Chapter 2 - The Key Impression That Changed Vanessa’s Story

Vanessa’s accusation should have frightened me.

Instead, it made me angry.

Not the clean kind of anger that gives you courage. Mine shook in my hands and burned behind my bruised eye. I had spent four hours afraid of losing a job that barely kept me ahead of rent, and now the woman who had helped put that bruise on my face was standing in front of me acting as though I were the criminal.

“I didn’t take your case,” I said.

Vanessa’s gaze sharpened.

Luca did not look at me. He watched her.

“You searched Olivia’s room?” he asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You asked Dr. Harris where she was. You came directly here. You know she was upstairs this afternoon, and now you’re accusing her of theft. I’m asking how much of the staff you’ve already questioned.”

Vanessa folded her arms.

“This is my home too.”

“No,” Luca said quietly. “It isn’t.”

That landed.

For the first time, the polish slipped completely from her expression.

They were engaged. Twenty-six people downstairs had spent the evening toasting their future. Yet with four words, Luca had reminded her that every chandelier, every painting, every locked door in the mansion still belonged to him.

I should have enjoyed it.

I didn’t.

Power used against Vanessa was still power, and I had already learned how dangerous it became when people treated it like proof of innocence.

Vanessa glanced at me.

“She has been snooping.”

“I carried towels into a guest room.”

“You listened at the door.”

“I was inside before you came in.”

Her lips parted.

A mistake.

Small, but real.

Luca’s eyes narrowed.

“You knew she was in the room?”

Vanessa recovered quickly. “I saw her leave.”

“You told me you never saw what happened to her face.”

“I didn’t.”

“But you saw her leave?”

Vanessa’s hand tightened around her opposite elbow.

“You’re twisting this.”

“No,” I said.

Both of them looked at me.

My heart hammered.

I continued anyway.

“You pulled me back into the room after I reached the hall.”

Vanessa’s eyes went flat.

“You stumbled.”

“You grabbed my shoulder.”

“You were hysterical.”

“I was trying to get away from you.”

The silence after that felt enormous.

Luca’s face did not change, but I saw the muscle jump once in his jaw.

Vanessa turned to him.

“You are seriously going to take the word of a maid over mine?”

There it was.

Not Olivia.

Not the woman she had cornered.

A maid.

Luca’s answer came slowly.

“I’m taking the hallway footage over both of you.”

Vanessa stopped moving.

He did not tell her how much the cameras showed.

He let her wonder.

That was worse.

A knock sounded behind her.

Daniel stepped into the study carrying a clear evidence bag.

Inside it was a narrow gold case.

Vanessa’s face changed before she could stop it.

Daniel held it up.

“Found this in Mercer’s rental car at the south gate.”

Vanessa stared at it.

Luca looked at her.

“You said Olivia stole it.”

“I said it was missing.”

“You said she knew what she took.”

“She could have given it to him.”

I almost laughed.

“You think I stole your grandmother’s case and handed it to the man who helped trap me in a room?”

Vanessa’s eyes flashed.

Daniel set the bag on the desk.

“Your grandmother used modeling wax?”

I leaned closer.

When the gold case had opened inside the plastic, I could see a shallow bed of pale blue material fitted into one side. Pressed into the surface was the clean negative shape of a small old-fashioned key.

Luca stopped breathing for half a beat.

Vanessa said nothing.

Daniel looked at him.

“Mercer’s car was empty. Driver’s door unlocked. He left his coat, a burner phone, and this.”

“Where is he?”

“We’re working on it.”

Luca picked up the evidence bag without opening it.

“Camille’s key.”

Vanessa gave a short laugh.

“That could be any key.”

“Yes.”

His voice was calm.

“That is why I didn’t say it was hers.”

Vanessa realized her mistake.

So did I.

Luca placed the bag down.

“Go upstairs.”

Her expression hardened. “Excuse me?”

“Use the east suite. Daniel will put someone outside the door.”

“You’re locking me in?”

“I’m asking you not to leave while I determine why the investigator you hired has a key impression hidden inside the sentimental object you just accused my employee of stealing.”

“Your employee?”

She looked at me with open contempt.

“That is what this is about now?”

Luca’s voice became colder.

“This is about the fact that Olivia walked into a room uninjured and came out with a bruise while you and Mercer were inside. Everything else is a privilege I’m giving you time to explain.”

For a second I thought Vanessa might slap him.

Instead she smiled.

It was the same smile she had worn through dinner.

