Chapter 3 - The Call He Avoided for Four Years
Luca had imagined his first real conversation with Elena after the divorce many times.
In most versions, one of them was dying.
That was how thoroughly he had avoided the ordinary possibility that they might simply have to speak.
Now he stood beneath the awning of a River North diner while snow blew sideways across the street, and his former wife sounded tired.
“When?” he asked.
“When did Vanessa contact me?”
“Yes.”
“Seven months ago.”
Seven.
Not three.
Not after the private investigator.
Before Vanessa had ever asked Luca directly about the emerald ring.
“What did she say?”
Elena exhaled. “Luca, it’s midnight.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me why this can’t wait.”
“Because a woman in my house got hurt today after overhearing Vanessa instruct a private investigator to lie to you.”
Silence.
A car passed through slush.
Elena’s voice changed. “Is the woman all right?”
“She will be.”
“Did Vanessa hurt her?”
“She grabbed her. Olivia fell into a doorframe.”
“Olivia.”
Luca heard the name register.
Not employee.
Not maid.
A person.
“Yes.”
Elena was quiet again.
Then: “Vanessa called me in July.”
“What did she want?”
“The ring.”
“Exactly what did she say?”
“She said you wanted your mother’s emerald back but were too proud to ask.”
Luca looked across the street at the red glow of a traffic light reflected on snow.
“I never said that.”
“I knew.”
“How?”
“Because you’re not too proud to ask for things, Luca. You’re too avoidant.”
He almost ended the call.
Four years ago, he would have.
Instead he said, “Fair.”
Elena gave a tired laugh without humor.
“That’s new.”
“What else did Vanessa say?”
“That the ring belonged to the Moretti family and I had no right to keep it now that I wasn’t a Moretti.”
Luca’s hand tightened around the phone.
“My mother gave it to you.”
“I told her that.”
“What did she say?”
“That your mother would have wanted your wife to wear it.”
“Elena—”
“I know what Sofia said. I was there.”
Luca remembered.
His mother sitting at the kitchen table three months before the wedding, pushing the velvet box toward Elena.
Not because you’re marrying my son, she had said. Because you have listened to me complain about him for three years and still agreed to marry him.
Everyone had laughed.
His mother had squeezed Elena’s hand.
Keep it. Whatever happens, I gave it to you.
At the time, Luca had thought whatever happens was his mother being dramatic.
His mother had understood marriage better than he did.
“Why didn’t you tell me Vanessa called?”
Elena’s answer came immediately.
“Because I was not interested in being dragged back into your personal life.”
“She was lying about me.”
“She was asking for jewelry. I said no. I thought that was the end of it.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I understand that now.”
Luca pressed his free hand against the cold metal post beside him.
“Did she contact you again?”
“Twice by text. I blocked her.”
“Do you still have them?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t delete them.”
Elena went quiet.
Then she said, “You sound like we’re building a case.”
“We’re not.”
“Good.”
The firmness in her voice surprised him.
“You don’t want to know what she did?”
“I want Olivia safe. I want Vanessa to stop contacting me. I do not want the next month of my life to become an investigation because you finally noticed a problem in your house.”
The words hit precisely because they were not fully about Vanessa.
Luca stared through the diner window.
Mercer sat in the booth, talking to Daniel.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“You know what it means.”
“Say it anyway.”
Elena took a breath.
“When we were married, you treated every problem like one of your men had brought you a bad shipment. Identify the problem. Control the problem. Remove the problem.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Not yet.”
He said nothing.
She continued, quieter now. “Sometimes people don’t need to be controlled. Sometimes they need to be heard before the problem gets big enough for you to notice.”
Olivia’s bruised face flashed in his mind.
Are you afraid of losing your job?
Yes.
He had wanted credit for promising she would not.
He had not asked why she believed Vanessa could take it away so easily.
“Elena,” he said, “why did you keep the ring?”
Her answer took longer.
“I didn’t keep it to punish you.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. You never asked.”
He closed his eyes.
“All right. I’m asking now.”
“Your mother gave it to me two years before she died. After the divorce, I put it in a safe-deposit box because every option felt wrong. Wearing it felt dishonest. Selling it felt obscene. Mailing it back to you felt like pretending Sofia’s gift had been conditional when she had specifically told me it wasn’t.”
“And giving it to Vanessa?”
Elena laughed once.
“I didn’t know Vanessa.”
“You met her?”
“No. She called me out of nowhere and told me what Sofia would have wanted. That did not improve my opinion.”
Despite everything, Luca almost smiled.
Then Elena said, “There’s something else.”
His smile vanished.
“What?”
“When Vanessa called in July, she already knew details about the ring I had never discussed publicly.”
“What details?”
“The inscription.”
Luca looked up.
Inside the band, in tiny Italian script, his grandfather had engraved three words for his grandmother.
Sempre a casa.
Always home.
Only family knew.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘A ring that says always home shouldn’t be sitting in a bank box across town.’”
Luca’s breath slowed.
“How would she know that?”
“I assumed you told her.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then someone did.”
For half a second, his mind moved toward suspicion the way it always had.
Who knew?
Who talked?
Who betrayed him?
Then he stopped himself.
This was exactly the reflex Elena had just described.
The ring had been photographed at family weddings. His mother had told stories. There were cousins, jewelers, old friends.
Not every fact required an enemy.
“I’ll find out,” he said.
Elena sighed.
“There you go.”
“What?”
“Turning a sentence into an operation.”
He pressed his lips together.
“All right.”
Another pause.
Then, carefully: “Would you meet me tomorrow?”
Elena did not answer at once.
“Why?”
“To talk about the ring. And the vacation house. And probably several things I should have discussed with you years ago.”
“That sounds miserable.”
“It probably will be.”
This time her laugh was real, if brief.
“Coffee,” she said. “Public place. Noon.”
“Fine.”
“And Luca?”
“Yes.”
“Do not bring Vanessa.”
“I won’t.”
He ended the call.
Daniel came outside a minute later.
“Mercer is willing to give a statement.”
“Good.”
“Do you want Vanessa moved out tonight?”
Luca looked toward the dark shape of the skyline.
Every instinct told him yes.
Wake her.
Confront her.
End it now.
But Olivia was injured upstairs. The staff had been working since dawn. Twenty-six guests had only just left. And Luca had spent most of his life believing speed was the same thing as control.
“No,” he said.
Daniel looked surprised.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Boss—”
“I’m not staging a midnight eviction because I’m angry.”
Daniel nodded.
Luca got into the car.
When he returned to the mansion at 12:41, the lights were off upstairs except for one.
Vanessa’s bedroom.
She was awake.
He knew because her silhouette crossed the curtains twice while his car came up the drive.
Inside, Mrs. Carter met him in the foyer.
“Olivia’s asleep in the blue room.”
“Thank you.”
Mrs. Carter hesitated.
“What?” he asked.
She looked toward the staircase.
“Ms. Bellini asked me an hour ago whether the hallway cameras keep recordings permanently.”
Luca slowly removed his gloves.
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
“Which is?”
“That I don’t know.”
He nodded.
Then Mrs. Carter said something that made him stop.
“She also asked me whether you had ever given Elena Russo the emerald ring permanently.”
“When?”
“Last spring.”
Months before Vanessa claimed the subject had ever come up.
Luca looked up the staircase.
The light beneath Vanessa’s door was still on.
And for the first time, he understood that he had not discovered a sudden mistake made by a frightened bride.
May you like
He had discovered a decision she had been rehearsing for months.
