Chapter 8
Emily did not move from her place at the kitchen table.
“Let her in,” she said. “And tell her she can speak to me here.”
Daniel glanced toward Luca, then waited for Emily to nod before heading back down the hall.
Luca’s hands curled against the table’s edge. He looked ready to stand between his daughter and whatever Vanessa might say. But after a moment, he lowered his hands.
Emily noticed.
“Dad, you can stay,” she said. “But please don’t answer for me.”
“I won’t.”
Mr. Patel pulled out a chair beside Emily. I took the one on her other side. Luca remained across from her, his face carefully still.
When Daniel returned, Vanessa followed him into the kitchen.
Her red silk gown looked out of place beneath the bright overhead lights. She had no coat, though the night air outside was cold. For a second, her gaze passed over Emily, Luca, and the papers spread across the table.
Then she saw me.
“Claire,” she said.
“Vanessa.”
Her eyes lingered, as if she were trying to decide whether I had told Luca what I’d seen. I kept my hands folded in my lap.
Emily gestured to the chair across from her.
“You said you wanted to explain the property documents. Sit down.”
Vanessa looked at Luca.
“Emily asked you to speak to her, not me,” Emily said. “You can listen.”
Vanessa sat.
No one offered her coffee. No one asked how she was. The silence made the scrape of her chair sound louder than it should have.
Emily rested both hands on the table.
“Start with the calls.”
Vanessa’s chin lifted slightly.
“What calls?”
“The nineteen calls I made to Dad. The ones you answered.”
Luca’s expression tightened, but he didn’t speak.
Vanessa smoothed the skirt of her dress. “You’re upset, and I understand that.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I thought it would be better to wait until—”
“Until what?”
Vanessa glanced again at Luca. He stayed silent.
“Until things were settled between your father and me,” she said at last. “The engagement, the family arrangements. There was a lot happening.”
“So you told me he didn’t want to speak to me?”
“I said that?”
“You told me he was ashamed of me. You said my baby would be another mistake he’d have to fix.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened. “I may have been blunt.”
“You lied.”
“I was trying to keep a difficult situation from getting worse.”
Emily stared at her.
“Was that what you called it when you hung up on me?”
Vanessa’s gaze flicked to me.
I felt Emily turn slightly toward my chair, but she kept her eyes on Vanessa.
“Claire told us what she saw,” Emily said. “She saw you answer my call the night I drove here. She saw you end it.”
Vanessa’s expression changed. Only a little—but enough. Her shoulders stiffened. One hand pressed flat against the table.
“You were in the hallway,” she said to me.
“Yes.”
“You could have misunderstood.”
“I saw you put the phone down.”
“That’s not the same as knowing what the call was about.”
“It was my daughter calling me,” Luca said, voice low.
Vanessa turned toward him. “I didn’t know that.”
“You answered my phone and told Emily I didn’t want to talk to her,” he said. “How could you not know?”
For the first time, Vanessa looked genuinely cornered. She turned back to Emily.
“I thought I was doing damage control.”
The words seemed to hang there.
Emily gave a small, disbelieving laugh.
“Damage control for what?”
“For the timing. You were pregnant, and your father was under pressure. I thought bringing everything up at once would turn into a scene.”
“You didn’t know I was pregnant.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know I wanted to tell him.”
“No,” Vanessa said, her voice sharper now. “But I knew he was already dealing with too much.”
“And you decided I was one more problem.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You said my baby was another mistake.”
Vanessa looked down. It was the first time she had seemed unable to find a smooth answer.
I wanted to reach across the table and take Emily’s hand. I didn’t. She had not asked me to, and this was her conversation to control.
Luca drew a slow breath. “You made that decision for me.”
“I was trying to protect what we had.”
“What we had?” Emily asked. “You mean your engagement dinner?”
Vanessa’s face flushed.
“I didn’t want the evening to become about your personal problems.”
Emily sat straighter. “My baby isn’t a personal problem. And my father’s relationship with me isn’t yours to manage.”
“No one is saying—”
“You keep saying you were protecting things. But you decided who Dad spoke to, what I was allowed to know, and whether I could come into this house. You didn’t protect anything. You controlled it.”
Vanessa’s fingers pressed against the table.
