Chapter 1 - The Woman Who Came Back From the Dead
The slap cracked across the Moretti mansion’s ballroom.
Every conversation stopped.
Emily, the housemaid, stood beneath the crystal chandelier with one hand pressed against her cheek. A few drops of champagne had spilled onto the black floor beside her shoes. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even look at Vanessa.
She simply lowered her eyes.
Vanessa Rowan stood in front of her, dressed in a crimson gown that glittered beneath the golden lights. Her face was flushed with fury.
“Maybe now you’ll remember your place,” Vanessa said.
A nervous laugh came from somewhere among the guests. Nobody else dared to react.
Luca Moretti watched from the far end of the ballroom. The mafia boss had been speaking with two business associates when the slap landed. His expression hardened, but before he could cross the room, Emily quietly stepped back.
“It’s all right, Mr. Moretti,” she said.
That only seemed to anger Vanessa more.
“Don’t pretend you’re the victim.” Vanessa pointed at Emily. “You spilled champagne on my dress, and you expect me to apologize?”
Emily’s cheek was already turning red.
“I didn’t touch your dress,” she answered.
Vanessa lifted her hand again.
This time, someone stepped out from behind the tall velvet curtains.
A woman in a simple white dress.
She moved slowly, almost silently, through the stunned crowd. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders, and her face remained partially hidden in the soft shadows.
Vanessa turned.
The moment she saw the woman, the anger on her face changed.
For one brief second, it looked like fear.
Then Vanessa’s expression twisted into rage.
“You!” she snapped.
She raised her hand again—but the woman caught her wrist before the second slap could land.
The room went completely silent.
Vanessa tried to pull away.
“Let go of me!”
The woman didn’t move.
“You shouldn’t raise your hand to people who can’t defend themselves,” she said quietly.
Vanessa’s eyes darted toward the guests.
“What is she doing here?” she demanded. “Who allowed her into this house?”
The woman released her wrist.
Vanessa rubbed it, then pointed toward the ballroom doors.
“She has no right to be here! This is the Moretti engagement party. She needs to be thrown out.”
Luca finally stepped forward.
“Vanessa.”
His voice was low, but it cut through the room.
Vanessa immediately turned toward him, her expression shifting into wounded indignation.
“Luca, darling, this woman just attacked me. She came in here uninvited, and—”
“Who is she?”
Vanessa froze.
The woman in white stood perfectly still.
Luca approached her, studying her face. There was something familiar about her—the shape of her eyes, the quiet way she held herself, the faint tilt of her head.
Something he had spent three years trying to forget.
“Take off your gloves,” he said.
The woman looked at him.
For a moment, she seemed to hesitate.
Then she slowly pulled off the right glove.
A pale scar crossed the inside of her wrist.
Luca stopped breathing.
He knew that scar.
He had seen it countless times before—when Elena reached for his hand, when she rested her head against his shoulder, when she slipped her fingers into his during their wedding vows.
His first wife had gotten it as a child, falling through a broken glass door.
Luca’s gaze dropped to the woman’s wrist.
A delicate silver bracelet rested there.
The bracelet he had given Elena on their wedding day.
The one he had placed around her wrist himself, beneath the white lace of her wedding dress.
The one he had watched disappear into the flames of her funeral.
His face drained of color.
“No,” he whispered.
Vanessa stepped between them.
“That’s not Elena.”
The woman in white finally lifted her eyes.
Vanessa’s voice grew sharper.
“Luca, look at me. Elena is dead. We buried her. You know we did.”
Luca didn’t look at Vanessa.
He stared at the woman, his hands trembling at his sides.
The guests began to whisper. Someone dropped a glass. It shattered against the marble floor, but no one turned.
The woman slowly reached up and removed the delicate veil that had been tucked into her hair.
Luca took one unsteady step backward.
Vanessa’s face went white.
The woman looked directly at her.
May you like
Then she spoke.
“Then why did you bury me?”
