Chapter 11 - THE WEDDING THAT WASN’T
Lucinda sat beneath the library chandelier.
No jewelry now.
No silver gown.
No confidence.
Just a frightened woman in borrowed clothes.
Salvatore placed the burner phone on the table.
“You weren’t planning to marry me.”
She said nothing.
“What happened on the wedding day?”
Still nothing.
“Lucinda.”
She finally looked up.
“I was supposed to disappear.”
“When?”
“After you signed the revised family documents.”
“What revised documents?”
“Prenup amendments. Trust updates. Emergency voting authorization.”
“All forged?”
“Some.”
“Which ones?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I wasn’t the lawyer!”
Salvatore leaned back.
“You were the distraction.”
Her eyes flashed.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised him.
“Matteo knew you were lonely after Sofia. He knew you hated coming home to an empty bedroom. He said you’d fall for someone who made your life easy.”
Salvatore absorbed that.
Painful because it was partly true.
Lucinda continued.
“I learned your schedule. Your restaurants. Your charity board. Your friends.”
“The charity dinner where we met?”
“Planned.”
“Our first date?”
“Planned.”
“The trip to Boston?”
“Planned.”
Salvatore swallowed.
“And Ruby?”
Lucinda looked down.
“She wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Then why hurt her?”
Her answer came slowly.
“Because she ruined everything.”
Salvatore’s eyes hardened.
“She was six.”
“You would be talking to me, then she’d walk in and you’d stop hearing me.”
“She was my daughter.”
“I know.”
“No. You didn’t.”
Lucinda’s voice rose.
“Every room changed when Ruby entered! Every plan changed! Every dinner, every trip, every conversation. Ruby needed this. Ruby needed that. Ruby was scared. Ruby missed you. Ruby couldn’t sleep.”
Salvatore stared.
“You resented a child for needing her father.”
Lucinda whispered:
“I resented knowing you would never love anyone the way you loved her.”
“That wasn’t a competition.”
“To me it was.”
Silence.
Lucinda began crying.
Not beautifully.
Not dramatically.
Ugly, frightened tears.
“I never meant for her to be permanently injured.”
Salvatore felt disgust rather than pity.
“You don’t get credit for stopping short of worse.”
A detective stepped in.
“We found Paul Rizzo.”
Salvatore stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Bus station in New Jersey.”
“Did he talk?”
The detective nodded.
“He says Matteo paid him to loosen the railing.”
Lucinda covered her face.
The detective continued.
“But Rizzo claims there was another person at the villa.”
Salvatore frowned.
“Who?”
“He doesn’t know her name.”
“Her?”
“A woman.”
Salvatore looked at Lucinda.
Lucinda shook her head violently.
“No.”
The detective removed a photograph from an evidence envelope.
Security footage.
Blurry.
A woman standing beside Rizzo.
Salvatore looked at Lucinda.
Same height.
Same hair.
Lucinda stared at the image.
Then whispered:
“That isn’t me.”
Salvatore almost dismissed it.
Then Ruby entered behind Maria.
She looked at the photograph.
Her face changed.
“I know her.”
Everyone turned.
Ruby pointed at the woman.
May you like
“That’s the lady who visited Mommy.”
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