Mr. Patel shifted the folder in front of him. “Ms. Bellini, Emily also asked you about the access to the basement cabinet.”
Vanessa looked at him, then at Emily.
“I gave them the code.”
“Who?” Emily asked.
“The property company.”
“Bellini Property Services?” Patel asked.
Vanessa’s hesitation was brief, but unmistakable.
“Yes.”
“Why did they need access to my house?”
“They said the property needed to be verified.”
“Verified for what?”
“The company was handling the paperwork.”
“What paperwork?” Patel asked.
Vanessa looked at Luca, as if she expected him to step in. He did not.
“The house was going to be transferred,” she said.
“Transferred by whom?” Patel asked.
Vanessa’s eyes shifted back to Emily.
“The company told me they had a way to resolve the ownership issue.”
Emily blinked. “What ownership issue?”
“I was told there was a question about the house.”
“There isn’t. Dad transferred it to me three years ago.”
“I know what the deed says.”
“Then why did you arrange for people to come inside?”
“I didn’t arrange for anyone to take your belongings.”
“You sent a locksmith to open Mom’s cabinet. You told me to remove her things before Friday. And your company filed a claim against my house.”
“I didn’t file anything.”
Patel opened his folder. “Bellini Property Services filed the claim. The packet included an authorization with a date that conflicts with the receipt date. The company has not provided proof that Emily approved the proposed transfer.”
Vanessa’s face went still.
“Did you see that authorization before it was submitted?” Patel asked.
“I saw paperwork.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I was told it had been handled.”
“By whom?”
She didn’t answer.
Emily took the photocopy from the edge of Patel’s folder. She had already studied it, but now she laid it between them, turning it so Vanessa could see.
“That signature is supposed to be mine.”
Vanessa looked down.
“I never signed it,” Emily said. “And it doesn’t match my signature. You knew I never agreed to transfer my house.”
“I never said you agreed.”
“You helped them get inside.”
“I thought they were checking the records.”
“They were trying to get into the cabinet.”
Vanessa’s gaze moved toward the basement door. The door was shut, and the cabinet was no longer visible from the kitchen. Still, she stared as if the lock were right in front of her.
“What did you think was in there?” Emily asked.
“I didn’t know.”
“Then why give them the code?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
Patel leaned forward, calm and deliberate. “If you have documents that clarify what Bellini Property Services claimed, we need to see them. Especially anything connected to Emily’s authorization or the proposed transfer.”
“There is nothing to see.”
“Then it should be easy to provide the full file.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I’m asking for records that may affect my client’s property.”
“And I’m telling you this is more complicated than a signature on a form.”
Emily’s voice remained even. “Then explain it.”
For a moment, I thought Vanessa would refuse. She looked from Emily to Luca, then to me. Her anger seemed to struggle with something closer to fear.
“You think I wanted to hurt you,” she said.
“I think you made choices that hurt me. What you wanted is something you can explain.”
“I was trying to keep things from collapsing.”
“Whose things?”
Vanessa stood so abruptly that her chair scraped backward.
Daniel appeared in the doorway, but Emily lifted a hand. He stopped.
“Sit down,” Emily said. “You asked to talk.”
Vanessa looked as though she might leave anyway. Then her gaze fell on the paper with Emily’s disputed signature.
She sat again.
“You don’t understand what your mother kept in that cabinet,” she said.
Emily’s expression hardened. “You told me you didn’t know what was in it.”
“I said I didn’t know everything.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.” Vanessa looked down at her hands. “It isn’t.”
Luca’s voice was barely above a whisper. “What did you know?”
Vanessa’s face tightened. “I knew there was a missing page.”
“Which page?” Patel asked.
“The one referenced in the papers. The attorney sheet.”
Patel exchanged a glance with Emily but said nothing.
“You knew it was missing?” Emily asked.
“I knew your mother kept records. I knew some of them could cause trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
Vanessa swallowed. For the first time since she had entered the house, she seemed unable to keep her voice steady.
“If you find that page, you’ll know why I was afraid of what was in the cabinet.”
“Afraid of what?” Emily asked.
May you like
Vanessa looked straight at her.
“The missing page would prove I had a reason to fear the cabinet.”
