Chapter 2 - THE LOCKED STUDY AND THE BLUE-BACKED FOLDER
Luca slowly dragged his gaze away from Vanessa and looked back down at my pale, terrified face.
"Are you afraid of losing your job if you tell me the truth?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.
My eyes burned with hot, frustrated tears that I refused to let fall.
"Yes, sir," I whispered honestly.
"You won't lose your job," he stated with absolute finality. "Not here, and not anywhere else in this city if I have anything to say about it."
Vanessa let out a sharp, uncomfortable laugh that sounded more like a dry cough.
"Honestly, she's making this whole thing much more dramatic than it actually was," she said, trying to regain control of the room's atmosphere.
Luca turned his entire torso toward her, his expression darkening like a gathering storm cloud.
"You said you were there when it happened?"
Her glossy smile tightened into a thin, dangerous line.
"I never actually said I was standing right beside her, Luca."
He watched her in stony silence for another full second, letting the weight of her contradiction settle over the table like lead.
Then, without warning, he pushed back his chair and stood up to his full, imposing height.
"Olivia, leave the platter right here on the sideboard," he instructed.
"I can finish serving the main course, Mr. Moretti, please," I stammered, terrified of being dismissed in disgrace.
"You're done for the evening," he said firmly. "Go downstairs."
"Please, sir, I really need these working hours for my rent," I pleaded, my voice cracking slightly.
"You will be paid for the full week, regardless," he replied, cutting off any further debate.
He turned his gaze toward the head housekeeper standing stiffly near the kitchen doors.
"Mrs. Carter, take Olivia upstairs to the private medical suite right now," Luca commanded. "Have Dr. Harris examine that face thoroughly and document everything."
Vanessa dropped her crystal wine glass back onto the table with a sharp clink that made several guests flinch.
"She doesn't need any damn doctor, Luca!" she snapped, losing her composure in front of her high-society friends.
Luca turned his head and looked directly into her wide, panicked eyes.
"How do you know what she needs?" he asked softly.
Absolute, pin-drop silence fell over the entire dining room. Twenty-six influential people sat frozen, not daring to breathe or whisper.
I turned slowly on my heel and started walking toward the service doorway.
"Olivia," Luca's voice called out, stopping me dead in my tracks.
I froze, my hand hovering near the brass doorknob.
"Was Vanessa alone in the guest wing when you hurt your face?"
My stomach dropped into a bottomless abyss.
I looked toward Vanessa without meaning to, my eyes betraying my terror.
She was staring directly at me with a look that promised absolute ruin if I uttered a single syllable.
"No, sir," I whispered into the quiet room.
Luca's expression shifted from cold curiosity to something far more dangerous.
"Who else was in that room with her?"
I couldn't answer. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.
Vanessa slammed her napkin onto the table and forced a brittle, shaking smile for the surrounding guests.
"Darling, surely this pathetic interrogation can wait until after our guests have gone home," she said through clenched teeth.
Luca ignored her entirely, keeping his gaze locked on my trembling shoulders for several agonizing seconds before giving a curt nod.
"Go get yourself examined by the doctor," he told me quietly.
I slipped through the doorway and disappeared into the quiet corridors of the mansion.
For the next forty minutes, Luca behaved in the dining room as though nothing unusual had occurred.
He finished his meal with slow, deliberate movements.
He politely discussed the upcoming wedding venue with the city's district attorney sitting to his right.
He patiently listened to the endless chatter of his wealthy guests.
He even offered a polite, distant smile when Vanessa brightly mentioned their lavish upcoming honeymoon in the Amalfi coast.
By the time dessert was served and cleared, Vanessa had visibly relaxed into her chair.
She genuinely believed that Luca's brief burst of suspicion had passed and that he had forgotten all about my bruised cheek and the awkward questions at the table.
At precisely 10:17 PM, the last of the formal dinner guests departed, and Vanessa excused herself to go upstairs to her bridal suite.
Luca waited in the downstairs hallway until he heard her bedroom door click shut upstairs.
Then, walking with silent, purposeful strides, he entered his private oak-paneled study and locked the heavy door behind him.
He walked straight to his mahogany desk and picked up his secure satellite phone.
"Daniel," he said the moment the line connected to his head of security in the basement surveillance hub. "Pull the upstairs hallway security cameras from three-thirty this afternoon until four-thirty."
"Right away, boss. Give me five minutes to isolate the corridor feeding the west guest wing," Daniel's voice crackled through the speaker.
Five minutes later, the high-definition footage appeared on Luca's large wall-mounted monitor, illuminating the dark study in a cool blue glow.
The digital timestamp in the corner read 3:47 PM.
The video showed me walking down the plush hallway carrying a stack of fresh white towels toward the VIP guest suite.
Both sides of my face were perfectly clear, untouched, and unblemished.
Two minutes later, at 3:49 PM, Vanessa appeared from around the corner.
She wasn't walking alone.
A tall, broad-shouldered man wearing an expensive dark gray Italian suit followed closely behind her into the room.
Luca leaned closer to the screen, his eyes narrowing into thin slits.
He studied the man's face carefully, but he didn't recognize him from any business circles or family gatherings.
"Keep playing it at normal speed," Luca instructed, his voice flat.
Four minutes passed on the silent hallway camera.
Then, the heavy oak door of the guest room clicked open.
I appeared in the doorway, clutching the remaining towels to my chest.
Vanessa followed me out instantly, her face twisted in an expression of cold fury.
Before I could take another step away, she lunged forward, grabbed my arm, and violently pulled me back across the threshold into the room.
I tried to twist away from her grip, dropping a towel to the floor.
At that exact moment, the strange man in the dark gray suit stepped forward to block my exit.
A second later, I stumbled backward out into the hallway, losing my balance and striking my left cheekbone with sickening force against the sharp wooden doorframe.
Luca stood up so fast his heavy leather chair rolled backward and slammed against the mahogany bookshelves.
"Pause it right there," Luca ordered.
Daniel froze the video frame instantly.
For several long seconds, Luca said absolutely nothing, his chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths of pure rage.
Then he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, "Who the hell is that man?"
"We're checking his face against facial recognition databases now, boss," Daniel replied instantly over the comms.
"Where did he go after I left the study?"
Daniel advanced the footage at double speed.
The tall man in the gray suit left the mansion through the discreet service staircase at precisely 4:09 PM.
Vanessa followed him out three minutes later, adjusting the cuffs of her blouse.
And I didn't stagger out into the hallway until 4:16 PM, holding my bruised face in my hands.
Luca stared fixedly at the paused screen, his knuckles resting heavily on the desk.
"Find out what he was doing inside my private house," Luca commanded.
Ten minutes later, the phone buzzed sharply on the desk.
Luca snatched it up on the first ring.
"Boss, we got a hit on his identity," Daniel reported.
"Who is he?"
"His name is William Mercer."
Luca frowned deeply, rolling the unfamiliar name over in his mind.
"Should I know him? Is he connected to any of the rival families?"
"No, boss," Daniel said grimly. "He's a high-end private investigator based out of downtown Chicago."
Luca slowly stood up from his chair, his shadow stretching across the dark room.
"Who hired him?" Luca demanded.
May you like
Daniel hesitated for a brief second on the other end of the line.
"Vanessa did, boss."
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