Chapter 3 - What the Maserati Carried
Vanessa shoved a chair beneath the hospital-room handle.
Emma grabbed her phone.
Luca’s voice remained in her ear.
“What happened?”
“Someone’s outside.”
“Stay away from the door.”
The handle jerked.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Emma’s heart hammered.
The fetal monitor accelerated.
Vanessa backed toward the window.
“What do we do?”
Luca answered as if she had asked him directly.
“My people are ninety seconds away.”
Emma stared at the door.
“Your people were already here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant left the hospital.”
That wasn’t an explanation.
Footsteps approached from the hallway.
A male voice.
“Hospital security.”
Vanessa didn’t move.
Emma whispered, “How do we know?”
“Ask his name,” Luca said.
Emma raised her voice.
“Who is it?”
“Security. Open the door.”
“Your name?”
Silence.
Then footsteps retreated.
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Luca said, “Do not follow him.”
Emma heard other voices.
A scuffle.
Something struck the wall.
Thirty seconds later came another knock.
Three slow taps.
“Ms. Hart?” a man called.
Emma’s maiden name.
Luca said, “That’s mine.”
Vanessa moved the chair.
Two men entered.
Neither looked theatrical.
Dark jackets.
Plain clothes.
Alert eyes.
One checked the bathroom.
The other spoke into an earpiece.
“Clear.”
The hospital security officer arrived moments later, furious and confused. Someone wearing stolen scrubs had accessed a staff hallway before disappearing through a stairwell.
Emma listened without speaking.
Someone had come for Vanessa.
Or the key.
Or both.
Luca arrived ten minutes later.
This time he wore a dry black coat over a fresh shirt.
He looked less like the drenched stranger who had carried Emma from the sidewalk.
More like the man Grant feared.
The room seemed smaller when he entered.
His eyes found Emma first.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Then he looked at Vanessa.
She took a step backward.
“Mr. Romano.”
“Ms. Cole.”
“You know her,” Emma said.
“I know who she is.”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
Luca pulled a chair near Emma’s bed.
“Show me the key.”
Emma did not immediately hand it over.
His eyes dropped to her fist.
“You told me not to go to the locker.”
“Correct.”
“Then tell me why.”
“Because someone may be watching it.”
“Who?”
“If I knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Emma studied him.
“Grant?”
“Maybe.”
“You don’t know?”
“Grant’s scared. Scared men become unpredictable.”
Vanessa whispered, “He’s more than scared.”
Luca turned.
“What did he tell you?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Emma said, “If we’re doing secrets again, everyone can leave.”
Luca’s mouth almost curved.
Vanessa seemed less amused.
“Grant told me someone had found the original ownership records.”
Luca’s expression sharpened.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t say.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Vanessa closed her eyes, remembering.
“He said, ‘The old man kept a second book.’”
Luca went still.
Emma noticed.
“What old man?”
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“My uncle.”
Emma looked between them.
“What second book?”
Luca leaned back.
“My uncle Carlo kept handwritten records for properties he believed were vulnerable to fraud.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t trust computers.”
Vanessa gave a humorless laugh.
“He was right.”
Luca ignored it.
“If Carlo recorded the Rainier property before he died, there would be proof the transfer was fabricated.”
Emma held up the key.
“In locker 417?”
Vanessa nodded.
“I copied everything Grant kept in his private office. But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“I took a ledger.”
Luca stood.
“What ledger?”
“A small black notebook.”
His face changed.
For the first time, Emma saw something close to alarm.
“You have Carlo’s ledger?”
Vanessa nodded.
“I found it in Grant’s safe.”
Luca’s voice dropped.
“How did Grant get it?”
“I don’t know.”
Emma stared.
“If your uncle had it when he died…”
Luca finished.
“Someone removed it.”
Nobody spoke.
The implications were suddenly far worse than forged real estate documents.
Emma pressed both hands over her belly.
Her child moved again.
A rolling kick.
Life continuing inside her while the adults outside seemed determined to destroy one another.
Luca noticed.
“You need rest.”
“I need truth.”
“You need both.”
Emma almost argued.
Then a nurse entered with medication and instructions.
Luca moved away.
Vanessa sat near the wall.
When the nurse left, Emma looked at Luca.
“What happens if the ledger proves Grant committed fraud?”
“He goes to prison.”
His answer was immediate.
“Not you?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe you’ll just hand it to police?”
“I have attorneys.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Luca met her gaze.
