Chapter 9 - The Locket
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Vanessa went completely pale. She looked like she might faint.
Luca slowly turned his head to look at the mover. “What was inside?”
“A little velvet pouch, sir,” the mover said honestly.
Nobody spoke.
“Miss Bellini took it before we left the sitting room,” the mover added.
Luca turned to Vanessa. She immediately began backing away from him, shaking her head frantically.
“Give it to me,” Luca commanded, holding out his hand.
“I don’t have it,” she cried. “I threw it away!”
“Vanessa.”
“It was nothing, Luca! Just old junk!”
“What was inside the pouch?” he yelled, his voice shaking the crystal glasses on the tables.
She just stood there, sobbing and shaking her head.
Then I saw it.
I was standing near the edge of the dining table, closest to where Vanessa had been sitting when the piano rolled in. As she had backed away from Luca, she had bumped the table.
I noticed something glittering beneath the base of her half-empty champagne glass.
A thin, delicate gold chain.
Vanessa saw me looking at the table. She lunged forward to grab it, but she was too late.
Luca followed my eyes. He reached the table first. He lifted the crystal champagne glass.
Underneath it, hastily hidden, was a tiny gold locket. It was incredibly old, scratched, and tarnished from years of being hidden away.
But engraved on the front of the gold casing was a single, beautiful blue flower.
The exact same blue flower that was painted on the wall above Elena Moretti’s piano in every old family photograph.
Luca picked it up gently. His large hands, which had ended lives and built an empire, finally began to shake.
“My mother’s,” Luca whispered, his voice cracking completely.
Vanessa collapsed into a nearby chair, burying her face in her hands. “Luca…”
He didn't look at her. He pressed the small latch on the side of the locket. It popped open.
Inside, there was no photograph. Instead, tightly folded into a tiny square, was a small, aged piece of parchment paper.
Luca pulled the paper out with trembling fingers. He slowly unfolded it.
He read the first line. And then he stopped breathing.
Vanessa scrambled out of her chair, rushing toward him, reaching for the paper. “Luca, don’t read that here! Please!”
He easily dodged her grasp, slowly raising his eyes to look at her.
“How do you know what it says, Vanessa?” Luca asked, his voice deadly quiet.
She froze, completely trapped by her own panic.
Luca looked back down at the piece of paper. Then he looked at the piano. Then at the little wooden bench his mother had made for his sister.
And finally, he looked back at the woman in the red dress.
His voice was almost a whisper. “Vanessa…”
She started shaking her head violently, tears ruining her makeup. “No, Luca, it’s a lie! It’s an old lie!”
He held up the small piece of paper for her to see.
“My mother wrote Isabella’s name on this,” Luca said.
Vanessa said nothing. She just sobbed.
Luca read the next line on the paper. His face changed completely. The sadness vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating, terrifying realization.
May you like
He slowly turned his head toward the grand staircase in the foyer.
“Where is my sister?” Luca asked.
