Chapter 4 - THE BURNED PHOTOGRAPH
“That’s impossible.”
I said the words before I could stop myself.
“You said your father died five years ago. You said you buried him.”
Luca didn’t answer right away.
He stood up, pushing his chair back so violently it crashed to the floor.
He walked to the window, staring out at the rain-soaked grounds of the estate.
“I did bury him,” Luca said softly.
He didn’t turn around.
“He had a massive heart attack in this house. Sal drove him to the hospital. He died on the operating table. I identified the body myself.”
“Then how is he on that recording?”
Luca turned to face me.
The look in his eyes wasn’t anger anymore. It was absolute betrayal.
“There’s only one person who knows exactly what happened that night.”
He walked past me, out of the study.
“Sal!”
I followed him down the stairs.
The old driver was standing in the foyer, talking quietly to two security guards.
When he heard Luca’s voice, he stopped.
Luca walked right up to him.
“You drove my father to the hospital the night he died.”
Sal nodded slowly. “Yes, sir.”
“Who else was in the car?”
Sal hesitated.
Just for a second.
But Luca caught it.
Luca grabbed the lapels of Sal’s dark driving coat, slamming the old man back against the marble wall.
“Mr. Moretti, stop!” I yelled, running forward.
Luca ignored me.
“Who else was in the car, Sal?” Luca roared.
Sal didn’t fight back.
He looked at Luca with tired, sorrowful eyes.
“Your uncle,” Sal whispered.
Luca froze.
His grip on the coat loosened.
“Uncle Dominic?”
Sal nodded, his voice cracking.
“He was in the backseat with your father. Your father was clutching his chest. He was in agony. But Dominic…”
Sal swallowed hard.
“Dominic told me not to drive to the emergency room.”
Luca stepped back, completely stunned.
“What?”
“He told me to pull into an alley behind the hospital,” Sal said, tears finally spilling down his wrinkled cheeks. “He said he needed to talk to your father alone.”
“And you listened to him?” Luca asked, his voice trembling.
“He put a gun to the back of my head, Luca. I had a wife. I had kids.”
Sal wiped his eyes.
“I got out of the car. I stood in the rain for twenty minutes. When Dominic finally called me back… your father was gone.”
The foyer was dead silent.
“Dominic smothered him,” Luca whispered, putting the pieces together. “He killed my father.”
“Yes.”
“And the body?”
“Dominic had a doctor on the payroll inside the hospital. They falsified the death certificate. They made it look like a heart attack on the table.”
Luca stumbled back, running a hand over his face.
His uncle Dominic.
The man who had stepped up to run the family business with him after his father died.
The man who had cried at the funeral.
“But the voice on the recording,” I said, stepping closer to Luca. “Vanessa said it was her son’s uncle. She meant Dominic?”
“No,” Luca said, his eyes darkening.
He looked at me.
“Dominic isn’t my father’s brother. He’s my mother’s brother. He has no blood claim to the family throne. But if my father was out of the way…”
Luca looked at Sal.
“Dominic killed my father to take control. But my brother Leo found out.”
Sal nodded slowly.
“Leo found the missing money Dominic had been stealing. He was going to expose him to the Commission.”
“So Dominic cut the brakes on Leo’s car,” Luca finished, his voice turning to ice.
It all made sense.
The car crash. The cover-up.
But Dominic didn’t know Leo had secretly fathered a son with Vanessa.
A son who was the true, legitimate heir to the Moretti empire.
When Dominic found out about the boy, he used him to blackmail Vanessa.
He forced her to get engaged to Luca, to gain access to the ledger and the main trusts.
“Where is Dominic’s warehouse?” Luca asked Sal.
“Pier 44. The old fish packing plant.”
Luca turned to the security guards.
“Arm every man we have. We leave in five minutes.”
The guards nodded and ran out the door.
Luca turned to me.
“Emma. Go pack a bag.”
“What? I’m going with you?”
“No.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills, shoving them into my hands.
“You’re leaving Chicago. Tonight. My men will take you to the airport.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I said, dropping the money onto the marble floor.
Luca stepped closer, his physical presence overwhelming.
“This isn’t a housekeeping job anymore, Emma. We are going to war. If Dominic knows you were in that house with me, he will kill you just to hurt me.”
“I don’t care.”
He grabbed my shoulders, his grip tight.
“I do!” he yelled.
His voice echoed in the massive room.
He looked down at me, his chest heaving, his dark eyes filled with a desperate, terrifying affection.
“I care,” he whispered.
Before I could answer, the heavy wooden front doors of the mansion violently burst open.
It wasn’t Dominic’s men.
It was the police.
Ten heavily armed SWAT officers flooded the foyer, rifles raised, aiming directly at Luca’s chest.
And walking in behind them, wearing a perfectly pressed suit and holding a manila folder, was a detective.
The detective didn’t look at Luca.
He looked straight at me.
“Emma Reed?” the detective asked.
I froze.
“Yes?”
May you like
He held up a pair of silver handcuffs.
“You’re under arrest for the kidnapping of a four-year-old boy.”
