The Bruise at the Engagement Table
Chapter 01 - The Bruise at the Engagement Table
Olivia Hayes had almost made it around the table.
Three more guests.
That was all she needed.
Her left eye was swelling beneath the dark hair she had brushed carefully across her face, and every time she leaned forward with the silver platter, pain ran from her cheekbone to her temple.
She kept her head lowered.
Twenty-six guests sat beneath the chandeliers in Luca Moretti’s Chicago mansion, celebrating his engagement to Vanessa Bellini.
Men in tuxedos.
Women in silk.
White flowers arranged in bowls that cost more than Olivia’s monthly rent.
She had seventy-four dollars left until payday.
Missing the shift had never been an option.
Neither had telling Luca what she had seen upstairs.
Olivia had worked in the Moretti house for nine months. Long enough to understand which doors stayed closed. Long enough to know Luca noticed everything even when he seemed to be looking elsewhere.
At the head of the table, he wore a black suit and an open-collar white shirt.
Thirty-nine.
Dark hair swept back.
Rugged beard.
Tattoos just visible above one cuff.
He looked less like a man celebrating his engagement than one tolerating a room built around it.
Vanessa sat beside him in deep red satin, diamonds bright at her throat.
Beautiful.
Composed.
Smiling as though nothing ugly had happened upstairs four hours earlier.
Olivia approached with roasted vegetables.
Normally she would serve Luca first, move left, and disappear before anyone remembered her name.
Tonight she kept the injured side of her face turned away.
She thought the hair would be enough.
It was not.
“Olivia.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“Look at me.”
She froze.
Luca set down his fork.
“Your face. What happened?”
Before Olivia could answer, Vanessa spoke.
“She hit her face on the pantry door this afternoon.”
Olivia’s hand stopped over the platter.
Luca turned slowly toward his fiancée.
“The pantry door?”
Vanessa took a sip of wine.
“Yes, darling. She was carrying towels and walked straight into it.”
Olivia stared at the tablecloth.
She had never complained to anyone.
Vanessa knew perfectly well there had been no pantry door.
Luca looked back at Olivia.
“Did you?”
Her throat tightened.
“Yes, sir.”
“When?”
“About four.”
“What were you doing?”
“Putting away supplies.”
Vanessa added immediately:
“She was carrying towels.”
Luca looked at her.
“You saw it happen?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know what she was carrying?”
A tiny pause.
Vanessa smiled.
“She told me.”
His eyes returned to Olivia.
“Did you?”
The answer arrived too slowly.
“Yes.”
Luca noticed.
Of course he did.
“Move your hair.”
Olivia’s fingers tightened around the platter.
“It’s really nothing.”
“Let me see.”
The room had gone quieter without becoming silent.
That was worse.
Olivia tucked the hair behind her left ear.
The bruise was already dark purple beneath the makeup. Swelling covered the cheekbone, and a small scrape ran toward her temple.
Someone near the center of the table lowered his fork.
Luca’s expression changed almost imperceptibly.
“Have you seen a doctor?”
She shook her head.
Vanessa sighed.
“For heaven’s sake, Luca. She bumped her head. Do we really need to interrupt our engagement dinner?”
He ignored her.
“Olivia, did somebody hit you?”
Olivia’s eyes moved toward Vanessa before she could stop them.
A reflex.
One frightened glance.
It lasted less than a second.
Luca followed it.
Vanessa’s fingers tightened around her wineglass.
Luca looked back at Olivia.
“Are you afraid of losing your job?”
Her eyes burned.
“Yes.”
“You won’t.”
Vanessa gave a small uncomfortable laugh.
“She’s making this much more dramatic than it was.”
Luca turned.
“You were there?”
Her smile thinned.
“I never said that.”
He watched her for a beat too long.
Then stood.
“Olivia, leave the platter.”
“I can finish dinner.”
“You’re done for tonight.”
“Please, sir. I need the hours.”
“You’ll be paid.”
He looked toward the head housekeeper.
“Mrs. Carter, take Olivia upstairs. Have Dr. Harris examine her.”
Vanessa placed down her glass.
“She doesn’t need a doctor.”
Luca looked directly at her.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Olivia put the platter on the sideboard.
At the doorway, Luca called her name.
She stopped.
“Was Vanessa alone when you hurt your face?”
Her stomach dropped.
Without meaning to, she looked toward Vanessa again.
“No, sir.”
Luca’s expression became still.
