Chapter 7 - What Luca Said Years Ago
My paid suspension lasted exactly one day.
I spent most of it cleaning my own apartment because apparently I did not know what to do with time when nobody was paying me to wipe someone else’s fingerprints off glass.
At noon, Sal called.
“You alive?”
“Yes.”
“You sound offended by it.”
“I’m suspended.”
“You’re home with pay.”
“Still suspended.”
“You’re twenty-nine. Enjoy a chair.”
I sat down out of spite.
Sal laughed.
Then his voice changed.
“Luca asked me something this morning.”
I waited.
“He asked what he said to Vanessa about children when they first started dating.”
“You were there?”
“No. He was asking because he doesn’t remember the exact conversation.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That memory gets convenient when people are scared.”
“That sounds helpful.”
“It annoyed him, which is close enough.”
I smiled.
Sal went quiet.
“He did say things like that, Emma.”
“What things?”
“That this life wasn’t for kids. That he would never bring a child into the house while business was what it was.”
I looked at the dust rag in my hand.
“So Vanessa didn’t invent that part.”
“No.”
“Did he mean it?”
“At the time? Probably.”
“That matters.”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t excuse her lying.”
“No.”
I leaned back in my chair.
Both could be true.
The phrase had followed me through the house all week.
Sal cleared his throat.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“I told him about the birthday card.”
I sat up.
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because now he wants it too much.”
I laughed.
“You are impossible.”
“Thirty-four years. I earned it.”
The next morning, I returned to the mansion at seven.
Mrs. Carter greeted me in the kitchen with a list of linen deliveries and no mention of my suspension.
That was kindness in her language.
At eight-thirty, Luca walked in and poured his own coffee.
He looked at me.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
Neither of us apologized.
That was probably wise.
He took one sip, made a face, and looked at Mrs. Carter.
“This is terrible.”
“You made it.”
He looked down at the pot.
Mrs. Carter returned to her invoice sheet.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling.
Luca noticed.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“Apparently I’m learning restraint.”
“Slowly.”
That sounded like Sal.
By ten, Vanessa arrived.
She had called ahead this time.
She wore a camel coat and carried no overnight bag.
The engagement ring was still on her hand.
Luca met her in the library.
I would have left the floor entirely if Mrs. Carter had not sent me in with fresh water twenty minutes later.
“Put it there,” Luca said, pointing to the side table.
I did.
Vanessa looked at me once.
No signal. No plea.
I turned to leave.
“Emma,” Luca said.
I stopped.
He looked at Vanessa.
“Do you care if she stays?”
Vanessa frowned.
“Why?”
“Because part of this concerns household decisions she witnessed.”
Vanessa looked at me again.
“No.”
I sat in the chair nearest the door.
Luca held a yellow legal pad on his knee.
“I went through every text I sent you during the first three months we dated.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“You kept them?”
“My phone did.”
He looked down at the pad.
“I said, ‘I’m not bringing children into this house until I know what kind of life I’m building.’”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You said more than that.”
“I probably did.”
“You said you didn’t want them.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised her.
Luca leaned forward.
“I also changed my mind about a lot of things in two years.”
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
Her jaw tightened.
“I shouldn’t have had to ask whether my own child would disqualify me.”
“No.”
He said it immediately.
That took some of the fight out of her.
Luca continued.
“If you had told me on the fourth date, I might have walked away.”
Vanessa flinched.
He did not soften it.
“I was more rigid then. More afraid. More convinced that control was the same as safety.”
Her eyes filled.
“So I was right.”
“You were right to be afraid of my answer.”
She looked up.
“You were not right to remove my chance to give one.”
The distinction hung between them.
Vanessa looked at the ring on her hand.
“I loved you.”
“I know.”
“I love you now.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that like it doesn’t matter.”
“It matters. It just doesn’t repair the method.”
She laughed through her nose.
“The method.”
“You hid a six-year-old child from me and planned to move him into my home after the wedding.”
“Our home.”
“It would have been our home if we had agreed on who lived in it.”
Vanessa looked away.
I stared at the edge of the rug.
This was not romantic dialogue.
It was two people discovering that love had not prevented either of them from building private rules the other person never agreed to.
Vanessa folded her hands.
“What do you want me to do?”
Luca’s answer took a long time.
“Tell Gabriel the wedding is paused because adults lied to each other.”
“Paused?”
He looked at her.
“I haven’t decided if it’s over.”
Hope moved across her face too quickly.
He saw it.
“Don’t mistake uncertainty for forgiveness.”
Her shoulders fell.
“Fine.”
“And tell Marisa you were planning to move him.”
“I did.”
“How did that go?”
Vanessa gave him a flat look.
“Poorly.”
For a second, Luca almost smiled.
Then he looked at me.
“Emma, tell Mrs. Carter we’ll need the east guest room boxed by Friday.”
Vanessa went still.
“What?”
Luca looked back at her.
“You’re not staying here while we decide this.”
“You said the wedding was paused.”
“It is.”
“You’re packing my room.”
“You already moved to a hotel.”
“That was for two nights.”
“I need more than two nights.”
Vanessa stood.
Her chair moved sharply against the rug.
“You don’t get to punish me until you feel noble again.”
Luca stood too.
“This isn’t punishment.”
“It feels like it.”
“It is a boundary.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Everyone learns that word after they decide they don’t want you.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“Maybe. Or maybe people learn it after they realize love without one is just permission.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Then she looked at me as if I had somehow put the sentence in his mouth.
I had not.
That mattered.
She slipped the engagement ring off her finger.
This time, she did not put it on a table.
She held it in her palm.
“You want this?”
Luca looked at it.
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
“No?”
“It was yours when I gave it to you.”
“What am I supposed to do with it?”
“That is not my decision.”
For one ridiculous second, I almost laughed.
Vanessa heard it too.
Her eyes moved toward me.
Then, unexpectedly, she smiled.
Not happily.
But honestly.
May you like
“Everyone in this house is learning the same sentence.”
She closed her hand around the ring and walked out.
