Chapter 3 - THE BOY WITH THE GRAY EYES
The front door of the little blue house flew open again.
Luca stepped out into the pouring rain.
He was not alone.
A small boy stood beside him, clutching the hem of Luca's expensive wool coat.
The boy looked up with wide, unmistakable gray eyes.
The exact shade of Luca's eyes.
My breath caught in my throat.
Sal stared through the windshield, his jaw slack.
"Merciful heaven," the old man whispered.
Luca lifted the child effortlessly into his arms.
He shielded the boy's head from the relentless rain with his broad hand.
He carried him straight toward the black sedan.
The back door swung open.
Luca slid inside, tucking the child safely against his chest.
The little boy didn't cry.
He didn't make a sound.
He just stared at Luca with quiet curiosity.
Luca pulled the door shut, locking us inside away from the storm.
The cabin was dead silent except for the patter of rain on the roof.
Luca looked down at the child.
His voice was uncharacteristically gentle, trembling at the edges.
"What is your name, son?"
The boy blinked.
"Leo."
"How old are you, Leo?"
"Six. Today is my birthday."
Luca's chest rose and fell in a sharp, painful gasp.
He looked up at me in the front seat, his reflection distorted in the rearview mirror.
"Today," Luca repeated, his voice hollow.
His birthday was the same day Vanessa had attended a charity gala across town.
A gala she claimed she attended alone.
"Mr. Moretti," Sal began softly from the driver's seat, "what do we do now?"
Luca looked down at the boy's small hand.
One of his red mittens was missing.
The other was clutched tightly in Leo's pocket.
"We go back to the mansion," Luca said.
His tone had turned glacial.
The warmth was gone.
Replaced by a cold, calculated fury that terrified me.
"Mr. Moretti," I turned around in my seat, "Vanessa is still at the engagement dinner."
"I know."
"If we walk in there with him..."
"Let them all watch," Luca interrupted.
He looked out the window as Sal put the car in gear.
The faded blue house receded into the rainy night.
Inside my coat pocket, my fingers curled into fists.
Vanessa had lied.
She had hidden a child away for six years.
May you like
And tonight, her perfect world was about to collapse.
[CLIFFHANGER: As our car pulled through the iron gates of the mansion, I saw Vanessa's red sports car parked in the driveway—she had slipped away from her own engagement party.]
