Shortly after Luca and I had gotten back together years ago, he built me our dream home. It was nestled in a grove of trees backing up to a lake, about an hour and a half outside of the city. It was private and quiet and had turned into our own little sanctuary. He spent months planning every single detail of the house and eventually surprised me with it. It was absolutely perfect for us, exactly what our growing family needed, and truly a dream come true. He'd chosen every color, every piece of flooring, every window that went into, and turned an empty piece of land into an absolute masterpiece. We spent the last 16 years here and although we'd changed little things here and there, but for the most part, it had stayed the same. It was like a member of our family.
Leo was just a baby when we moved in, and it was the only home he'd ever known. We watched our children grow up here — making memories of color baking, and Halloween costumes, and little artists' drawings on their bedroom walls. It was where we brought Cole and Lucy home from the hospital, where we'd hosted countless parties and BBQs and team dinners. We'd hung swings from its trees and played games of tag in the lush green summer grass.
It was the most perfect home I ever could have imagined and, as I watched it being torn to shreds by detectives, I felt sick. I stood on the porch with my kids completely helpless as pictures were taken off the walls, shelves were emptied, doors were nearly ripped off of their hinges. What the hell were they even looking for?
Luca was arguing with a detective a few feet away, Peterson at his side. I had no idea what was being said, and I almost didn't want to know. I had no idea how we'd gotten to this point. It had been my worst fear for years and, now that we were here, I was more terrified than I had ever been. So many emotions flashed through my brain as I tried to make sense of them. Anger towards Luca, ashamed that it had come to this, scared of what came next. I couldn't even face my children I was so embarrassed. We had always sworn to protect them, and here we all were watching their home, their haven, be dismantled.
"They won't be much longer." Luca said flatly, gently grabbing my hand. Every move he made was careful, as if he expected me to explode at any second.
"What do they even think they're going to find here?" My voice broke as I stared at the destruction. I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away, no matter how painful it was.
"Nothing, Charlotte. This is a game. It's all about show."
I let out a sharp laugh and rolled my eyes. He was out of his damn mind if he thought that was going to work on me.
"What?" He asked defensively.
"Don't do that." I glared. "Don't downplay this. Our lives are not a game, Luca. You can't keep denying that this is a big fucking deal, even if you didn't do anything."
"Even if I didn't do anything? You don't believe me now? What exactly do you want me to say, Charlotte?" He hissed, trying to keep his voice low, so the kids didn't hear. "I know our lives are not a game, which is exactly why I am so pissed off that they're doing this. They're not looking for anything because they know that they aren't going to find..."
Before Luca could even finish his sentence, an officer came out of the house holding a gun in his hands. It wasn't all that unusual that there would be a gun in our home, but I could tell something was off by the way he was looking at it. Luca looked just as concerned and confused as I was. The detective handing it to the sergeant in charge of this whole thing.
"Huh." He took it from him and turned towards Luca. "A Beretta 92... the same exact gun used in the murder."
"That's not mine. I've never owned one of those guns and as I showed you, I have legal permits for everything I've got and every one of them has the same insignia engraved on them." Luca clenched his jaw.
"Then why did we find it in a box in your office closet?"
"You didn't. One of your men must have brought it here." He snarled. "I have kids in the house. I keep everything locked up. Why would I have one gun, especially the exact gun you're looking for, out in the open?"
"I'm not really concerned with the why." The sergeant chuckled. "All I care about is the evidence, and we just found our smoking gun. Literally."
He took a pair of cuffs off of his belt.
"What are you doing?" My voice broke with emotion.
"Luca Catalano, you're under arrest for the murder of Maggie Fields. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will..."
I watched in complete shock as they slapped the cuffs on his wrists and started to haul him off towards the squad car. I had seen this moment so many times in my nightmares, but it was so much worse in real life than I ever could have imagined. My body started to go numb, and I was afraid I might fall to my knees right there. This couldn't be happening. Luca wasn't seriously being arrested, was he? And charged with murder? The gun couldn't be his. He was right, he always kept things locked up. There was no way. But why was it found in our house? And just having a similar gun was not cause enough to arrest him. They had to have more.
"Dad!" Leo called out.
I couldn't even breath. This could not be happening. There had to be some kind of mistake. Luca would never have done the things they were accusing him of. I knew my husband and, even as angry as I was, I didn't doubt him.
"Luca..." I called, taking a few steps forward but being blocked by Officer Davis, the same one who had visited me at the gallery and the courthouse.