“Who else was there?”
Olivia could not answer.
Vanessa reached for her wine.
“Darling, surely this can wait.”
For several seconds, Luca watched Olivia.
Then he nodded.
“Go get examined.”
She left.
For the next forty minutes, Luca behaved as though nothing unusual had happened.
That was what frightened Vanessa into relaxing.
He finished dinner.
Discussed the wedding date.
Listened to a developer complain about zoning.
Even smiled when Vanessa mentioned Lake Como.
At 10:17, Vanessa went upstairs.
Luca waited until her bedroom door closed.
Then entered his study and called Daniel Russo, his head of security.
“Pull the upstairs hallway cameras from three-thirty to four-thirty.”
Five minutes later, the footage appeared on his monitor.
3:47 p.m.
Olivia entered the second-floor guest room carrying folded towels.
Both sides of her face were perfectly fine.
Two minutes later, Vanessa appeared.
She was not alone.
A tall man in a charcoal-gray suit followed her inside.
Luca leaned closer.
He did not know him.
“Keep playing.”
Four minutes passed.
The door opened.
Olivia appeared.
She made it one step into the hall.
Vanessa grabbed her shoulder and pulled her backward.
The man moved toward them.
Olivia twisted free.
Her left cheek struck the wooden doorframe hard enough to make Luca’s jaw tighten.
She stumbled into the hallway.
Vanessa followed.
The man said something Luca could not hear.
At 4:09, he left through the service staircase.
Vanessa followed three minutes later.
Olivia did not come out until 4:16.
“Pause.”
Daniel froze the image.
“Who is he?”
“We’re checking.”
“Find out.”
Ten minutes later, Daniel called back.
“William Mercer. Private investigator.”
“Who hired him?”
A pause.
“Vanessa.”
Luca looked toward the staircase.
“Find out what he was investigating.”
Before Daniel could answer, Olivia appeared at the study door.
Dr. Harris had examined her.
No fracture.
No concussion symptoms.
Rest.
Ice.
Pain reliever.
Luca looked at her.
“Come in.”
She hesitated.
Then stepped inside.
He turned the monitor.
“Is that the man you saw upstairs?”
Her face went pale.
“Yes.”
“What was he doing with Vanessa?”
Olivia glanced toward the closed door.
Then slowly reached into her apron pocket.
A folded photograph.
She placed it on Luca’s desk.
It showed him leaving a downtown restaurant.
Beside him walked a woman in a cream-colored coat.
Luca recognized her immediately.
Claire Bennett.
His former wife.
A woman he had not spoken to privately in nearly four years until last Tuesday.
He turned the photograph over.
The date was handwritten on the back.
Last Tuesday.
He remembered the afternoon.
They had met to discuss selling the vacation house they still owned jointly in Door County.
Nothing more.
“Where did you get this?”
“Vanessa had a folder.”
“What else was in it?”
“Pictures of your car. The house. Mrs. Bennett.”
Olivia swallowed.
“And pictures of you from different days.”
“Why?”
“She told Mr. Mercer she needed proof you were seeing your former wife again.”
Luca’s face went still.
“Is that why she hurt you?”
Olivia shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why?”
Her voice broke.
“Because I heard what she told him to do with the photographs.”
Luca leaned forward.
“What did she say?”
Olivia looked toward the locked study door.
Then whispered:
“She told him to deliver them to your former wife before the wedding.”
“Why?”
“And tell her you’d been having an affair with Vanessa for five years.”
Luca stared.
Five years.
His marriage had ended four years ago.
The lie was designed carefully.
Not to embarrass him.
To rewrite the end of his marriage.
Luca reached for his phone.
“Daniel. Find Mercer.”
A pause.
“And Vanessa?”
“Don’t tell her anything.”
He ended the call.
Then looked back at Olivia.
“Did you hear why she wanted Claire to believe it?”
Olivia nodded.
Her eyes filled again.
“She said your former wife still has something that belongs to you.”
Luca did not move.
“And if Mrs. Bennett finds out you’re getting married without giving it back…”
Olivia’s voice dropped.
“Vanessa said she never will.”
Luca stared at the photograph.
There were only three things Claire still possessed that had ever belonged to him.
Two were legal documents.
The third was a blue envelope his mother had entrusted to Claire before she died.
May you like
An envelope Luca had spent four years pretending he no longer wanted.
And suddenly his engagement dinner had nothing to do with jealousy.
