The Guest-Room Ledger
Chapter 04 - The Guest-Room Ledger
Mrs. Carter had managed the Moretti mansion for nineteen years. She knew which antique clocks were six minutes fast, which stairs creaked, and which staff members had begun avoiding Vanessa. When Olivia returned from the physician's office, Mrs. Carter found her sitting on the edge of the laundry-room bench, still wearing the black uniform from dinner.
"You should be home," Mrs. Carter said.
"I don't have a home until payday. I have a rented room, and I missed the bus."
The older woman sat beside her. They drank tea from chipped staff-room mugs while the mansion's upper floors became quiet. Olivia admitted that she'd heard Vanessa talking about a guest-room ledger. Mrs. Carter went pale.
"There's a narrow drawer behind the writing desk," she said. "Mr. Angelo used to keep duplicate service logs there. When the furniture was moved from the old waterfront office, nobody checked it."
They told Daniel. With Luca's consent and a written inventory, the three of them inspected the antique desk. The drawer was empty except for a thin notebook and a yellowed parking receipt. Inside the notebook were dates, vehicle registrations, and initials. One set of initials appeared again and again: V.B.
Vanessa Bellini had told Luca they'd met five years earlier. But the notebook contained her initials beside appointments with Angelo's finance adviser nearly seven years earlier, during the months before the warehouse explosion.
Olivia stared at the entries. "So she knew your family before she said she did."
Luca rubbed his face. The notebook didn't prove that Vanessa had done anything illegal. It did prove she had lied about the beginning of her relationship with the Morettis.
Just then, Vanessa appeared in the doorway wearing a silk robe. She glanced from the open desk to the notebook and finally to Olivia's bruised face. "Darling, why is the help still here?"
Luca closed the notebook. "Because she works here. And because I asked her to stay."
Vanessa smiled at Olivia. "I hope you aren't making trouble over your little accident."
May you like
"You can speak with my attorney tomorrow," Luca answered.
The smile left Vanessa's face. She understood then that dinner had been an act, and that whatever happened next would not be private enough for her to control.
