The quiet in the study was absolute.

Luca Moretti stared at me, the words I had just spoken hanging in the air between us like smoke.

If you read it before the wedding, there wouldn't be a wedding.

He slowly lowered himself back into his leather chair. The cold, calculating mask of the Chicago syndicate boss slipped, revealing a brief, terrifying glimpse of the son who still mourned his mother.

Isabella Moretti had passed away six months ago, after a long battle with cancer. Vanessa had entered Luca's life during the final weeks of Isabella's illness, introduced as a grief counselor recommended by a family associate. She had stayed, becoming his confidante, then his lover, and now, his fiancée.

"My mother couldn't write during her final month," Luca said softly, his voice dangerously low. "The pain medication made her hands tremble too much."

"I don't know when she wrote it, Mr. Moretti," I said, my voice shaking as I touched the tape on my glasses. "I only know what Vanessa said."

Luca stood up, his movements suddenly sharp and urgent. He walked around the heavy mahogany desk, the same desk his father had used for thirty years to run his empire.

He crouched down and pulled open the bottom drawer.

The velvet jewelry box was gone.

"Daniel," Luca barked into his phone, pressing the receiver to his ear. "Did you check the safe?"

"Yes, Boss," the head of security replied. "Everything is accounted for. Except your mother's sapphire necklace. The one she wore in the portrait."

Answer one: Vanessa had already taken the necklace, setting the stage to frame Mrs. Carter for the theft tomorrow.

But a reversal hit me as Luca slammed the empty drawer shut.

If Vanessa had the necklace, she still didn't have the letter.

"Where is Mrs. Carter?" Luca demanded.

"She went home at eight," Daniel answered. "She said she wasn't feeling well."

"Send two men to her house. Now. Bring her back here."

Luca hung up. He looked at me, his dark eyes intense. "Megan, if Vanessa wanted Mrs. Carter fired for stealing the necklace, she wouldn't have kept the letter in her possession. She would have planted it somewhere Mrs. Carter couldn't access, or she would have destroyed it."

Open two: If Vanessa knew about the letter, why hadn't she destroyed it already?

Before I could answer, the heavy oak doors of the study swung open.

Vanessa stood in the doorway. She had changed out of her red silk gown and was wearing a plush white robe. She looked serene, completely unaware that her entire deception was unraveling.

"Luca, darling," she smiled, walking into the room. "The guests are gone. I thought you'd be upstairs."

She stopped when she saw me sitting there, still wearing my broken glasses and uniform.

Her smile faltered for a fraction of a second, then returned, brittle and cold.

"Oh. I see you're still dealing with the clumsy maid."

Luca didn't move. He leaned against the desk, watching her.

"I was just asking Megan about the library," Luca said smoothly. "She said she dropped something while she was dusting."

Vanessa let out a dramatic sigh. "I told you, she fell. She's embarrassed and making excuses. Give her a severence check and let's go to bed."

"She didn't fall, Vanessa," Luca said softly.

Vanessa stopped walking. "What?"

Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, gleaming object. He tossed it onto the glass surface of the desk.

It was a diamond earring.

"You lost this in the library this afternoon," Luca said. "Daniel found it near my father's desk."

Vanessa stared at the earring. It was the match to the one she was currently wearing in her right ear. Her hand flew to her left earlobe. It was bare.

"I must have dropped it when I was trying to help her up," Vanessa lied, recovering quickly.

"You didn't help her up," Luca said, his voice dropping an octave. "You threw her glasses. And then you told Patricia Wells that you were firing Mrs. Carter."

The color drained from Vanessa's flawless face.

She turned and glared at me with absolute murder in her eyes.

"You spying little—"

"Don't speak to her," Luca ordered. The command cracked like a whip across the quiet study.

He took a slow step toward his fiancée.

"Where is the necklace, Vanessa?"

Vanessa backed away, her hands trembling. "I don't know what you're talking about! That girl is lying! She probably stole it herself!"

"The necklace is gone," Luca said. "And Mrs. Carter is being brought here right now. She will tell me exactly what she found in my mother's belongings. The letter, Vanessa. Where is it?"

Vanessa's eyes darted frantically toward the door. She realized she was cornered.

She let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "You really think Mrs. Carter has it? You think that old woman would keep a secret like that from you for six months?"

Luca frowned. "What secret?"

"The secret your precious mother was too cowardly to tell you while she was alive!" Vanessa spat, the elegant facade shattering completely. "Mrs. Carter didn't find the letter, Luca. Because your mother didn't write it to you."

Vanessa pointed a shaking finger at me.

"She wrote it to her."