Chapter 2 - THE INK ON THE PAPER WAS STILL WET
“Find out who forged my name,” Luca repeated.
His voice wasn’t a shout.
It was a terrifying, dead calm.
The thirty guests in the hallway had gone completely silent.
Vanessa’s hands were shaking so badly her champagne spilled onto her red dress.
“Luca, please,” she whispered, glancing at the wealthy politicians and businessmen watching them. “Not here. We can talk about the garage later.”
“There is no later,” Luca said.
He handed the yellow demolition notice to Marco, his head of security.
Marco didn’t just look at the signature. He rubbed his thumb over it.
“Boss,” Marco said quietly. “This isn’t a copy. It’s fresh ink. Signed today.”
Vanessa stepped back.
I watched her eyes dart toward the kitchen doors. She wasn’t just embarrassed. She was terrified.
“Matteo,” Luca said without looking away from Vanessa. “Go to your room. Lock the door.”
“Dad—”
“Now.”
The twelve-year-old boy ran upstairs, clutching the scorched wooden box to his chest.
I stood by the library door, my right hand throbbing. The burn across my palm felt like raw fire, but I couldn’t leave.
Vanessa suddenly pointed a manicured finger at me.
“It was her!” she cried.
Every eye in the room turned to me.
“Claire hates me,” Vanessa rushed on, her voice climbing. “She’s been trying to sabotage this engagement for months. She’s the one who printed that fake notice. She’s trying to frame me because she’s obsessed with you, Luca!”
The room held its breath.
I didn’t defend myself. I just looked at Luca.
He slowly turned to face me.
“Is that true, Claire?”
“No, sir.”
I kept my voice steady, even as my burned hand trembled. “I have been preparing the dining room since three o’clock.”
“She’s lying!” Vanessa shrieked. “Search her room! I guarantee you’ll find the matching ink pad in her desk!”
Luca stared at me for a long moment.
Then he looked at my hand.
The angry red blisters were already forming where I had reached into the fire.
“Marco,” Luca said softly.
“Yes, Boss.”
“Go to Claire’s room. Look for an ink pad.”
My heart dropped.
He believed her. The man I had worked for, the man who knew I loved his son like my own, was actually entertaining Vanessa’s lie.
Vanessa smiled triumphantly.
But then Luca added five words that changed everything.
“And check Vanessa’s purse, too.”
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
“You can’t be serious,” she gasped. “You’re searching your fiancée because of a maid?”
Before she could move, Marco stepped forward and took the silver clutch from her hands.
He snapped it open.
He didn’t find an ink pad.
Instead, he pulled out a thick stack of pawn shop receipts.
Marco read the top one. His face turned to stone.
“Boss.” Marco handed the receipt to Luca. “These are for Antonio’s tools. Sold at 1:00 P.M. today.”
Luca took the slip of paper.
The silence in the house was absolute.
Vanessa backed away, her face pale. “Luca, I can explain. We need to modernize—”
“Get out,” Luca said.
“Darling—”
“Leave this house,” his voice cracked like a whip. “Before I forget you’re a woman.”
Vanessa turned and fled through the front doors, leaving her engagement party in ruins.
Luca didn’t look at the guests.
He walked past them, straight toward me.
He looked down at my blistered hand.
“Come with me,” he said.
He led me to the kitchen, grabbed a first-aid kit, and made me sit at the island.
With unexpected gentleness, the most dangerous man in Chicago began wrapping my burned palm in gauze.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For saving my son’s gift.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
He paused, looking at my bandaged hand. “Vanessa didn’t just forge my name, Claire.”
I looked up.
“What do you mean?”
Luca pulled a small, heavy silver key from his pocket.
“The signature on that demolition notice was my father’s.”
My blood ran cold.
Antonio Moretti had been dead for nine years.
“Dad gave me this key the night he died,” Luca whispered. “He told me if the garage ever came under threat, I needed to look under the floorboards.”
May you like
Luca looked into my eyes.
“I need you to come to the garage with me right now. Before whoever helped Vanessa comes back to finish the job.”
