Chapter 1 - The Bruises Beneath Her Collar
“Move faster.”
Vanessa’s voice followed Sophie Bennett down the second-floor corridor of the Moretti mansion.
“The guests will be upstairs soon.”
Sophie tightened both hands around the handles of Mrs. Moretti’s empty wheelchair and pushed.
Pain shot through her right shoulder.
She swallowed it.
She had become good at swallowing pain.
The black-and-white maid uniform she wore had been torn near the shoulder.
Three small safety pins held the fabric together, though one had already bent.
Beneath it, purple bruises spread across her skin.
There were scratches along her forearm.
Another ran from the back of her shoulder toward her collar.
That one worried her most.
Not because it hurt, but because it was difficult to hide.
“Sophie.”
Vanessa’s heels clicked against the polished floor.
“I said faster.”
“I heard you.”
Sophie immediately regretted answering.
Vanessa stopped.
The silence behind her was worse than the command.
Sophie kept pushing.
The Moretti mansion was beautiful enough to make outsiders forget what kind of family owned it.
Tonight, nearly eighty guests were expected.
Politicians, businessmen, judges.
People who smiled when Luca Moretti entered a room and became considerably less cheerful when he left it.
Officially, Luca owned legitimate businesses across New York.
Unofficially, people whispered another word.
Mafia.
Sophie had learned never to repeat it.
She had been working in the Moretti household for eight months.
Long enough to understand that the most frightening thing about Luca Moretti was not how loudly he could threaten someone.
It was that he almost never needed to.
He possessed a stare that could empty a room faster than a gunshot.
But Sophie had also seen another Luca.
The man who carried his mother downstairs when arthritis made her legs too painful.
That kindness made what Sophie knew now infinitely more dangerous.
Because someone inside Luca Moretti’s own house was betraying him.
And his mother knew who.
The wheelchair caught the edge of the carpet.
Sophie stumbled.
Her shoulder jerked backward.
A safety pin snapped.
The fabric opened.
“Sophie.”
The male voice came from above.
Everything inside her stopped.
Luca Moretti stood at the top of the staircase.
He had returned early.
His eyes narrowed as he looked at the empty wheelchair, then at Sophie.
“What happened?”
Vanessa answered immediately.
“She fell carrying laundry.”
Luca’s gaze moved to Vanessa.
“Laundry?”
“Yes, she made a whole production out of it.”
Luca looked back at Sophie.
His eyes had settled on the torn shoulder of her uniform.
“Turn around.”
Sophie’s stomach tightened.
“Mr. Moretti—”
“Turn around.”
She obeyed slowly.
The movement pulled the torn fabric apart, revealing the bruising.
Luca stepped closer.
“You’ve been working like this?”
Sophie nodded.
His attention shifted back to the wheelchair.
“Where is my mother?”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“She’s resting in her room.”
“No,” Luca said quietly.
He touched the wheelchair handle.
“My mother does not walk upstairs by herself.”
He turned to Sophie.
“Sophie.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered her promise.
“She told me not to let Vanessa find her.”
The mansion became impossibly quiet.
“What?” Vanessa gasped.
Luca did not move.
“Say that again.”
Sophie’s voice trembled.
“Your mother told me to hide her.”
Vanessa stepped forward, her face flushed with anger.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Luca lifted one hand, stopping her instantly.
“Where?” he asked Sophie.
Sophie looked at Vanessa.
Luca noticed and ordered Vanessa downstairs.
Vanessa stared in disbelief before turning and walking away.
Luca waited until her footsteps faded.
“Show me.”
Sophie led him to an old room in the closed west wing, accessed through a hidden panel in the linen room.
She explained how Mrs. Moretti had found suspicious payments in the household accounts and had panicked when someone tried her door.
Sophie had injured herself stopping the wheelchair from tipping while they were running from unseen footsteps.
They navigated the dusty, narrow passage and reached a hidden door.
Sophie knocked using a secret code.
Silence.
Luca pushed past her and opened the door.
The hidden room was completely empty.
A blanket lay on the floor near a shattered glass of water.
Sophie rushed inside, her heart pounding.
She found Mrs. Moretti’s Saint Christopher medal lying beneath the table.
“She was here,” Sophie whispered.
Luca took the medal, his face unreadable.
His phone suddenly rang.
He answered, his expression hardening.
“Lock the gates,” he ordered before hanging up.
He told Sophie the security system had been disabled twelve minutes ago, meaning someone had left the estate.
Then Sophie noticed a folded piece of paper near the broken glass.
She picked it up.
Two words had been written across it in shaky handwriting: BLUE DOOR.
Luca stared at the message, and for the first time, the feared mafia boss looked genuinely afraid.
May you like
“It means my mother discovered something I buried fifteen years ago,” Luca said.
Before Sophie could ask what he meant, the heavy wooden door to the secret passage slammed shut behind them, plunging the room into absolute darkness.
