Chapter 3: What Was on the Phone
Luca held out his hand.
Vanessa looked at it.
Then at him.
"You're being dramatic."
"Give me the phone, Vanessa."
"Luca, I am not going to stand in my own hallway and be treated like—"
"It isn't your hallway."
She went very still.
He didn't raise his voice.
He didn't move toward her.
He simply kept his hand out and waited, the way a man waits who already knows the answer and is only deciding what to do with it.
Her fingers tightened around the evening bag.
"Whatever you think you saw on that receipt—"
"I don't think anything.
Daniel confirmed the call at 9:52.
The clinic has your number on file because you called them twice this week."
Her chin lifted.
"I was making arrangements."
"For what?"
"For after the wedding.
Bruno needs more care than this household can provide.
I was finding him a proper—"
"You signed surrender paperwork in my name and then called to move the appointment up to tonight." He paused.
"What kind of arrangement ends tonight, Vanessa?"
She looked away.
Luca lowered his hand.
He reached into his jacket pocket and removed his own phone.
He dialed Daniel without looking away from her.
"Daniel.
I need you at the front hallway.
Now."
"On my way, boss."
Vanessa's composure shifted — not much, but enough.
Her shoulders dropped a fraction.
Her free hand smoothed the front of her gown.
"You're overreacting," she said.
"He's fourteen years old.
He's in constant discomfort.
I was trying to spare you from having to make a difficult decision."
"By making it for me.
Without telling me.
On the night of our engagement dinner."
"There's never a good time for—"
"His name is on the gate of the kennel my mother built." Luca's voice didn't change.
"She hand-stitched that blanket the winter before she got sick.
Bruno slept at the foot of her bed every night for the last four months of her life." He looked at Vanessa.
"You knew that."
She said nothing.
"You sat beside me when Dr.
Patterson called last week.
You heard everything she said about boarding kennels and anxiety and his hips." He stepped closer.
"And then you waited until I had twenty-six people in my dining room and you couldn't be questioned."
"I didn't think you'd—"
"Give me the phone."
Daniel appeared at the end of the hallway.
Vanessa looked at him.
Then back at Luca.
Something in her expression recalculated.
"Fine." She opened the bag and held out the phone.
"There's nothing on there that—"
Luca took it.
He didn't unlock it immediately.
He looked at her face while he held it, reading something there that made him go quiet in a way that was worse than anger.
He unlocked the screen.
The last open app was a messaging thread.
The contact name at the top read *R.
Caruso.*
Luca scrolled up.
The first message from Vanessa read: *He won't let it go.
We need to move faster.*
The reply: *How much faster?*
Vanessa: *Before the wedding.
Everything needs to be clean before the wedding.*
Luca stopped scrolling.
"Who is R.
Caruso?"
Vanessa's jaw tightened.
"A friend."
"Which friend?"
"Someone who helps me with arrangements."
"What arrangements?"
She didn't answer.
Luca kept scrolling.
Three messages below, Vanessa had sent a photograph.
He enlarged it.
It was a document.
Legal paper.
His mother's estate letterhead at the top.
His name at the bottom.
A signature that was not his.
He looked up slowly.
"Vanessa.
What is this document?"
She smoothed her gown again.
"I don't know what you're—"
"This is my mother's estate.
This is her secondary property on Lake Geneva." His voice was very quiet now.
"This is a transfer of deed.
Dated three weeks ago."
Vanessa said nothing.
"Signed in my name."
Still nothing.
Luca handed the phone to Daniel without looking away from her.
"Get me the estate attorney.
Tonight."
Daniel took the phone and stepped back.
Vanessa's chin came up one final time.
"Luca.
Before you do anything you'll regret — I think you should consider very carefully what you actually know and what you only think you know."
"I know Bruno is at a veterinary clinic in Indiana right now," he said.
"I know you forged my name on surrender paperwork.
I know you moved the appointment up tonight while you were laughing at my dinner table." He glanced at the phone in Daniel's hand.
"And I know you've been communicating with someone about my mother's estate."
He picked up his car keys from the hall table.
"I'm going to get Bruno.
When I come back, I want you out of this house."
Vanessa's hand came up.
"Luca—"
"Daniel will arrange a car for you."
He walked to the door.
Behind him, Vanessa said, "You're making a mistake."
He opened it.
"I made one," he said.
"I'm correcting it."
He left.
The door didn't slam.
It closed with a quiet, final click that was somehow worse.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
She looked back at him.
Then she picked up her evening bag, straightened her gown, and walked calmly toward the staircase.
"I'll need twenty minutes to collect a few things," she said.
"Of course, Miss Bellini."
She paused on the first step.
"Daniel." Her voice was perfectly composed.
"When Luca gets back — tell him I said he should have asked me about the Lake Geneva property before he went looking through my phone."
She continued up the stairs without waiting for a response.
Daniel stood in the empty hallway, Vanessa's phone in his hand, and looked down at the message thread still open on the screen.
He scrolled down past the photograph.
There was one more message.
Sent at 10:07 p.m.
— while Vanessa was still at the dinner table.
It read: *The other matter.
Is it done?*
The reply, timestamped 10:09: *Confirmed for tomorrow.
Same as discussed.*
May you like
Daniel read it twice.
Then he called Luca.