"Charlotte, I swear to God, this isn't true. You know I didn't do this. You know what needs to be done." His eyes were desperate as they met mine, seconds before they shoved him into the car and slammed the door in his face.
Everything around me started to crumble as the cop car drove off with my husband inside. The area was starting to clear out of cops, apparently having gotten what they came here for. My kids were scared and confused, but I felt the same way. Somehow I was supposed to be the adult in this situation, but how could I when my whole world had just been ripped out from under me?
"I'll go with him, Charlotte. I'll have him out by dinner." Stone assured me, jumping in his car to follow before I could even answer.
"Mrs. Catalano?" I looked up to see the district attorney, Scott Whitaker, standing next to me. I loosely worked for his office but we were never in close contact. I always thought the guy was an arrogant asshole, and seeing him here was like salt in the wound. "Is there anything you need?"
I jerked away from him. "Yes actually. You can tell me why Luca's under arrest. You can't arrest someone for just owning a gun."
"You and I both know there is more to it than that. Sooner or later, you're going to have to come to terms with this. I'm on your side here. I'm trying to help." He said.
"You're out of your mind." I glared.
"What did your husband mean by 'you know what needs to be done?'" He pressed.
"That's none of your business." Despite Luca being confident he would never ever in a million years be in trouble with the law for any reason, he had a contingency plan. Early on in our marriage, he gave me a list of things to do in case he was arrested to protect both of us. The very first was to call Marco and Angelo.
"It is my business if he just instructed you to destroy evidence." He said flatly.
I let out a sharp laugh. "Destroy evidence? First of all, there is now chance in hell that my husband did this, so there isn't any evidence to destroy. And second of all, if he had, do you honestly think I could help him destroy evidence? Not only do I work for your office helping victims just like that woman, but I would never stand in the way of a woman getting justice no matter who killed her. Luca has the same respect for women. I wouldn't be with him if he didn't. He didn't kill her, and I would appreciate it if you would leave my kids and I alone instead of standing here and subjected them to anything else."
Whitaker got a smug smirk on his face. "I'll be in touch soon, Charlotte. Again, please let me know what I can do to help you or your children. I know this must be hard on all of you to come to terms with."
He got in his car and disappeared as well. Soon, we were allowed back into the house and all the officers were gone, leaving me alone in an absolute mess with Leo, Cole and Lucy.
"Those pigs don't even clean up after themselves." Landon glared, grabbing one of my throw pillows off of the floor and tossing it back onto the couch.
"Mom, what are we going to do? You're going to go get dad out right?" Leo asked.
"Why did they even take him? What do they think he did?" Lucy was close to tears.
"They said murder. They think he killed some girl, but there is no fucking way. They're framing him." Leo said.
"He didn't kill anyone, right mom?" Cole asked
"Okay, that's enough." I took a deep breath, trying to come to terms with this. "I need you guys to go upstairs and get started cleaning your rooms up. I'm going to call your Uncle Angelo and we'll get it all sorted out. Your dad didn't kill anyone. This is all a big misunderstanding. I don't want any of you to worry and neither would he. I'm going to take care of it, I promise."
Lucy and Cole seemed to take my words at face value and headed up the stairs, but Leo lingered.
"Are you okay, mom?" He asked, reaching for my hand and giving it a tight squeeze. Even his small gestures were exactly like his father.
"I'm fine, honey, really." I mustered up as big a smile as I could. "Like I said, I just need to all Angelo. I don't know what comes next, but he will and we'll get your dad home."
"You don't think that gun was his, right?"
"Of course not." I assured him. I wasn't about to admit to our son that I had no idea if that gun was his or not. I had no idea about any of it. But any doubts I had about the gun and how it had gotten into our house were overshadowed by my faith in Luca. Even if it was his gun, I knew he'd have some kind of explanation. At least I hoped like hell he would.
"And he wasn't there, right?"
I bit my lip. The problem was, Luca was there, but after the fact. That was how we got into this mess to begin with. I hated lying to Leo, but this wasn't a conversation I was going to have with him. "No, Leo. Now, really, just go upstairs and I'll be up in a little while."
"Okay." He said somewhat apprehensively. "Should I call Layla?"
I shook my head. "No, I'll do that too. Thank you, though."
Leo nodded and then headed up the stairs.
I went into the bedroom I shared with Luca, the smell of his cologne still hanging in the air. I locked myself in the bathroom, making sure I was completely alone before falling to the floor and bursting into heavy sobs.
Luca was usually the one I turned to in times like this, but this time I was on my own. What was I supposed to do now?