A DEBT HE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT

“Check the bag,” Vanessa said, pointing a manicured finger at my duffel. “I saw her shove it in there.”

I was kneeling on the floor, the silver rosary burning a hole in my hand. Leo was huddled under the bed, completely silent.

Luca stepped into the cramped room. His dark eyes scanned the space, lingering for a fraction of a second on the edge of the blanket where Leo was hiding, before locking onto me.

“Emma,” Luca said calmly. “What is in your hand?”

My throat was so dry I couldn’t swallow. “It’s... it’s not a bracelet, Mr. Moretti.”

Vanessa frowned. She pushed past one of the guards. “Don’t let her lie to you, Luca. Make her show you.”

I slowly opened my palm.

The heavy silver cross caught the dim light of the room. The glass locket dangled beneath it.

Vanessa’s face went completely white.

“That’s—” She cut herself off, taking a step back.

“Not a diamond bracelet,” Luca finished for her. He reached down and took the rosary from my hand. He looked at the photograph inside the locket. The man with the scarred chin.

He looked up at Vanessa.

“Care to explain why Emma has Marco Vane’s rosary in her bag?”

Vanessa’s chest was heaving. “She... she must have stolen it from my room! I bought it at an antique shop. I told you, she’s a thief!”

“You said she stole a diamond bracelet,” Luca corrected gently. The gentleness was terrifying. “Did she steal a bracelet, Vanessa, or did she steal this?”

“Both!” Vanessa cried, her voice pitching up. “Search the room! The bracelet is in here somewhere. I know it is!”

Luca looked at his security guards. “Wait outside.”

The guards stepped out and closed the door. We were alone.

Luca looked at me. “Emma. Did you steal a diamond bracelet?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you steal this rosary?”

“No, sir. I found it in my bag just now. With this.” I handed him the threatening note.

Luca read it. His jaw clenched. He turned slowly to his fiancée.

“You planted this in her room,” Luca stated. It wasn’t a question.

Vanessa laughed nervously. “Luca, you’re listening to the help over the woman you’re going to marry in two days? She’s lying!”

Luca held up the rosary. “This belonged to Marco Vane. A man who hated my family. A man who supposedly burned to death seven years ago. And yet, you have a photograph of him holding a baby. A baby that looks remarkably like you, Vanessa.”

Vanessa backed up against the closed door.

“Marco was my father,” she whispered.

The room went dead silent.

“My father killed Marco Vane,” Luca said, his voice devoid of emotion.

“And my father deserved it,” Vanessa shot back, her mask finally slipping, revealing the desperate woman underneath. “He was a monster. He beat my mother. He beat me. When your family took him out, it was the best day of my life. I changed my name. I reinvented myself. I made sure no one would ever connect me to that trash.”

“Then why are you secretly selling my wine cellar to run away to Montreal?” Luca asked.

Vanessa flinched.

“Because he’s not dead,” she whispered, tears finally spilling over her lashes. “Marco survived the fire. He found me, Luca. He knows I’m marrying you. He’s demanding two hundred thousand dollars by tomorrow, or he’s going to come to the wedding and tell the whole world that the proud Moretti family is marrying the daughter of the rat they tried to burn alive.”

I sat on the floor, stunned.

Luca processed this information with chilling calm.

“You lied to me,” Luca said.

“I was trying to protect us!” Vanessa sobbed. “I was going to pay him off! I was going to leave until I knew he was gone!”

Luca stared at her. “And what about Emma? Why frame her?”

Vanessa glared at me. “Because she was snooping! She found the wine. She found the rosary. She was a liability.”

Vanessa reached into her pocket. She pulled out a small, folded piece of paper and threw it at me.

“But I’m not the only one keeping secrets, am I, Emma?”

The paper landed on the floor. It was a birth certificate.

I stared at it in horror. It was Leo’s birth certificate.

“Her sister didn’t just die,” Vanessa spat, looking at Luca. “Her sister was an addict. She overdosed in a motel room. And this precious little maid stole the child and ran before the state could take him. She’s a fugitive, Luca. If you kick me out, I make one phone call, and that boy goes to an orphanage tonight.”

Luca looked down at me, then at the edge of the blanket where Leo was hiding.

Then, Luca did something that shocked both of us.

He smiled.

“You’re not going anywhere, Vanessa,” Luca said softly. “You’re going to walk down that aisle on Saturday.”