Chapter 1 - THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
The stranger's words seemed to drain every sound from Luca Moretti's study.
Vanessa wasn't paying me to steal that watch.
She hired me to find the man whose name is inside it.
And when I told her he was still alive, she offered me twice as much money to make sure you never found out.
For several seconds, Luca didn't move.
Neither did I.
The only sound in the room was the faint ticking of the antique watch lying open on his desk.
It had belonged to his father. Eleven years earlier, the man whose name was written on the tiny folded paper had supposedly died beside him.
Dominic Caruso.
I didn't know who Dominic was. I only knew what Luca's face did when he heard the name.
Everything softened out of it.
Not kindness.
Not relief.
Something colder.
Something that made the two security guards beside the door straighten without being told.
Luca looked at the stranger. "Your name. Your real name."
The man in the gray suit swallowed. "Elias Vane."
"Profession?"
"Private investigator."
Daniel gave a humorless laugh from behind him. "You left that part off the photography contract."
Elias ignored him. His eyes stayed on Luca. "Miss Bellini hired me three months ago. At first, the job was simple. She gave me a photograph of Dominic Caruso and told me to find out whether he had actually died in 2015."
Luca's hand closed around the edge of the desk.
"Why would she ask that?"
"She said it was related to an inheritance dispute."
"And you believed her?"
"I believe whoever pays the retainer."
Daniel took one step forward.
Elias's face tightened. "I found him six weeks ago."
Luca went still again.
"Where?"
Elias glanced at the paper in Luca's hand. "That address. Archer Road. Outside Joliet. He lives under another name. Different driver's license. Different Social Security number. No utilities in his own name. The man has spent eleven years making sure nobody could prove he exists."
I watched Luca look down at the three lines on the yellowed paper.
A name.
An address.
A date.
The date was three days from now.
Saturday.
Luca's wedding day.
"What happens Saturday?" he asked.
Elias hesitated.
Daniel shut the study door.
The click of the lock was very quiet.
"Mr. Vane," Luca said, "this is the moment when you decide whether you were hired by my fiancée or whether you were used by her. Those are two very different positions. Pick the one that keeps you alive long enough to regret tonight."
Elias's color faded.
I should have been terrified by the way Luca said it.
Instead, I remembered Vanessa's fingers closing around my wrist in the pantry.
I remembered the instant she realized I'd seen the watch.
And I understood, with a strange calm, that Luca was not the most frightening person in the mansion that night.
"She wanted proof Caruso was alive," Elias said. "Then she wanted proof of what he knew. I couldn't get close to him. He has cameras, dogs, and at least two men who rotate through the property. So Vanessa changed the job. She said the watch might contain something Caruso needed. She wanted me to take it to him."
Luca stared at him. "You said she paid you to make sure I never found out."
"That came later."
"After what?"
Elias looked toward me.
I didn't like that.
"After I told her Caruso had asked about Hannah Parker."
The room seemed to tilt.
I forgot the pain in my wrist.
"Me?"
Luca's eyes snapped to mine, then back to Elias.
"Why would Dominic Caruso ask about my housekeeper?"
"I don't know."
"Try again."
"I don't know," Elias repeated. "I never spoke to him directly. I used an intermediary. A woman who runs a diner near his place. She called me after I left a photograph and a message. Said Caruso wanted to know whether Hannah Parker still worked at the Moretti house."
My skin went cold.
"He knew my name?"
Elias nodded.
I thought of every ordinary thing I'd done in the last year.
Polished silver.
Changed linens.
Carried trays through rooms where men discussed businesses I pretended not to hear.
Nothing about my life belonged anywhere near a man who had faked his death before I graduated high school.
Luca came around the desk.
"Hannah, did you know my father?"
"No, sir."
"Dominic Caruso?"
"No."
"Anyone named Caruso?"
"No."
He believed me. I could see that.
But belief did not solve the problem.
Daniel's phone vibrated. He checked the screen, then looked at Luca.
"Boss. We have another problem."
"What?"
"Miss Bellini is asking where Vane went. She sent two texts to his phone in the last five minutes."
Elias closed his eyes.
"What do they say?" Luca asked.
Daniel held up the phone he'd taken from him.
"First one: Did you get it? Second one: Do not open the watch in that house."
Luca's gaze dropped to the yellow paper.
Then Vanessa knocked on the study door.
Three slow knocks.
My heart jumped.
"Luca?"
Her voice came through the wood, warm and amused.
"People are leaving. Are you planning to say goodbye to your own guests?"
No one answered.
A second passed.
Then another.
"And have you seen Hannah?" Vanessa asked. "Mrs. Carter said the doctor finished with her."
My breath caught.
Luca looked at Daniel.
Daniel moved silently toward the side door that led into the private library.
