Thirty guests held their breath.

In the heavy silence of the dining room, Vanessa didn’t sit down.

She stood rigid, her manicured nails digging into the edge of the mahogany table.

“I am trying to prepare her for the real world, Luca.”

Her voice was perfectly modulated, entirely unapologetic.

“Your world. In our family, weakness is a liability. You know that.”

Luca didn’t look at the guests.

He didn’t look at his underbosses sitting at the far end of the table.

He only looked at his ten-year-old daughter.

Sophie was clutching her fork, her small knuckles white, a tear finally spilling over her lashes and dropping onto her untouched plate.

Luca reached out and gently wiped her cheek with his thumb.

“Eating dinner is not a weakness,” he said softly.

“Crying over a dead woman is,” Vanessa snapped.

The entire room flinched.

Even the guards by the double doors shifted their weight.

Luca stood up slowly.

He didn’t yell. He didn’t reach for a weapon.

But the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

“Claire,” Luca said, his eyes fixed on Vanessa. “Take Sophie upstairs. Sit with her while she eats.”

“No.” Vanessa stepped into the aisle, blocking my path.

She reached into her designer pocket and pulled something out.

She dropped it directly onto the center of the dinner table.

The heavy clink of metal against mahogany echoed through the room.

It was a woman’s silver watch.

The band was worn, the glass face slightly scratched.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I recognized it immediately.

It was Sarah’s.

Sophie gasped.

“You said it was lost,” the little girl whispered.

Vanessa ignored her, staring at Luca with a sudden, triumphant smile.

“I found this stuffed inside your daughter’s mattress this morning. Along with three photographs and a letter she wrote to a ghost.”

Luca stared at the watch.

“So you confiscated it.”

“I’m breaking a trauma bond,” Vanessa said smoothly. “But that’s not why I brought it down here.”

She turned her sharp gaze on me.

“Tell him, Claire. Tell him where you found this watch before you gave it to Sophie.”

I froze.

“I didn’t give it to her,” I said quietly.

“Liar,” Vanessa hissed. “I saw you in the master bedroom yesterday. You stole it from Luca’s private safe to play the hero for his fragile little girl.”

She was cornering me.

If I admitted I was in the master bedroom, I would be fired.

If I denied it, Sophie would take the blame.

Luca looked at me.

“Claire?”

Before I could speak, Sophie stood up.

“Claire didn’t take it,” she said, her voice shaking but suddenly loud.

Vanessa glared at her. “Sit down, Sophie.”

“No,” Sophie said. She reached into her pocket.

She placed a second silver object on the table, right next to the watch.

It was a heavy, antique key.

Vanessa’s face lost all its color.

“Because I didn’t take the watch from the safe,” Sophie whispered. “I took it from Vanessa’s jewelry box. She was the one who stole it from Mom’s room.”