“Fine.”

She turned toward the hall, then stopped beside me.

Her perfume was soft and expensive.

Her voice was softer.

“You have no idea what you stepped into.”

I met her eyes.

“That makes two of us.”

She left.

My knees nearly gave out afterward.

I sat without waiting for permission.

Luca noticed but said nothing.

Daniel’s mouth twitched as if he had almost smiled.

Then his phone vibrated.

He checked it.

“Camille’s office alarm went off twenty minutes ago.”

Luca was already moving.

“Is she there?”

“No. She left before we called.”

“What was taken?”

“Security company says the rear window was forced. Police are on the way.”

Luca grabbed his coat.

I stood.

“Where are you going?”

“To Camille.”

“I’m coming.”

“No.”

The word was immediate.

I stared at him.

He seemed to hear himself.

Then he tried again.

“You’ve been injured. Vanessa knows you heard her. Mercer is missing.”

“And Camille doesn’t know me.”

“She doesn’t need to.”

“She does if you expect her to trust your version of what happened in that guest room.”

He paused.

I pushed.

“Vanessa built this around people not trusting each other. You. Camille. Me. She counted on me being too afraid of losing my job to speak. She counted on Camille being angry enough to believe the worst about you. If you walk into her office with security men and demands, you’re doing Vanessa’s work for her.”

Daniel looked down, suddenly fascinated by his phone.

Luca stared at me.

“What are you suggesting?”

“That you ask.”

The word landed harder than I intended.

Luca’s gaze shifted away.

When he looked back, something in him had settled.

“Do you want to come?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re coming.”

That was different.

I felt it.

So did he.

Twenty minutes later, I sat in the back of a black sedan with an ice pack against my cheek while Chicago slid past the windows in wet streaks of streetlight.

Luca sat across from me.

Daniel drove.

No one spoke until we reached a brick office building near the river.

Camille was waiting in the lobby.

She was not what I expected.

No diamonds. No dramatic entrance. She wore dark trousers, a cream sweater, and a wool coat thrown over one arm. Her dark blond hair was pinned loosely at the nape of her neck.

She looked at Luca first.

Then me.

Her eyes went straight to my face.

“Vanessa?”

I swallowed.

“She grabbed me. I hit the doorframe.”

Camille’s mouth tightened.

“Come upstairs.”

Her office smelled faintly of coffee and broken glass.

A rear window had been covered with plastic. Drawers stood open. Papers had been disturbed, but not scattered randomly. Whoever had searched the room had been looking for something specific.

Camille unlocked a small wall safe.

Empty.

Luca’s shoulders tensed.

“The key?”

“Not here.”

“Where?”

She gave him a look.

“Still not ready to trust me?”

“That depends on whether you still have it.”

“I do.”

She reached beneath her sweater and drew out a thin chain.

A small brass key hung from it.

I stared.

Luca did too.

Camille held it up beside Daniel’s photograph of the wax impression.

The shapes matched.

“Vanessa saw this yesterday,” Camille said.

“How?” Luca asked.

“I was stupid.”

“You aren’t stupid.”

“I took it off because the chain caught on my scarf. It sat on my desk for less than two minutes while I went to get coffee. Vanessa stayed in the office.”

Daniel exhaled.

“Enough time for an impression.”

Camille nodded.

“But the key is useless without knowing what it opens.”

Luca looked around the ransacked office.

“They came back for the location.”

Camille turned toward a shelf.

Then froze.

One framed photograph lay face down.

She picked it up.

The frame was empty.

“What was there?” I asked.

Camille looked at Luca.

“A picture your father took the year before he died.”

“Of what?”

“The old Cermak freight depot.”

Luca’s face changed.

I understood before anyone said it.

The copied key was no longer useless.

Vanessa had the shape.

Now someone had taken the place.

Camille closed her hand around the real brass key.

“We need to go tonight.”

Luca looked at the broken window.

“No. That is exactly what they expect.”

Camille’s expression sharpened.

“For once in your life, don’t confuse control with caution.”

He looked ready to argue.

I spoke first.

“If Vanessa wanted the box opened, why not wait until after the wedding?”

They both looked at me.

I continued.

“Whatever is inside must matter before she marries you.”

The realization passed across Luca’s face slowly.

The engagement was not the finish line.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

It was a deadline.

And somewhere across Chicago, William Mercer had disappeared with a copied key and the location of a depot Luca’s dead father had tried to hide from him.