Luca pointed at Elias.
Daniel understood immediately.
He took Elias by the arm and moved him out of sight.
Luca then looked at me.
"Can you move quietly?"
I nodded.
It wasn't completely true.
He came closer and lowered his voice.
"Go with Daniel. Stay in the library until I come for you."
"Mr. Moretti—"
"Hannah."
I stopped.
There was no impatience in his face now.
Only focus.
"She already hurt you once today," he said. "I'm not giving her a second opportunity."
Something tightened painfully in my throat.
I followed Daniel through the side door.
He guided me to a leather chair behind a row of bookshelves. Elias remained near the far wall with another guard.
The connecting door stayed open less than an inch.
Enough for sound to travel.
Luca unlocked the study.
Vanessa entered.
"There you are."
Her heels crossed the floor.
"Why was the door locked?"
"I was working."
"At your engagement dinner?"
"It seems I had unfinished business."
A pause.
Then Vanessa laughed softly.
"You're always so dramatic when something annoys you. Was it the maid? Honestly, Luca, I think Hannah has decided she's indispensable."
My stomach twisted.
Luca's voice remained neutral.
"You hired Wallace privately?"
Another pause.
"Who?"
"The photographer."
"Oh. Yes. The studio sent someone else at first and I didn't like his work. I found Wallace through a friend."
"Which friend?"
Vanessa's heels stopped moving.
"Why are you interrogating me?"
"I'm asking my fiancée how she chose the man photographing our wedding."
"Then ask me tomorrow. I'm tired."
I heard fabric move.
Maybe she turned toward the door.
Luca spoke again.
"Vanessa."
She stopped.
"Where is my father's watch?"
Silence.
Even from the library, I could feel it.
"Your father's what?"
"The gold pocket watch from the locked cabinet."
"How would I know?"
"Because you gave it to Wallace this afternoon."
Vanessa did not answer immediately.
When she did, the warmth was gone from her voice.
"Who told you that?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because someone is lying to you."
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
Not denial.
Redirection.
Luca heard it too.
"Was it Hannah?" Vanessa asked.
"I didn't say it was."
"That girl has been trying to make trouble for months."
That was so absurd I nearly laughed.
I spent most days trying not to be noticed.
"Months?" Luca asked.
"You don't see what staff are like when you're not in the room. She watches everything. She listens outside doors. She asks questions."
My face burned.
Daniel looked at me and gave the smallest shake of his head.
Don't react.
In the study, Luca's voice went colder.
"You told me she fell at the service entrance before I asked about her wrist."
Vanessa said nothing.
"You knew exactly how she was injured," he continued. "Because you were there."
"I was trying to stop her from creating a scene."
"By letting a stranger bruise her?"
"You have no idea what happened."
"Then tell me."
A long silence followed.
When Vanessa spoke again, her voice was quieter.
"Luca, there are things about your father you don't understand."
Everything inside me tightened.
"What things?"
"Things he did before he died. Things Dominic Caruso helped him do."
The library went silent.
Elias lifted his head.
Daniel's expression changed.
Luca did not speak for several seconds.
Then he asked the question that changed the entire night.
"How do you know Dominic is alive?"
Vanessa inhaled sharply.
Too sharply.
She understood her mistake immediately.
But it was too late.
Luca had never told her the name on the paper.
He had never told her what Elias had confessed.
And yet she had said Dominic's name as naturally as if the dead man had been sitting beside her at dinner.
The study door opened violently.
Vanessa's heels struck the marble hall.
"Daniel!" Luca shouted.
We moved at once.
Daniel reached the hallway first.
But Vanessa was already running toward the front staircase.
Not toward the exit.
Toward the second floor.
Toward Luca's private rooms.
He followed her.
I should have stayed in the library.
I knew that.
But then I heard Vanessa scream at someone upstairs.
"Get the folder! Now!"
A door slammed.
Daniel cursed and ran.
Luca was only a few steps behind him.
I reached the foot of the staircase in time to see a man in a catering jacket burst from the upper corridor carrying a brown leather file.
He vaulted the last three steps.
Daniel lunged.
The man shoved a silver serving cart between them.
Glass shattered.
Guests screamed from the dining room.
The man raced toward the kitchen.
Vanessa appeared at the top of the stairs.
For the first time that night, she did not look elegant.
She looked terrified.
Luca stopped below her.
"What is in that folder?"
Vanessa's eyes moved toward me.
Hatred sharpened her face.
"Ask your housekeeper," she said.
I froze.
"What?"
Vanessa gripped the banister.
"She knows more than she's telling you."
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Darkness swallowed the staircase.
Someone grabbed my injured wrist.
May you like
And a voice I did not recognize whispered directly beside my ear.
"Dominic said you'd be taller."
