Chapter 9 - The Light After The Storm
The flashing police lights painted the mansion in frantic shades of red and blue, but for the first time in my life, I felt completely calm.
Officers handcuffed Richard Bellini and dragged him down the marble steps. He was screaming threats, but his voice sounded small, pathetic, fading into the night.
Daniel, the traitorous security chief, was wheeled out on a stretcher, surrounded by detectives.
Vanessa stood by the fountain, answering a detective's questions with quiet dignity. She had traded her perfect engagement for the truth, and in doing so, she had saved us all.
I sat on the bumper of an ambulance, wrapping a thick wool blanket around Toby’s small shoulders.
“Are they going to take me back to the foster house?” Toby asked, looking up at me with massive green eyes.
I pulled him tight against my side, resting my chin on his messy hair.
“No, buddy. You’re never going back there. You’re coming home with me.”
Toby smiled, a real, genuine smile, and leaned his head against my arm.
Luca walked over.
He had washed the blood and dirt from his face. He looked exhausted, but the heavy, dark shadow that usually haunted his eyes was completely gone.
He looked at Toby, then at me.
“My mother’s medical team is transferring Clara to the best private neurology clinic in the state tomorrow morning,” Luca said softly. “The doctors there believe they can restore some of her speech. And Toby’s adoption papers are being expedited by my lawyers.”
Tears welled in my eyes.
“Luca, I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You don’t,” Luca said, kneeling down so he was eye-level with me.
“My family broke your mother’s life to protect their own secrets. We owe you a debt we can never fully repay.”
He reached out and gently touched my shoulder.
“But starting tomorrow, you aren’t a maid in this house, Emma. You are the majority owner of Bellini Enterprises. You are going to sit in a boardroom, and you are going to change the world.”
I looked over at Michael and Lucia Moretti.
The two ghosts were sitting on a stone bench, holding hands, watching their son with profound pride.
Thirty years of hiding, finally over.
Vanessa walked up to us.
She looked at Luca. She touched the engagement ring on her left hand, then slowly slid it off her finger.
She held it out to him.
“It was a business arrangement,” Vanessa said gently. “And the business is closed.”
Luca took the ring, nodding respectfully.
“Where will you go, Vanessa?”
“Paris, I think,” she smiled, looking lighter than I had ever seen her. “I hear it’s beautiful in the fall. And I have a lot of healing to do.”
She turned to me.
“Take care of the company, Emma. Don’t let the old men tell you what to do.”
“I won’t,” I promised.
As Vanessa walked away to a waiting cab, June Whitaker approached us.
The eighty-three-year-old neighbor looked tired, leaning heavily on her cane.
“Well,” June sighed. “That was entirely too much excitement for a Tuesday.”
I stood up and hugged her tightly.
“Thank you, June. For everything.”
June patted my back.
“You’re a good girl, Emma. You have Clara’s heart.”
She pulled back and reached into her purse one last time.
She pulled out a thick, sealed envelope made of heavy, yellowed paper.
She held it out to me.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Michael and Lucia weren’t the only ones who left instructions,” June said softly.
“Your father, Thomas, gave this to me the night before he died.”
My breath hitched.
“He said if you ever found out who you really were, I was to give this to you.”
June pressed it into my hands.
“Answer one, open two, Emma. Your father has one last secret to tell you.”
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TITLE: The Ticket To The Past
