Chapter 3 - The Man Upstairs
Matteo Moretti entered the drawing room smiling.
At sixty-three, he still carried himself with the relaxed confidence of a man accustomed to being welcomed.
“Luca.”
Luca embraced him.
Grace watched from the doorway.
Nothing about Matteo appeared threatening.
That bothered her.
People expected dangerous men to look dangerous.
Her grandmother had taught her otherwise.
“The worst snake,” Evelyn used to say, “is the one that learned to live beside your chair.”
Matteo noticed Grace.
“And who is this?”
“The new cook,” Luca said.
Grace saw the tiniest relaxation in Matteo’s shoulders.
“Ah.”
Titan entered.
Matteo’s smile vanished.
Titan stopped between him and Grace.
Interesting.
Matteo extended his hand.
Titan growled.
The room froze.
“Titan,” Luca said.
The dog stopped growling.
But he did not move.
Matteo laughed awkwardly.
“Never liked me.”
Grace watched Luca.
Luca watched his uncle.
For the first time, perhaps, he wondered why.
---
They decided not to confront Matteo.
Not yet.
The documents required verification.
Victor quietly copied everything from the hidden room.
Grace returned to the kitchen.
But nothing felt ordinary anymore.
At seven-thirty, Matteo entered while she was preparing dinner.
“You’re Evelyn’s granddaughter.”
Grace nearly dropped the knife.
She turned.
“I’m sorry?”
Matteo smiled.
“You resemble her.”
“You knew my grandmother?”
“Everyone knew Evelyn.”
Grace placed the knife down.
“She worked here.”
“For many years.”
“Why did she leave?”
Matteo’s eyes changed.
Barely.
“She became frightened.”
“Of what?”
“People become frightened of many things.”
He stepped closer.
Titan appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Matteo stopped.
Grace folded her arms.
“Funny. Grandma never struck me as someone who frightened easily.”
Matteo smiled again.
“No. She didn’t.”
Then he left.
Grace waited until his footsteps disappeared.
She found Luca upstairs.
“He knows.”
Luca looked up.
“He knew who I was immediately.”
That mattered.
Grace had not been identified publicly.
Matteo should not have known her surname.
Victor joined them.
“We checked the ledgers.”
The financial records showed decades of theft.
Millions moved through shell companies.
But the transactions stopped twelve years earlier.
“Why stop?” Grace asked.
“Maybe whoever was responsible got what they wanted,” Victor said.
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to the final ledger entry.
A transfer.
Nine million dollars.
Destination unknown.
Next to it Isabella had written:
Insurance for Luca. Evelyn knows.
Grace stared.
“My grandmother lived in a one-bedroom apartment.”
“Then she didn’t take it,” Luca said.
Victor examined the papers.
“There may be another account.”
Grace suddenly remembered something.
“My grandmother had a safe-deposit box.”
Luca looked up.
“She left me the key.”
---
The bank opened at nine.
Grace, Luca, and Victor arrived together.
Inside the box were no diamonds.
No cash.
Only a cassette tape and a sealed envelope.
The envelope contained legal documents establishing a trust.
Nine million dollars.
Not for Evelyn.
For Luca.
Isabella had hidden money outside Moretti-controlled accounts so her son could escape if necessary.
Grace looked at him.
“Your mother was protecting you.”
Luca stared at the documents.
For twenty years he had believed his mother died suddenly and left him.
Now he understood.
She had been preparing for something.
The cassette was worse.
They found an old player.
Isabella’s voice filled the room.
“If Luca hears this, then I failed.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Grace touched his arm.
Isabella described confronting someone stealing from the family.
She never said Matteo’s name.
But she said something more important.
“He is not acting alone.”
Victor leaned forward.
The recording crackled.
“There is someone inside the house helping him.”
Then silence.
The tape ended.
Victor swore quietly.
Luca looked at him.
“Someone inside the house.”
Victor nodded.
“Then or now?”
Grace asked.
Nobody knew.
When they returned to the estate, Edwin met them.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“What?”
“The hidden room.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What about it?”
“Someone entered it while you were gone.”
They rushed downstairs.
The chest had been emptied.
Every original document was gone.
Victor checked the camera.
Disabled.
Only four people knew the room existed.
Luca.
Grace.
Victor.
And whoever had been watching them.
Grace looked at Luca.
“You have a traitor.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Then Titan began barking upstairs.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
They ran.
Titan stood outside Grace’s apartment.
The door was open.
Inside, everything had been searched.
Drawers emptied.
Boxes overturned.
Her grandmother’s jewelry scattered across the floor.
Grace rushed toward the wooden box.
Empty.
The photograph was gone.
Then she noticed something on her pillow.
A folded piece of paper.
She opened it.
Three words had been written in black ink.
EVELYN LIED TO YOU.
Grace stared at it.
Luca stepped beside her.
“What does that mean?”
Grace slowly looked toward the photograph that had been stolen.
“My grandmother told me my father died before I was born.”
Luca waited.
Grace’s face drained of color.
“She never showed me a grave.”
And for the first time, Grace wondered whether the secret hidden inside the Moretti estate was not merely about Luca’s family.
May you like
Maybe it was about hers too.
---
