Luca kam auf uns zu, die goldene Geldklammer noch immer fest in der Hand. Er ließ sich schwer auf die Stufe unter uns fallen und blickte zu seinem Sohn auf.
„Oliver“, sagte Luca sanft, jeglicher Zorn war aus seiner Stimme verschwunden. „Warum hast du mir nicht gesagt, dass du im Auto warst?“
Oliver blickte auf seine Schuhe hinunter. „Weil Mama gesagt hat, ich soll mich verstecken.“
Mir stockte der Atem.
„Verstecken?“, fragte Luca stirnrunzelnd. „Wo verstecken?“
„Im Kofferraum“, flüsterte Oliver. „Wir haben ein Spiel gespielt. Sie sagte, wir würden dich im Büro überraschen. Ich bin durch die umklappbaren Sitze nach hinten geklettert.“
Luca closed his eyes, the agonizing image of his wife’s final moments playing out in his mind. “And then what happened, buddy?”
“We stopped at a red light,” Oliver said, his voice tiny. “And Vanessa got in.”
Luca’s eyes snapped open. “Vanessa got into the car?”
“She was yelling,” Oliver explained. “She was telling Mommy that she needed to leave you alone. She said Mommy didn’t belong in the family anymore.”
I tightened my arm around Oliver. The poor boy had been carrying this horrific secret for two years.
“Mommy told her to get out,” Oliver continued. “But Vanessa wouldn’t. She grabbed the steering wheel. They were fighting, Daddy. And then… then we went off the road.”
Luca buried his face in his hands. A ragged, broken sob escaped his throat.
For two years, the police had called it a tragic accident. A slick road, a lost patch of traction.
It was murder.
I reached out, tentatively placing a hand on Luca’s broad shoulder. He didn’t pull away.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said softly. “If Vanessa caused the crash… why did Dominic come here last night? Why give Oliver the money clip now?”
Luca looked up, his dark eyes filled with a terrifying realization.
“Because Dominic isn’t trying to help me,” Luca whispered. “He’s blackmailing Vanessa. He must have known she was in the car. He let her get engaged to me so she would have access to my accounts.”
Suddenly, the front doors burst open.
A security guard rushed in, his face pale, bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
“Boss!” the guard shouted. “They ambushed us at the gate!”
Luca was on his feet in a second, pulling a gun from a shoulder holster hidden beneath his jacket. “Who?”
“Dominic’s men,” the guard gasped. “They hit our transport vehicle. Vanessa is gone. But sir… they didn’t just take her.”
The guard looked directly at me.
“They took the maid’s mother.”
The world tilted on its axis.
“My mother?” I choked out, my hands going completely numb. “No… no, she’s at home. She’s asleep.”
Luca grabbed my shoulders, steadying me as my knees threatened to give out.
“Emma, look at me,” he commanded, his voice a solid anchor in the middle of my panic. “We will get her back. I swear to you on my life.”
He turned to the bleeding guard. “How did they get to Emma’s mother? She lives in the suburbs. It takes forty minutes to drive there.”
“They didn’t go to her house, sir,” the guard explained, wiping blood from his eyes. “Her mother was here. At the service gate. She was dropping off a package for Emily.”
My heart stopped.
The package.
Tomorrow was my birthday. My mother always brought me homemade muffins the night before.
“They grabbed her when they ambushed Vanessa’s escort,” the guard continued. “Dominic’s right-hand man called the gate phone a minute ago. He said if you want the old woman alive, you bring the ledgers to the abandoned rail yard by midnight.”
“The union ledgers,” Luca muttered, his jaw clenching. “Dominic needs them to prove he didn’t steal the money two years ago. He needs them to overthrow me with the Commission.”
“Daddy, I’m scared,” Oliver whimpered, clutching my apron.
Luca crouched down and pulled Oliver into a tight hug. “You are safe, buddy. I have twenty men surrounding this house. Nobody is getting in.”
He stood up and looked at me. “I’m going to the rail yard.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said immediately.
“Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”
“She’s my mother!” I yelled, tears finally spilling over my cheeks. “She is the only family I have left! I am not sitting in a mansion while she gets a bullet to the head!”
Luca stared at me. He saw the fierce, desperate fire in my eyes.
“Fine,” Luca said. “But you stay in the car. And you do exactly what I say.”
He turned to his head of security. “Put Oliver in the basement safe room. Lock it down. Do not open that door for anyone but me.”
Ten minutes later, we were tearing through the rain-slicked streets of Chicago in a heavily armored SUV.