“What do you think I do, Emma?”
She thought of rumors.
People vanishing.
Businesses changing hands.
Men lowering their voices when his name came up.
“I don’t know.”
“Good.”
That surprised her.
“Good?”
“You don’t know me. Keep it that way until you have facts.”
Grant had spent years telling Emma what to think.
About his employees.
About her friends.
About Vanessa.
About her own instincts.
Luca told her not to trust him blindly.
The contrast unsettled her.
Vanessa stood.
“We need to get the locker.”
Luca turned.
“No.”
“If Grant gets there first—”
“He probably already tried.”
Vanessa paled.
“What?”
“My man checked the station five minutes ago.”
“And?”
“Locker 417 was still closed.”
Emma said, “So we go now.”
Luca looked at her belly.
“You’re staying here.”
“It’s my key.”
“I’ll take it.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
She held his gaze.
“You don’t get to order me around because my husband did a terrible job protecting me.”
A long pause.
Then Luca laughed quietly.
Vanessa stared at him as if she had never heard that sound.
“Fine,” Luca said. “You keep the key.”
“And tomorrow?”
“If your doctor clears you to leave, I’ll take you.”
Emma blinked.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if that notebook belonged to Carlo, I want to see it.”
“At least that’s honest.”
“I try.”
Vanessa snorted.
Luca looked at her.
“Not with everyone.”
For the first time that night, Emma almost smiled.
Then her phone rang.
Grant.
She watched it until the screen went dark.
A voicemail arrived.
Emma played it on speaker.
Grant sounded breathless.
“Emma, listen to me. Vanessa is lying to you. Romano is using her. You need to leave the hospital with me now. I’m coming back. Do not go anywhere with him.”
A pause.
Then Grant added something stranger.
“And whatever Vanessa gave you, don’t open it.”
The voicemail ended.
Emma looked at Vanessa.
“How does he know?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I never told him.”
Luca took out his phone.
He called someone.
“Check Cole’s apartment. Now.”
Vanessa stiffened.
“My apartment?”
“If Grant knew you planted something on Emma, he knows more than we assumed.”
Emma remembered the tag.
IF EMMA GETS HURT.
“You planned for me to get this.”
Vanessa looked ashamed.
“I planned for you to get it if something happened.”
“How?”
“I put the key inside your cardigan pocket at the hotel.”
“When?”
“Before you came outside.”
Emma’s stomach turned.
“You knew something might happen.”
“I knew Grant was panicking.”
“You let me get out of the car.”
“I thought he’d take care of you.”
Emma stared at her.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I know how stupid that sounds now.”
Emma wanted to hate her cleanly.
It would have been easier.
But Vanessa looked like a woman who had made one selfish decision after another until she finally realized she was standing inside consequences she could no longer control.
“Why help me now?”
Vanessa answered softly.
“Because when you fell, he didn’t run to you.”
Emma said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“He looked at the Maserati first.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?”
“He looked at the car.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca was listening now.
Vanessa took a shaky breath.
“He watched the Maserati drive away before he looked at Emma.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What was in the car?”
Vanessa frowned.
“Nothing.”
“Think.”
“My laptop. Purse. Grant’s overnight bag.”
“What overnight bag?”
“A black leather one. He put it in the trunk after dinner.”
Emma remembered.
Grant had carried a bag downstairs despite telling her they were only stopping at the hotel for a meeting.
At the time she had assumed it belonged to Vanessa.
“What was inside?” Emma asked.
Vanessa shook her head.
“I never checked.”
Luca’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression hardened.
“Where?”
Another pause.
“Don’t touch anything.”
He ended the call.
“What?” Emma asked.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“Your Maserati was found six blocks from your apartment.”
Emma corrected him automatically.
“Our Maserati.”
Luca looked back at her.
“Not anymore.”
She almost asked what that meant.
Then he continued.
“The trunk was open.”
Vanessa whispered, “The bag?”
“Gone.”
Emma felt cold.
“Who took it?”
“We don’t know.”
Luca’s phone buzzed again.
This time a photograph appeared.
He stared at it.
Emma held out her hand.
“Show me.”
He hesitated.
“Luca.”
He passed her the phone.
The picture showed the Maserati’s empty trunk.
Rain glistened on black paint.
Across the inside of the trunk lid, someone had written a message in white marker.
Four words.
Emma read them twice.
May you like
Then a third time.
GRANT, SHE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO LIVE.
