Chapter 2 - THE GIRL IN THE SNOW
Luca knew something was wrong because the room had become too loud.
Not actually louder. The orchestra still played the same polished Christmas arrangement near the gallery doors. Crystal still touched crystal. Silvio Ricci was still telling a story about a senator who had once mistaken one of his threats for a joke. Valentina was back in her chair, smiling beneath diamonds that flashed every time she turned her head.
But Ella was gone.
Luca had spent eight months training himself not to look for her.
That made the absence immediate.
His fork stopped above untouched tiramisu.
“Where is Miss Parker?” he asked.
The nearest footman froze.
Around the table, nobody else reacted at first. They were accustomed to Luca asking questions that sounded casual and ended careers.
Mrs. Nolan, the estate manager, appeared from the service corridor almost before she had been called. She was sixty, severe, and had managed Ferretti households since Luca was a boy.
“Sir?”
“Ella Parker. Where is she?”
Mrs. Nolan’s face changed.
Only slightly.
That was enough.
“She was assigned to the dining room until ten.”
“And where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca set down his fork.
Across from him, Valentina lifted her wine.
“She was caught stealing.”
The room lost its sound.
Luca turned his head.
Silvio looked irritated rather than surprised.
Valentina sipped as if she had commented on the weather.
“What did you say?” Luca asked.
“She stole my grandmother’s ring.”
“Where is she?”
Valentina gave a delicate shrug. “Looking for it.”
Every instinct Luca possessed sharpened at once.
“Where?”
Silvio leaned back in his chair. “Don’t make a scene over staff, son.”
Luca looked at him.
Silvio had known him since childhood. He knew better than to call him son.
Luca stood.
The movement sent his security detail into motion.
Caleb Moretti, his underboss, appeared at Luca’s right shoulder.
“Lock the estate,” Luca said.
Valentina laughed softly. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. She’s outside.”
Luca stopped.
A gust slammed snow against the tall dining-room windows hard enough to rattle the glass.
“What?”
Valentina’s smile thinned.
“She claimed she hadn’t taken the ring, so I told her to search the perimeter. It’s called consequences.”
Luca did not remember crossing the room.
One moment he stood beside his chair.
The next his hand was flat on the dining table directly in front of Valentina, and half the men around them had gone silent in the particular way armed men went silent when they believed violence might begin.
“How long?”
Valentina’s confidence flickered.
“Excuse me?”
“How long has she been outside?”
Silvio rose. “Luca.”
“Sit down.”
Silvio did not sit.
Luca looked at him once.
Silvio sat.
Valentina’s fingers tightened around her glass. “I don’t know. Forty minutes, maybe.”
Mrs. Nolan made a sound like air leaving her body.
Luca’s vision narrowed.
Minus thirty wind chill.
Cotton uniform.
No coat.
Forty minutes.
“Caleb.”
“Already moving.”
Men ran for the service hall.
Luca followed.
He heard Valentina call his name once.
He did not turn around.
The steel service door would not open.
“It’s deadbolted from inside,” one guard said.
Luca looked at the bolt.
Then at him.
The guard went pale.
“Break it.”
Two men hit the door with a service ram from the security closet. The frame splintered on the third strike.
Wind exploded into the corridor.
Snow came through sideways.
Luca stepped into it without a coat.
“Ella!”
His voice vanished into white.
Searchlights cut across the estate. Men spread toward the garages, hedges, fountain, and east garden. Snow had erased almost every track.
Caleb came beside him carrying thermal equipment.
“Sir, go inside.”
Luca kept moving.
“She’s been out here almost an hour.”
“We’ll find her.”
“That was not a request for reassurance.”
They reached the east garden wall.
One of the dogs barked from somewhere beyond the fountain.
Then barked again.
Luca ran.
He slipped once on ice, caught himself against stone, and kept going.
The fountain was a frozen shape beneath drifts.
At first he saw nothing.
Then the searchlight moved.
A black shoe protruded from the snow.
Luca’s entire body went cold before the weather could manage it.
“Here!”
He dropped to his knees.
Ella lay curled beside the fountain, half covered by blown snow. Her lips were blue. Ice glittered in her lashes. One hand was tucked beneath her chest. The other rested palm-up against the ground, fingers rigid and red.
“Ella.”
No response.
He stripped off his suit jacket and wrapped it around her even though it was useless against what had already happened.
“Ella, open your eyes.”
Nothing.
Caleb knelt and pressed fingers to her throat.
Luca watched his face.
“There’s a pulse.”
The relief hurt.
“Weak,” Caleb added. “We need her inside now.”
Luca lifted her.
She weighed almost nothing.
That enraged him too.
Her head fell against his chest as he carried her back through the storm. Men rushed around them with blankets and medical bags. Someone tried to take her.
Luca did not let go.
The estate doctor met them in the kitchen corridor.
“Study. Now.”
They converted Luca’s private sitting room into an emergency treatment area within minutes. Warm blankets. Heated IV fluids. Oxygen. Monitoring equipment from the estate clinic.
Luca stood near the fireplace with melting snow running from his hair and watched Dr. Soren work.
“Tell me.”
Soren did not soften it.
“Moderate to severe hypothermia. Her core temperature is dangerously low. Frost injury to both hands. She’s also febrile beneath it, which means she was already sick before exposure.”
