Chapter 7 - VANESSA WANTED TERESA DECLARED INCOMPETENT
The petition called Teresa Moretti mentally unstable.
Forgetful.
Paranoid.
Unable to manage her finances.
I read the accusations twice.
Then looked at the woman sitting beside me.
Teresa remembered everyone’s birthdays.
She did the newspaper crossword in ink.
She once corrected Luca’s attorney on a twenty-year-old property boundary from memory.
And Vanessa wanted a judge to believe she couldn’t decide whether she needed a blanket.
“This is why you kept telling everyone she was confused,” I said.
Vanessa sat across the study under guard.
Her face had become strangely calm.
“You don’t understand what you’re reading.”
“I understand perfectly.”
She looked at me with disgust.
“You’re a maid.”
Luca moved before I could answer.
“Say that like it makes her stupid one more time.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You’re defending her now?”
“I’m defending the person telling the truth.”
“You’ve known her eleven months.”
“I’ve known you fourteen.”
That landed.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“So that’s it? Your mother cries, the maid tells a sad story, and suddenly I’m the villain?”
Luca stepped closer.
“You tried to have my mother declared incompetent.”
“For her protection.”
“You removed her bed.”
“We were preparing the room.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I didn’t.”
Adrian leaned against the wall.
“Carlo did.”
Vanessa’s eyes flickered.
There.
Fear.
Marco saw it too.
He opened another file from Adrian’s drive.
Electronic signature logs connected the forged property authorization to Carlo Bellini’s financial office.
Vanessa looked toward the door.
Luca noticed.
“No one is coming.”
She slowly turned back.
“You think my father is afraid of you?”
“No.”
Luca’s voice was almost gentle.
“He should be afraid of the evidence.”
For the first time, Vanessa stopped pretending.
Her shoulders dropped.
“My father gave your family thirty years of loyalty.”
Adrian laughed.
“He stole from us for twenty.”
“He built half your operation.”
“He buried Hannah’s father.”
Vanessa’s eyes snapped toward me.
That was when I realized she knew.
“You knew Michael Vescari?”
She said nothing.
I stood.
“You knew who I was when you hired me.”
Silence.
My pulse hammered.
“Didn’t you?”
Her smile came back slowly.
“I didn’t hire you.”
I looked at Luca.
He frowned.
“Human resources did.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
Then she looked at Teresa.
“She did.”
Everyone turned.
Teresa closed her eyes.
My voice came out barely audible.
“You brought me here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I saw your application.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
Teresa began to cry.
“Your photograph looked exactly like him.”
My father.
“You hired me because of my father?”
“I needed to know if Evelyn had survived.”
My mother stared at her.
Teresa whispered:
“And because Michael left something with me before he died.”
She rose slowly.
Walked to an old wooden cabinet.
Removed a small key from beneath the lining.
Then handed it to me.
“He said when you were old enough, this belonged to you.”
The key was stamped with a number.
Adrian looked at it.
His face went pale.
“What?”
He stared at me.
“That’s not a house key.”
“What is it?”
“A bank deposit box.”
Teresa nodded.
May you like
And whispered:
“Your father said it contained the one thing Carlo Bellini would kill anyone to find.”
