she was updating the household records before the wedding.”
Emma suddenly understood.
Vanessa hadn't simply discovered her vulnerability.
She had gone looking for it.
A minute later, Vanessa swept into the study wearing a champagne-colored gown.
Her diamond earrings glittered beneath the lights.
“Luca, darling, the photographers are waiting.”
Then she saw Emma.
Her smile vanished.
“Why is she still here?”
“Close the door, Vanessa.”
Vanessa obeyed reluctantly.
Luca turned his tablet toward her.
“Explain this.”
She examined the petition.
For one brief second, she looked frightened.
Then she recovered.
“Anthony's attorney prepared it. I was asked to describe the unsafe conditions.”
“Six hours before the accident?”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Luca, your house is full of armed men. Your security business attracts dangerous people. Those children deserve a normal life.”
It was the first thing she'd said that Luca couldn't completely dismiss.
His enemies were real.
He had spent years pretending high walls and expensive cameras were enough to protect his family.
But that didn't explain the false report.
“Did you put the boiling-water urn near Rosie's playroom?”
Vanessa's jaw tightened.
“I moved it out of the breakfast room because the staff were rearranging the furniture.”
“Then why did your statement say Emma moved it?”
“I assumed she had.”
“You watched her get burned.”
Vanessa looked at the bandage.
“She should've called for help.”
“She tried,” Emma said.
Vanessa turned.
“You have no idea what you're talking about.”
Emma raised her voice for the first time.
“You grabbed my wrist.”
Silence filled the room.
Luca placed the tiny gold star from Vanessa's broken bracelet on the desk.
“Then explain why this was caught inside her bandage.”
Vanessa stared at the charm.
Her hand moved unconsciously toward her bare wrist.
“It must have fallen off.”
“While you were grabbing her?”
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
“You're going to believe a maid over your future wife?”
Luca answered without hesitation.
“I'm going to believe the evidence.”
For a moment, Vanessa looked genuinely wounded.
Then her expression hardened.
“You have no idea what Anthony has been doing to keep this family together.”
Luca leaned forward.
“What does Anthony have to do with any of this?”
Vanessa said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Luca instructed Daniel to escort her downstairs and cancel the engagement celebration.
“Tell the guests there's a family emergency.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You're humiliating me.”
“No,” Luca replied. “I'm stopping you from humiliating someone else.”
After she left, Luca contacted his attorney.
Helen Shaw had represented his family for almost twenty years.
She confirmed that an emergency hearing had been scheduled for nine the following morning.
Anthony was asking the court to temporarily remove both children from Luca's custody.
“He's requesting immediate placement,” Helen said. “And he's submitted allegations about your business activities.”
“Can he win?”
“He has enough information to make the court take him seriously.”
Luca looked through the window.
Beyond the gardens stood the security building where armed men came and went at all hours.
For years, that building had made him feel powerful.
Tonight, it looked like a threat to the children he loved.
After the call, Emma approached Rosie.
“Sweetheart, may I look at your necklace?”
Rosie nodded.
Emma carefully lifted the little brass key.
She had seen it hundreds of times.
Sofia had worn it before giving it to her daughter.
There had always been a tiny crescent moon scratched into its back.
Emma remembered because Rosie used to call it her moon key.
But when Emma turned the key over, the crescent was gone.
She examined the teeth.
They were different, too.
“Rosie,” she whispered, “when did you last take this necklace off?”
Rosie frowned.
“I didn't.”
“Not even at bedtime?”
“No. Mommy said to keep it on.”
Emma looked toward Luca.
“Sir, I think someone switched her key.”
Luca took the brass object.
It was newer than he remembered.
The edges were almost perfectly smooth.
“Rosie, has anyone touched your necklace?”
The little girl thought for a moment.
Then her face changed.
“Uncle Anthony fixed the chain last Sunday.”
Luca went cold.
“Where?”
“In my bedroom.”
“Was Vanessa there?”
Rosie nodded.
“She gave me a cookie.”
Ben stepped forward.
“Rosie, did you fall asleep?”
“A little.”
Emma looked at Luca.
The missing key wasn't merely a family keepsake.
It was the one object capable of opening the box containing Sofia's final secret.
And someone had replaced it while an eight-year-old girl slept.
Then Rosie reached beneath her pajama collar.
“Uncle Luca, there's something I didn't tell Uncle Anthony.”
She pulled out a small folded piece of paper that had been tucked behind the necklace clasp.
“Mommy put this there before she went to the hospital.”
Luca unfolded it.
The handwriting belonged to his dead sister.
May you like
There were only eight words.
“If the key disappears, look inside Anthony's watch.”
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