Luca stared at Ella’s still face.
“Will she live?”
“I think so.”
“You think.”
“Her age helps. We found her before cardiac instability became worse.”
Luca looked at Caleb.
“Bring Valentina.”
Caleb did not ask why.
Ten minutes later Valentina entered the study with her father and two Ricci guards.
She stopped when she saw Ella beneath blankets on Luca’s sofa.
For the first time that evening, guilt touched her expression.
It lasted less than a second.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “She could have come around front.”
Luca turned slowly.
“The service door was locked.”
Valentina hesitated.
“She must have locked it herself.”
“From outside?”
Silvio stepped between them verbally before the silence could sharpen further.
“Enough. The girl made a mistake. Valentina overreacted. We’ll compensate her.”
Luca’s gaze moved to him.
“Compensate her.”
Silvio lifted both hands. “It’s Christmas. Emotions are high.”
“One of your men put a hand over her mouth.”
Valentina went still.
Luca noticed.
So did Caleb.
“How would you know that?” she asked.
“I didn’t.”
The trap closed softly.
Valentina’s face lost color.
Luca had invented the detail.
Now he knew it was true.
Caleb’s eyes lowered in grim understanding.
Silvio swore under his breath.
Luca stepped closer to Valentina.
“Where is the ring?”
“I told you. She stole it.”
“Search her room.”
Valentina’s chin rose. “You don’t have the right.”
Luca looked around his own study.
Then back at her.
“You are confused about where you are.”
Silvio’s voice hardened. “My daughter will not be humiliated because a servant—”
“Your daughter locked a sick woman outside in a blizzard.”
“A debtor,” Valentina snapped. “Not a woman. She belongs to your household because her father sold her to cover what he owed.”
The words hit the room like a slap.
Luca’s eyes went to Ella.
For eight months, he had told himself he had saved her from something worse.
He had purchased Frank Parker’s debt, moved Ella into a position in his household, given her a room, food, safety, and a ledger showing the amount slowly shrinking through wages.
He had called that mercy.
Valentina had just named what it looked like from the outside.
Ownership.
Luca hated her for saying it.
He hated himself more because some part of it was true.
“Caleb,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Bring me the original Parker debt contract. Every transfer. Every Ricci signature. Every payment.”
Silvio’s expression changed.
That was the second mistake of the night.
Luca saw it.
“Why?” Silvio asked too quickly.
Luca turned toward him.
“Because you just became interested in paperwork.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Mrs. Nolan appeared at the doorway.
She held a small velvet jewelry box.
“Sir.”
Valentina’s face froze.
Mrs. Nolan stepped inside.
“I went to Miss Ricci’s rooms myself.”
Silvio said, “This is inappropriate.”
Mrs. Nolan ignored him.
She opened the box.
Inside lay a diamond ring.
Three carats.
Old-cut stone.
Ricci crest engraved inside the band.
Valentina stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
Mrs. Nolan’s voice was flat. “It was beneath the false bottom of your cosmetics case.”
“I didn’t put it there.”
Luca almost admired the audacity.
Almost.
“Then Ella stole it,” he said, “hid it in your private case, locked herself outside, and nearly froze to death.”
Valentina opened her mouth.
No sound came.
Silvio moved toward her. “We’re leaving.”
“No,” Luca said.
Silvio turned.
The old don had commanded men for thirty years. Anger thickened his face.
“You will not detain me in this house.”
“I’m not detaining you.”
Luca walked to the door and opened it himself.
“I’m ending the engagement.”
Even Caleb looked at him.
Silvio went still.
Valentina’s lips parted.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“You need this alliance.”
“No.” Luca’s eyes moved from father to daughter. “You needed me to believe I did.”
Valentina stepped toward him. “Over her?”
Luca looked at Ella lying unconscious by the fire.
“No,” he said. “Over what you revealed about yourself when you believed she was powerless.”
Silvio’s voice dropped. “Careful, boy.”
Luca met his gaze.
“Take your daughter and every Ricci guard off my property before the roads close completely.”
Silvio smiled without humor.
“You think this is about a ring?”
Luca felt something change in the room.
“What is it about?”
Silvio’s smile disappeared.
For one second, Luca thought the old man might answer.
Instead, he said, “Ask the maid why her father owed us half a million dollars in the first place.”
Then he turned and walked out.
Valentina followed, shaking with rage.
At the doorway she stopped.
“You’ll regret choosing trash over blood.”
Luca’s expression did not change.
“You’re still here.”
She left.
Silence settled.
Outside, the storm pressed white against the windows.
Luca returned to Ella’s side.
Soren checked the monitor.
“She’s warming.”
Luca nodded.
Then Ella moved.
Barely.
Her lips parted.
He leaned closer.
“Ella?”
Her eyes did not open.
She whispered one word.
“Papa.”
Luca looked at Caleb.
“Find Frank Parker.”
Caleb took out his phone.
Before he could dial, it rang.
He answered.
Listened.
And slowly looked at Luca.
“What?” Luca asked.
Caleb lowered the phone.
“Frank Parker’s apartment is empty.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“How long?”
“The landlord says he disappeared three days ago.”
The wind struck the windows again.
Caleb’s expression darkened.
“And there’s something else.”
May you like
Luca waited.
“Someone tore the place apart before he left.”
