Chapter 1 - The Empty Wheelchair
THE MAFIA BOSS CAME HOME TO FIND HIS MAID DRAGGING HIS MOTHER’S EMPTY WHEELCHAIR THROUGH THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY—THEN HE NOTICED THE BLOOD SOAKING THROUGH HER WHITE SLEEVE.
Vanessa Bellini’s voice followed me across the marble floor.
“Get that filthy chair out of here before Luca sees it.”
I tightened my grip on the wheelchair and kept walking.
My left arm was hurting so badly I could barely straighten it. The white bandage beneath my sleeve had begun to turn red, and every movement sent another sharp pain through my elbow.
But I couldn't put the chair down.
Not with twenty-eight guests arriving.
Not with Vanessa watching.
And especially not after what had happened to Mrs. Moretti forty minutes earlier.
My name was Sophie Bennett.
I was twenty-nine, worked as a housemaid at Luca Moretti’s Chicago mansion, and had exactly forty-six dollars left until payday.
Losing my job wasn't an option.
So when Vanessa ordered me to remove the wheelchair from the main foyer, I obeyed.
Even though I knew I should have been upstairs.
Even though someone desperately needed me there.
And especially because I had begun to suspect that the engagement party happening below me was not really a celebration at all.
It was a distraction.
Vanessa stood beneath the enormous chandelier in a red evening gown, greeting guests with a smile polished enough to fool everyone in the room.
Almost everyone.
She glanced toward me.
“Honestly, Sophie. How difficult is it to move one chair?”
I tried to lift the wheelchair over the edge of the rug.
My injured arm gave way.
The wheelchair tipped sideways.
Its metal frame struck the marble with a terrible crash.
Every conversation stopped.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Oh, for God's sake.”
I bent down immediately.
“I'm sorry, ma'am.”
“Apparently, paying someone to do a simple job is asking too much.”
A few guests looked away.
I reached for the wheelchair.
Then a man's voice came from behind me.
“Leave it.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca Moretti stood at the entrance of the foyer.
Thirty-nine.
Black suit.
Dark hair.
Calm expression.
He had the kind of presence that silenced rooms without requiring him to raise his voice.
Men twice his size often lowered theirs around him.
Luca had returned from a business meeting nearly an hour earlier than expected.
Vanessa hurried toward him.
“Darling! I thought you weren't coming until eight.”
Luca barely acknowledged her.
His eyes were on me.
More precisely, on the blood beginning to show through my left sleeve.
“Sophie.”
I froze.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“What happened to your arm?”
Before I could answer, Vanessa laughed.
“She caught it on the garage door. I've already told her to stop making such a fuss.”
Luca looked at his fiancée.
“The garage door?”
“Yes. She's been clumsy all afternoon.”
I stared at the floor.
That was the moment Vanessa made her first mistake.
Because I hadn't been anywhere near the garage.
And Luca knew it.
He turned back toward me.
“Show me.”
“It's nothing, sir.”
“Sophie.”
I slowly pulled back my sleeve.
The bandage was soaked through.
Beneath it, an ugly bruise wrapped around my elbow.
Luca's expression changed.
“Who bandaged this?”
“I did.”
“Did you see a doctor?”
I shook my head.
Vanessa sighed.
“Luca, we're expecting thirty people. Can we please deal with the staff after dinner?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the wheelchair.
Then at my injured arm.
Then back at Vanessa.
“Where's my mother?”
Vanessa's smile remained perfectly in place.
“Resting upstairs. The excitement was too much for her.”
Luca looked at me.
Something in my expression must have given me away.
“Did you take my mother upstairs?”
Vanessa answered immediately.
“Sophie was helping her earlier.”
Luca's eyes never left mine.
“That's not what I asked.”
I gripped the wheelchair handle.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then why is her chair down here?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Because your mother is getting a new one tomorrow. I arranged everything.”
Luca finally turned toward her.
“You arranged what?”
“Her rehabilitation, darling. We've discussed this.”
“No. You discussed it.”
The foyer became painfully quiet.
Luca looked back at me.
“Where is she, Sophie?”
I wanted to answer.
God knew I did.
But Vanessa was standing three feet away, and that afternoon she had already made it clear what would happen if I opened my mouth.
I stared at the floor.
“She's upstairs.”
Luca studied me.
Then he asked quietly, “Are you afraid of losing your job?”
My eyes filled before I could stop them.
“Yes, sir.”
“You won't.”
Vanessa gave an uncomfortable laugh.
“Luca, you're embarrassing her.”
He didn't even look at her.
“I'm going to ask you one more question, Sophie.”
My heart pounded.
“Did you hurt your arm helping my mother?”
Vanessa went completely still.
