Chapter 2 - The Photograph in Luca’s Wallet
Tessa expected Luca’s words to become a story hospital staff whispered about for a week.
Instead, they changed her life before breakfast.
Marco refused to allow her to leave the secured floor alone.
“I have a car waiting downstairs.”
“I have my own car.”
“You’re not driving it.”
“Why?”
“Because Luca told me to protect you.”
“He was barely conscious.”
“Luca Vesceri doesn’t give accidental orders.”
Tessa removed her gloves and dropped them into a disposal container.
“I am not one of his employees.”
“No.”
Marco glanced toward Luca’s room.
“That may be the problem.”
Tessa stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Before Marco answered, one of his men approached carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a black leather wallet.
“Recovered from the clothes he came in with.”
Marco opened it.
Cash.
Cards.
Identification.
Then a photograph slid onto the counter.
Tessa froze.
It was old.
Maybe twenty-five years old.
A younger Luca stood beside a smiling man outside a Baltimore row house. Between them was a little girl with dark pigtails and a missing front tooth.
Tessa stared at the girl.
Her throat tightened.
“No.”
Marco looked at her.
“You know her?”
Tessa took the photograph.
The child was seven.
Maybe eight.
She wore a yellow jacket.
Tessa had owned a yellow jacket exactly like that.
Her mother had kept it in a box for years.
On the back of the photograph, faded handwriting read:
Luca, Daniel, and Tess — June 2001.
Marco’s voice dropped.
“Tess?”
Tessa looked at him.
“I was called Tess when I was little.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Her father, Daniel Ward, had died when she was nine.
Officially, a warehouse accident.
Her mother never discussed the years before his death.
And Tessa remembered almost nothing about Luca.
Nothing except occasional flashes.
A tall teenage boy sitting on the front steps.
A motorcycle.
Someone teaching her to shuffle playing cards.
Someone telling her never to open the basement door.
She stared at the photograph again.
“How old is Luca?”
“Forty-two.”
Tessa calculated.
He would have been seventeen.
Old enough to remember her.
Marco stepped closer.
“Your father knew Luca.”
“Apparently.”
“What did Daniel Ward do?”
“He repaired commercial electrical systems.”
Marco’s expression became still.
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because twenty-five years ago, the Vesceri docks suffered an electrical fire that killed Luca’s father.”
Tessa’s fingers tightened around the photograph.
Before she could respond, alarms sounded inside Luca’s room.
She moved automatically.
Luca had begun fighting the ventilator.
His eyes were open.
His hands strained weakly against the sheets.
Tessa stepped beside him.
“Luca.”
His gaze found her.
Immediate recognition.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Tessa felt anger rise under her fear.
“You know me.”
His expression changed.
She leaned closer.
“You know who I am.”
He attempted to speak.
“Don’t. I’ll remove the tube when the doctor approves it.”
Luca looked toward Marco.
Then back at her.
His hand moved.
Tessa let him take her wrist.
His grip was weak but deliberate.
He tapped twice against the inside of her arm.
A memory opened.
A teenage boy sitting beside her after her father’s funeral.
Two taps.
Their old signal.
I’m here.
Tessa pulled her wrist away.
“No.”
Marco stared.
“What was that?”
She backed up.
“I need air.”
“Tessa—”
“I said I need air.”
She walked into the empty medication room and closed the door.
Her father.
Luca.
The photograph.
The ventilator.
Someone trying to kill him.
None of it made sense.
Then her phone vibrated inside her locker.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Tessa entering the hospital employee garage three nights earlier.
The message beneath it contained six words.
You should have let him die.
Her hands went cold.
Another message arrived.
Ask Luca what Daniel stole.
Tessa stared at the screen.
Marco entered behind her.
He saw her expression.
“What happened?”
She showed him.
His jaw tightened.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Tessa.”
“No. Everybody keeps telling me what to do while nobody tells me the truth.”
Marco went quiet.
She held up the old photograph.
“Start talking.”
Marco looked through the glass toward Luca.
“Your father didn’t repair lights for the Vesceri family.”
“What did he do?”
“He designed secure electrical systems.”
“That’s still electrical work.”
“He designed hidden rooms, emergency networks, alarm bypasses.”
Tessa stared at him.
“For criminals.”
“For Luca’s father.”
“And what did he steal?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Marco’s voice softened unexpectedly.
“Because if I knew what someone believes Daniel Ward stole, I would already be searching for it.”
Tessa looked again at the threatening message.
Marco took the phone carefully.
“The person who sent this has been watching you longer than tonight.”
“How long?”
“Long enough to photograph your routine.”
The truth hit hard.
The assassination attempt was not the beginning.
Someone had anticipated Luca’s survival.
And anticipated Tessa.
A doctor entered Luca’s room and announced the breathing tube could soon be removed.
Thirty minutes later, Luca took his first unsupported breath.
Then another.
Tessa stood at the foot of the bed.
His voice came rough.
“Tess.”
She flinched.
Nobody had called her that in years.
“Why do you know my father?”
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
“Because Daniel saved my life.”
“Then why did someone message me asking what he stole?”
Luca opened his eyes.
Marco moved toward the door.
Luca spoke again.
“Lock it.”
Marco did.
Luca looked at Tessa.
“Your father didn’t steal money.”
“What did he steal?”
“A ledger.”
Tessa frowned.
“What kind?”
“A list of names.”
Renzo entered from the side room.
Luca’s expression changed instantly.
Tessa noticed.
So did Marco.
Renzo smiled.
“A family reunion.”
Luca’s pulse accelerated.
Tessa stepped between him and Renzo instinctively.
Renzo looked amused.
“What?”
Tessa stared at him.
“His heart rate rises every time you come near him.”
The amusement vanished.
Marco’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Renzo remained perfectly calm.
“Be careful, nurse.”
Tessa looked directly into his eyes.
“I am.”
Behind her, Luca whispered:
“Daniel never stole the ledger.”
Tessa turned.
Luca swallowed painfully.
“He hid it.”
“Where?”
Luca stared at her.
“With the only person nobody would ever suspect.”
Tessa’s stomach dropped.
“Who?”
May you like
Luca’s next answer came almost soundlessly.
“Your mother.”
