Chapter 1 - The Silence of the Piano
The music room of the Moretti estate was usually filled with the gentle, melancholic chords of Chopin or Bach. For five months, Naomi Carter had lived for those notes. A stroke had locked Isabella Moretti’s words behind a wall of paralysis, but the piano had become her voice. One low note meant yes; one high note meant no.
When the melody snapped mid-measure, replaced by a dull thud and a ragged sob, Naomi didn't hesitate. She dropped her dusting cloth and sprinted down the long, mahogany-paneled hallway.
The heavy oak door was bolted from the inside.
“Go away, Naomi!” Vivian Vance’s voice rang out through the wood, sharp and strained with panic.
From inside, a soft, helpless whimper echoed. It was Isabella.
Naomi’s hands shook, but her resolve was iron. She pulled her cell phone from her apron pocket, dialed the private emergency speed dial, and pressed it to her ear. When the heavy, deep voice answered on the third ring, Naomi didn't give him room to speak.
“Luca—please come home now,” she whispered frantically into the speaker, her eyes fixed on the locked brass handle. “She’s hurting your mother.”
Without waiting for the inevitable roar of fury from the city's most feared mafia boss, Naomi ended the call. She backed up two steps, lifted the heel of her sturdy work shoe, and slammed it against the door right beside the latch.
Crack.
The old brass mechanism splintered, and the door swung wide open.
The scene inside froze Naomi in her tracks. Seventy-one-year-old Isabella Moretti lay collapsed on the intricate Persian rug beside her grand piano, a bright red handprint blazing across her pale cheek. Her right thumb was stained black with ink.
Standing directly above her was Vivian Vance, dressed in a custom silk designer gown, holding a loose sheaf of legal papers. Across the top page, bold black letters spelled out: Declaration of Medical Incapacity.
Naomi’s breath hitched. “You were forcing her fingerprint onto that document.”
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Vivian’s face flushed crimson, the mask of a sweet, grieving fiancée cracking completely. “You stupid little maid,” she hissed. “You’ve ruined everything.”
Then Vivian lunged.