And that was when Luca knew.
He told his security chief to close the front gates.
Then he turned toward Vanessa.
“Enjoy the party.”
She stared at him.
“Where are you going?”
“To see my mother.”
I followed him upstairs.
Every step made my arm ache.
At the end of the hallway, Luca stopped outside his mother's bedroom.
He opened the door.
The bed was empty.
Her favorite blue cardigan was folded neatly across the chair beside it.
Luca turned toward me.
“Where is she?”
I couldn't speak.
He looked at my bandaged arm again.
Then he noticed something else.
A long scrape across the back of my uniform.
His voice dropped.
“Sophie. What happened this afternoon?”
My eyes finally filled.
“I tried to stop them.”
Luca didn't move.
“Stop who?”
I looked toward the staircase.
“Vanessa hired two men to take your mother away. Mrs. Moretti didn't want to go.”
His expression hardened.
“And your arm?”
I swallowed.
“She was frightened. They were trying to move her wheelchair into the service elevator. I grabbed it before the doors closed.”
“Where did they take her?”
“I managed to get her away from them. I brought her upstairs, but Vanessa came looking for us.”
Luca reached for his phone.
I caught his sleeve with my good hand.
“Please. There's something else.”
He looked at me.
“Your mother told me not to let Vanessa know where she was hiding.”
“Why?”
I shook my head.
“She said Vanessa had been coming into her room at night. She heard her talking to someone.”
Luca went absolutely still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
He stared at me.
Then asked the question I had been dreading.
“Where did you hide my mother?”
I looked toward the far end of the hallway.
“The old sewing room.”
Luca immediately started walking.
But when we reached the room, its door stood open.
The lights were on.
The wheelchair blanket lay on the floor.
And his mother was gone.
Luca turned toward me.
Before either of us could speak, his phone rang.
It was the security chief at the front gate.
“Boss, there's a private medical transport waiting outside. Vanessa says you approved it.”
Luca's face went cold.
“I approved nothing.”
A pause.
“Sir, there's already a passenger inside.”
Luca gripped the phone.
“Is it my mother?”
The security chief hesitated.
“She's refusing to let us see her face.”
Then, from somewhere behind the security chief, a frightened elderly woman's voice came through the phone.
“Tell my son not to trust the woman in the red dress.”
Luca closed his eyes.
It was his mother's voice.
But the next thing she said made him turn and look straight at me.
“And tell Sophie I'm sorry. I should have warned her who Vanessa really is.”
The line went dead.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then Luca stepped toward me.
“What did she mean?”
“I don't know.”
His eyes searched mine.
“You're telling me everything.”
“I am.”
“Every detail.”
I nodded.
Luca's phone rang again.
This time it was Marco, his head of security.
“Boss, the vehicle is moving.”
“Follow it.”
“We already are.”
Luca turned toward the staircase.
“Cancel the party.”
I blinked.
“But everyone is downstairs.”
“That’s not my concern.”
We descended together.
The ballroom had filled with champagne glasses, expensive perfume, soft music, and people pretending nothing unusual was happening.
Vanessa stood in the center of it all.
She smiled when Luca appeared.
Then her smile faded when she realized Sophie was walking beside him.
“Luca?”
He crossed the room.
“Where is the medical team?”
Vanessa blinked.
“What medical team?”
“The one you supposedly arranged for my mother.”
Her lips parted.
“You misunderstood.”
“No.”
His voice remained quiet.
That made it worse.
“You lied to me.”
Several guests stopped talking.
Vanessa glanced at the room.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
“No.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“Luca.”
He held up his phone.
“Security has footage of your car leaving this house with two men inside the medical transport.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“That doesn't prove anything.”
“It proves enough.”
He turned toward the guests.
“Everyone leaves.”
A murmur swept through the ballroom.
The engagement party ended in less than five minutes.
As guests hurried toward the doors, Vanessa grabbed Luca's hand.
“You don't understand what you're doing.”
He looked down at her fingers.
Then at her face.
“That's what I'm trying to figure out.”
She released him.
I stepped backward, hoping to disappear.
Instead, Luca looked at me.
“Sophie, come with me.”
“To where?”
“To the security office.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You're interrogating your maid now?”
Luca's eyes sharpened.
“No. I'm listening to the only person in this house who hasn't lied to me tonight.”
The words struck harder than I expected.
Vanessa's expression changed.
For one second, fear crossed her face.
And I knew then that whatever Mrs. Moretti had discovered was much bigger than a secret medical transfer.
This wasn't about the wheelchair.
It wasn't even about Vanessa.
May you like
Someone had been hiding something inside the Moretti mansion.
And somehow, I had become the person standing between them and their secret.
